Can someone answer my question? i live in az and been doin some research on the housing market. sales are up and down and i am really trying to figure out if is a good time to get in the business. i’ve been in the construction field for 14 years and want to get some kind of heads up on home inspectorspoint of view. Thank you
You missed the boat…j/k lol…Welcome and good luck its tuff out there but with a lot of hard work and never give up it can be done. Took me about two years to really get my insp business up and running to live off of it…keep your day job lol…
Arizona is a licensed state. I suggest you go to this website and study what needs to be done in regards to training requirements, licensing fees, insurance requirements, etc.
http://www.btr.state.az.us/forms/home_inspectors.asp
Good luck. Watch out for the guy in the red truck. 
David as Stephan said, if you are in a Licensed state, there are a bunch of mandatory requirements you need to get done, then a bunch of costs involved just to get started, that simply the tip of the ice berg.
David, Welcome and all above is true. It is tough out there and coming from const. that is something you already know;-). Just like any business you get out what you put in. I left my const. business a few years ago and got a “real job” and it wasn’t long till it came back like a disease. Home Inspecting is a great way to put your experience to work and help people at the same time. I will say there are many things to learn before you go and get some and I think NACHI is the place to learn it. After almost 1 year of mostly learning the Business of HI and honing my skills. I will make this my full time profession by years end. It seems most that tried here say it was about 2 years until they were full time. And I inspected in the family buisiness in the early 80s. Part of my delay was fear of the economy but I wil use that to my advantage. (Fear that is:shock:)
GOOD LUCK:p
Hello David,
I am also from AZ, started my HI business about a year and a half ago. I am still learning the ropes, could not have lived off my income in 2010, but I predict a busy 2011. There is plenty of competition here in AZ, it takes some time to get established. We are having a chapter meeting in North Phx on January 27th, 7 pm at the Deer Valley Airport Restaurant, you might want to come. 
I just started my 18th year in the business and if I were starting out today I would not get into the “home” inspection business. Tied to too many variables that you have absolutely no control over. You picked a bad time to get into this line of work, even though you probably have a better foundation than many who are trying to break in during a slump in the economy. Housing sales are down in spite of low interest, you have Realtors telling clients they don’t need a home inspection and they can save money there, just buy a warranty and if anything breaks, just call them and they will fix it. Lots of things working against home inspectors right now. If I were breaking in now, I would put ALL my efforts into commercial inspections and leave homes to the novices. I doubt if there is even a license requirement for commercial inspections so you may be able to circumvent all the expense of pursuing that and having to jump through your grommet to meet State requirements. With your background I am pretty sure you have a list of trade professionals you can tap into for many of the elements and components of commercial inspections. Build yourself a team of people who work as subs for you (for tax purposes) while you go out get the business, do the advertising, marketing, etc. Retired tradesmen really like this kind of work. Do the things you know how to inspect and leave the rest to the other team members…have a back up for each. More money, don’t have to deal with snotty Realtors who have to leave early to go pick up Suzy for ballet practice and whining homeowners.
Oh yeah, you will NOT have to contend with other HI that don’t know poop from shoe polish and will low ball the hell out of the local prices, putting you in even more of a box.
Just saying…