What is the Survival Rate For Home Inspectors?

Anyone know what the success or failure rate is for home inspectors. There use to be a figure of 3 years flying around. If you made it 3years you had a chance of survival. Have those figures/numbers changed?

If they make it that long, and then they become Vendors/Advisors or start their own association.

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Seriously. Wow…I would have never imagined that. You pulling my leg…aren’t you.

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Well heck I’ll play along. John, how long have you been a Home Inspector? :wink:

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With what I have seen in our area it looks like 3 out of about 30 make it to the three year + and on , two are still in business ten plus years one has since retired after ten years .
the other 27 did not last two years .

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Two days…:wink:

I’d say in my experience… most flop out in first year or less. The % would be harder to figure out than the unemployment figures…

Well, that sucks. 30 started in the business in the last 10 years or so, and only 3 made it further than the 3 years.

Those stats are frightening.

There’s definitely a tongue in cheek point to be made there, no doubt.

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Is it the economy? Lack of Business Sense? Marketing? Education? Plain Laziness, on their part, thinking this could be a quick buck scheme, or what?

What do you think is the main contributor to these failures?

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In our area many home inspectors have a pension or a wife with a good job to help .
Many are retired from the military or from construction that included me retired from construction .
The three who where past three years had other income too.

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I remember when I joined Nachi in 2007 Nick was screaming better join now we’re (Nachi) going to cap the membership at 10,000. At that time, 2/2007, there were over 9,500, I think closer to 9,800.

Apparently this was a scare tactic to get more to join. There are currently 15,071 North American InterNACHI members. This includes listed and unlisted English-speaking members in North America only. (**InterNACHI Membership Stats) **Not sure what unlisted members means.

No idea how long any last, but I do know there is a small percentage of same members that post here now that did in 2007. The way the students have been coming in and out of here is like a revolving door.

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Becoming an HI is a business… most HI’s have no business experience, and their business plan is usually centered around RE Agents (and then complaining about them).

IMHO, many HI’s work alone… but lack the pool of talents needed to garner business, customer service, accounting… and heck, even a little inspecting and report writing… not saying I’m perfect, I’m far from it. I’m saying IT’S NOT EASY.

However… as this association grew, AND as a lot of started to see…there were / are a lot of guys that are on the street one day and inspecting houses the next… at same time, they/nachi are of great benefit for marketing and education. I can’t/don’t blame nachi for attracting new hi’s to sign up… they are not going to say “your moneys no good here” I wouldn’t, as the larger the org grows the more benefits that are avail to members, whether those members are productive or not.

I’ve felt and still do, that local involvement from chapters/meetings is necessary for new and experienced HI’s to learn and grow.

IMO, learning this biz solely online is a disservice to HI’s and the industry.

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Indeed.

I have no idea what the early attrition rate is, but I know it’s high.

Home Inspection is a profession, not simply a trade, it requires a great breadth of skills (business, communication, marketing, etc.) along with a broad knowledge of many technical areas.

There is a huge gulf between what one learns in school or online and the skills and knowledge required to be successful in the field. I had the great fortune to have a great mentor and a bunch of colleagues who all cut our teeth together. Sadly, we have lost two of them over the years. I owe a great debt to them all.

I don’t think that there’s any substitute for live mentorship and real field experience to newly minted inspectors. Some, unfortunately are doomed to fail - it’s the nature of all things. But there are plenty of really bright up and comers that are capable of great success.

I think we owe the same opportunity to those new inspectors who come behind us. I would much rather have the new inspector near me be someone that I’d be willing to refer clients to than someone who can’t do the job competently.

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We passed 3 years no problem, however I still keep in touch with my old instructor and there were 12 people in my class, everyone passed the state exam, I started my company and still going strong, 1 managed to pick a name for his company and quit and the rest never even tried once they found out what was involved.

The class I took started out with 9 students, 1 dropped out of class and did not finish. 5 never pursued licensing. 3 took and passed the associate test, 2 took and passed the final test. 1 went work for the local Pillar to post franchise and quit after several months and went back to working for a commercial building contractor. I’m the only one that started my own business, is still inspection and doing it full time out of the group.

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This is a very important string and I do hope others put in their information …

Thanks John and others,… Much appreciated

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worth repeating…

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Depends upon when they get their first lawsuit. 14 years for me, and not one.

Most drop out when they get experienced, and the REA’s stop using them, and move on to the next batch of rookies. I have been in it longer, because I do mostly high-end, and cater to corporations and attorneys. Almost nothing under 2,500 sq. ft. The $199 guys, rookies, and the franchise companies get those smaller homes.

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