I’ve recently been considering making a career change and becoming a home inspector, If anyone would be interested in giving some advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
A little background. I’m a licensed contractor (C and a B) and have been working as a superintendent for a custom home builder for twelve years. I think my current experience and background in the construction industry, especially the custom home market, would make this an ideal career choice. Hard work and long hours are not new to me.
A few concerns I have are 1) Is this a saturated market. 2) How long did it take for some of you to build up a clientele to sustain a profitable business? 3) Education?
Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.
Where are you located?
Long Beach, CA
Plan on at least a year to get significant work. It really depends on how hard you market.
All markets reach equilibrium. In other words the demand for home inspections = the number of home inspectors needed. True for home inspections. True for coffee shops. True for pizza delivery. If you are waiting for a freak time in the market for demand for inspections to be much greater than the supply of inspectors able to perform those inspections… business isn’t for you.
It took me about a month to line up all my marketing. I then launched it all at once like a Blitzkrieg. Within 3 weeks of launch, I was swamped and stayed swamped for my entire 5.5 year career as a home inspector. Within the first 3 months I had four 2-man crews and one office manager. That is the perfect (profitable sweet spot) size IMHO and I stayed exactly that size until the day I sold the very profitable company.
www.nachi.org/education.htm Not even a close second.
Can you come to our Ontario, California meeting on the 16th? It’s going to be huge.
Unfortunately I will be out of town that week.
Chris I’m also a general contractor and carpenter by trade. I found this to be an easier transition than most. As Nick says marketing will be the key to your success. A good website is important and also a perfect way to distinguish yourself from the pack, perhaps even more important! Realtors come and go but your reputation as a fair and even handed inspector will go a long way in the office.
I believe if you have the experience you won’t overly concern your clients with the multitude of minor things . It’s what is of consequence to your customer that will be important.
Best of luck!
Start with a good reliable reporting software or online reporting. I use Reporthost.com and have been very happy. I’m sure you will get a lot of opinions otherwise but the free trial period and first fifteen reports will get you up and running and give you some practice in advance.
Once thing about the greater Los Angeles area I’ve found, be it in music, accounting, or home inspections:
Getting a foot in the door is easy, because there is so much business going on.
But getting the door wide open is difficult because so many others have their foot in the door too.
The market is huge, it’s saturated, but quality can and will get noticed if you put yourself out there enough.
Thanks for the replies. I’m definitely considering this. Any advice on training? I’ve looked at the different scools offering traing, but have no idea how to distinguish them from one another.
There is only one choice for education in the inspection industry: Free Home Inspector Training Courses & Online Classes - InterNACHI®
I went through AHIT, but I wouldn’t waste your time or money with that. Once I completed there training, I signed up at InterNACHI to find out I had to re-do all of the courses I just went though…FYI I paid about $1800 for the AHIT stuff, NACHI $500 a year.