Upstart inspector

[Dave Collins]

Greetings from Southwest Georgia, gnat capitol of the world. I was hoping to get some feedback on the Allied, online home inspector's training course, Verses the ASHI online training course for home inspectors. Big price difference between the 2 courses. Also, what's a realistic time frame to get established as a home inspector in a small market, in a state that requires no licensing? Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dave

[Jeffrey L. Mathis]

I don't know if it's possible, but unless you have a well founded experience history in construction, you really should try to catch on with an established company to get a real feel for the job. Even if you go out of town for a while and tag along.
Frankly, in this market, I'm very proud of my nurse wife and her job and I've got 38 years in construction and inspections.
Can't speak to education for your situation. ASHI doesn't have much of a presence around here. We have annual education requirements and there are a myriad of options.
But nothing beats being in the field.
JLMathis

[Bruce Ramsey]

Looks like Leesburg is about two hrs to Macon, Valdasta, and Columbus. 4 hours to Atlanta or Savannah.

Ga does not have licensing. I would recommend you go to ASHI and look for the nearest meeting which likely to be in one of the above cities. Attend and ask around if anyone would let you ride along on a inspection or two. Ride along with at least 3 different inspectors. Buy them lunch. Find out what the job really entails before you spend money and time for training.

Start up time is very dependent on home sales in your area, number of other inspectors, and how good you are at marketing. Exceptionally technically knowledged, well spoken, superb writing inspectors often fail due to poor marketing. Undereducated, poorly spoken and lousy writers can succeed with good marketing.

Inspecting homes and writing reports is only about 1/3 of a home inspection business. The other 2/3rds is MARKETING and normal business overhead like taxes, accounting, govt paperwork, etc. Don't think about how easy it will be to inspect the home and write the report. Think about how and where you are going to get paying customers. Focus on customer identification and conversion from shopper to buyer. It is more about running a business than inspecting homes.

The schooling will be mostly about how the various systems in a home are supposed to work and how they are supposed to be assembled. There is very little information about how to inspect and what clues to look for that point to larger issues. Most experienced inspectors can usually tell you 10 things they expect to find in certain age homes due to common building materials or techniques used at the time the house was built. Certain locations are very likely to have the same damage.

Porch roofs and shingles alongside dormers always have more damaged shingles. Masons, siding installers, painters, gutter installers, Dish TV installers, etc trample the lower roofs and alongside dormers. The main field of the roof is usually in much better condition. You will be taught to look for number of layers of shingles, # of nails, and basic wear but not about common abuse patterns.

The topic has been discussed ad nauseum. Rummage around the forum and read all the past replies and then ask specific questions.

[Rick Cantrell]

Greetings from Southwest Georgia, gnat capitol of the world.

I take it that you have never been to Savanna, or Tybie Island.

Welcome to to forum

[Bruce Ramsey]

I take it that you have never been to Savanna, or Tybie Island.

World's secondest largest St. Patricks Day celebration occurs in Savannah. Tybie Island always seems to have lots of fresh new military guys and their girlfriends wandering the beach.

Couple of years at Georgia Southern. Yeah, I know about gnats.