Commercial

[Vince Santos]

I'm going to be adding Commercial Inspections to my services but finding it difficult to locate many options for training in this area. Currently I am considering two options, a course by Joe Farsetta and the course provided by ITA. I received my residential inspection certification from ITA and I know they are detailed but I'm curious as to what other options are available. What appealed to me was the correspondence courses offered by ITA however they don't offer that for commercial yet.

Something else I am wondering about is how different a typical residential inspection is from a commercial inspection. Having knowledge of various systems already I am wondering if I need training as extensive as provided by ITA. While there are no licensing requirements here in Michigan I do want to receive some type of training in the commercial industry.

[Markus Keller]

There was another post about this recently that I and others responded to. You may want to search for it.
Comm insp training is good to get a handle on the larger mechanical systems, egress req.,etc.
The important thing is to change your mindset on how you view the inspection. Comm clients usually have specific goals, criteria in mind that they want to get info on. They don't usually care about the same things a home buyer does.
I usually have a meeting, phone or in person with the client prior to insp to find out what their goals are. I also do a drive-by/walk-around prior to official insp to get a feel for the place and give pricing.