Thread: 36 y/o Female going to home inspection school

Hello all, Meghan here. I own a construction/remodeling company with my boyfriend and am about to enroll in AHIT's course, with a projected Texas Professional Home Inspector certification date sometime in August. I have experience in building & remodeling, land survey and was a construction surveyor at two refineries for several years.
My boyfriend may or may not enroll in the same inspector course... I'm not sure how we'd run such a partnership without running in to wasting time doing inspections as a team, or going in to competition with each other. He has expressed interest in appraising and/or insurance adjusting, and that might work a lot better for us as a team.
Anywho, any thoughts on acceptance in the market of female inspectors?
*Also seemed worth mentioning - I'm a graphic designer with about five years' marketing experience which I assume will be a big plus getting myself out there. But I'm reading the woes of starting out and it looks difficult. Tips appreciated!

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Hi Meg Sanford and welcome to InspectionNews!

I'm Brian Hannigan and I created InspectionNews.

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Hi Meg,
There are lots of women home inspectors. In fact, I know one in Texas that has been doing inspections for well over 30 years.
While the construction experience can be a plus, sometimes, it can be a slight roadblock, because a person might think they already know it all.
The AHIT course is probably a good start.
Working as a team can be a good thing, and save you some time. Usually one person does part of the systems, and the other does the rest. Then put together the report. It can be tough working as a team, especially if one or both are inexperienced. There is also a bit of cross inspecting, where some things will overlap into other systems. It takes a while to get the team to gel.
I wouldn't worry too much about competing with your boyfriend. You will have enough to worry about with competing with the dozens or so more experienced inspectors in your area.
This is not an easy business to get up and running and be successful. A lot depends on the size of your market, and how many established home inspectors there are.
Good luck!

Hi Meghan! Good for you for wanting to get into the HI biz!

I started out as a graphic artist as well; what a coincidence! I've found that having that background has helped me a lot in creating marketing materials like our logo, business cards, brochures and such.

I'm in business with my husband, and we don't compete with each other. We each do our own inspections; sometimes we team up to do the monster houses.

Go get the training, do some ride-alongs, and check out your local ASHI chapter to network with your fellow inspectors.

Good luck!

Here's a few things to consider.

How do you feel about crawling in a dark and confined crawlspace. With with possible black widow spiders, snakes, mice, rats, dead animals, piles of animal feces, raw sewage from plumbing leaks etc. Crawlspaces are not always that bad, but you have to be prepared for the worst as it's part of the job. Inspecting a crawlspace can be hard on your body and knees.

How do you feel about getting on roofs that are two stories high. Sometimes you can inspect with binoculars but I try to avoid if whenever possible. Many times I crawl up a ladder packing a 16 foot extension ladder to leapfrog to the second story roof.

Originally Posted by Meg Sanford

Hello all, Meghan here. I own a construction/remodeling company with my boyfriend and am about to enroll in AHIT's course, with a projected Texas Professional Home Inspector certification date sometime in August. I have experience in building & remodeling, land survey and was a construction surveyor at two refineries for several years.
My boyfriend may or may not enroll in the same inspector course... I'm not sure how we'd run such a partnership without running in to wasting time doing inspections as a team, or going in to competition with each other. He has expressed interest in appraising and/or insurance adjusting, and that might work a lot better for us as a team.
Anywho, any thoughts on acceptance in the market of female inspectors?
*Also seemed worth mentioning - I'm a graphic designer with about five years' marketing experience which I assume will be a big plus getting myself out there. But I'm reading the woes of starting out and it looks difficult. Tips appreciated!

Nothing to worry Meghan. Team work will do the best. Never think that marketing is a difficult job for women. You have proved that you can do marketing. It would be more interesting to do the analysis and the examination of the structure and components of the house, monitoring the performance of the installed systems of a house. It is actually meant for the people with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. That is great that you have an experience of 4 years in marketing.
I am a woman, who likes to do things differently from others, that might be the reason that I am interested in your career profile. I am enrolling for the online courses of home inspection from the VA contractors school. I am going take this course as a challenge. Hoping that this gives me a positive outcome. Let me know once you make the decision to do the course.

Meg,
There is an exclusive girls club in the forum,Women In The Inspection Business, that you might want to join.

Send a personal message to Welmoed Sisson to obtain the secret hand shake for entry.

Originally Posted by GloriMor

Nothing to worry Meghan. Team work will do the best. Never think that marketing is a difficult job for women. You have proved that you can do marketing. It would be more interesting to do the analysis and the examination of the structure and components of the house, monitoring the performance of the installed systems of a house. It is actually meant for the people with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. That is great that you have an experience of 4 years in marketing.
I am a woman, who likes to do thinks differently from others, might that be the reason that I am interested in your career profile. I am enrolling for the online courses of home inspection from the VA contractors school. I am going take this course as a challenge. Hoping that this gives me a positive outcome. Let me know once you make the decision to do the course.

Just curious why you would prefer that program/course? If you are pursuing home inspection - my personal opinion - that would be not specific enough for a home inspector, more so even based on your location "Ontario". If you are pursuing general contracting/construction or perhaps real estate - all of these would have different learning outcomes.

As a former college professor, (now retired) - invest where you actually get benefit from what will advance your career. Review the syllabus and learning outcomes to get your maximum benefit to see if that matches what you are looking for.

Meantime - good luck!