Career as Building/Real Estate inspector?

Who's in the business?

I'm researching a second career post-military. After 20+ years as an infantryman, I'd rather not continue in the government sector. Right now, I have a random collection of credits to put toward a degree from a prominent university, which should be complete by the time I retire in 2-7yrs (most likely 2019).

My short list of job requirements:
-possibly retiring in South Carolina / coastal Georgia region
-income ~$40-50K/yr
-eventually lead to self-employment
-family friendly (I kinda like them, would like to finally spent time with them)

About me: I'm mechanically inclined. Familiar with home systems and construction. I'm skilled enough to fix most stuff around a house including plumbing, HVAC and Electrical, but lack experience to jump into a professional trade.

 

I had looked into this a while ago....



A few formal classes and you can be on your way. Networking will be beneficial in getting the clientele. When I get tired of architecture I may look to slow the pace and do something along these lines. http://info.nahi.org/how-to-become-a-home-inspector

My girlfriend has been doing commercial real estate appraising for a few years now and entered the field w/ no prior experience. It's less field work and more paperwork but an option.

You may also want to look into going Green. Weather (see what I did there?) you subscribe to it, it's a growing industry and Green inspectors/raters may be your thing. This link shows an expired class but it's a lead... http://www.thegbi.org/green-globes/personnel-certifications/ggp-aia-promo.shtml

P.S. I've never met a building inspector that appeared to like his job.

 

I would sit for a GC license exam if you want to set yourself apart from other building inspectors.
Its also a pretty physical job as you'll be crawling in attics, crawlspaces, and on roofs.
If you get licensed as a GC, you can always get one of them cushy local gov't permit inspector jobs.
Also in the SE... A/C businesses will always be in high demand.

 

If it's anything like the building inspectors up here, first step is a lobotomy.

Perhaps look into owning/managing/maintaining rental properties?

 

Run, Forrest, run!

 

In my experience there is certainly a market for qualified, thorough, and ETHICAL inspectors. The last 2 that I have hired provided me with 50 pages of worthless formulaic crap.

 

the one thing i found laughable about the real estate inspection business.. is that the person doing the inspecting didn't have to have ANY real world real estate experience. Let alone building/construction experience. What the heck are people paying money to someone like that for ??

no offense to any real estate inspection professionals out there, but i have advised people in the past (i was an appraiser for 15+ yrs and own a fair # of rentals for that amount of time).. is to hire individual CONTRACTORS for inspecting things. Hire an ac tech to inspect hvac, roofer or general contractor for roof and a few other things, etc. It may cost you a few more $ but you will get GOOD information about the property in question. Not a bunch of fluff.

i know this isn't directly related to the op's question, but thought id' through that out there.

 

I have been earning my living in real estate for a long time. I have met exactly one competent home inspector during that time. I think most of them get a certificate from the same online school from which they received their Doctor of Divinity degree, and that they usually moonlight as birthday party clowns on weekends.
That said, it's easy money. They are protected by umpteen thousand disclaimers and are in no way liable if they fail to notice that your house is ninety percent consumed by termites and it crumbles to dust two weeks later.

 

I have had the same experience with most of the home inspectors that buyers or buyers agents have sent out for home inspection prior to escrow....
I have always met their inspector at the house to walk through the inspection process with him. For the most part, I think they are idiots and not worth the money they are paid to inspect a house. Most have no real field experience building a house....

I had a guy show up one time for a home inspection and while we were on the roof he asked me why a part of the roof was pitched up in a triangulated shape....I looked at him for a second or two not really sure if he was being serious or not, (he was), so I proceeded to educate him on why one would build a cricket into a flat roof to move water to a roof drain....all he could come up with was...oh....

To the OP, you need to take into consideration this business is cyclical. We've come off one of the worst residential real estate cycles we've ever seen. Out here in Ca. the last couple of years have been pretty good for the line of work you're thinking of getting into. IMO, how long that is going to last is debatable. The market out here will soften this buying season due to more inventory coming into the pipeline as appreciation over the last couple of years has managed to pull some people back up to the point where they can get out of the house they were buried under. Is that good for your inspection business? Maybe...maybe not...just something to consider for long term planning work wise.....

 

so true on both posts above..

and again, to the op, it may be a reasonably profitable bus to get into. I have always liked jobs where you are your own boss, but as eluded to in some other posts.. try and set yourself apart by getting enough training to be more than competent.

 

Same experiences here as most. Real estate investor with a contractors license myself. I can't stand inspectors. Around here they have to have a CCB, which means they are licensed contractors that don't know how to get or run their own business. They are about as popular with people in the real estate community as people from the IRS that do audits.

Of course the flipside of that is if everyone hates them, there is obviously an opportunity for someone that knows what they are doing to be the one shining example and build a real reputation.

 

Really?

My wife's cousin is doing very well in this career path. He is licensed in MN and WI. Taken several certifications that are far above what's needed( nothing I believe). He has inspected several houses for us. Robin (you know her) sends a lot of business his way.

I believe the key is being honest and thorough! Which he has heaps of.

 

In the process of selling/buying right now, so i have recent experience with two home inspectors.

Both were quick - about 2-3 hours in and out. Both provided 35+ page reports, detailed with pictures. Both found some things I never would have, as well as many nagging little issues I eventually would have found on my own. Mine cost about $400. I'd say both were good experiences, and mine was money well spent. Of course the buyer's inspection on my house was too thorough!!

The reports I'm sure are just a template they use, and they just fill in the blanks with each house. I'm sure once you become familiar with the area you're in, you know all the common issues to look for, and the areas to skimp on so you can go pretty quick.

 

Diamond in the rough, Fizz.

When Dan Velasquez was selling his house, the night school inspector gave him a laundry list of "electrical deficiencies". He wanted the bubble tub bonded to the water supply. Pex. He wanted all the breakers changed to arc fault. He wanted all the receptacles changed to tamper resistant.

He got none of it, but he sure did get a lesson in being a f@cktard.

Ask Dennis about the bldg inspector that made him encase the steel beam in his spancrete garage in drywall for "fire protection".

Your cousin-in-law may know his shit, but his "peers" do a horseshit job of building a reputation of competency. He should be permitted to smack the idiots with spiked 2x4's.

 

Home inspection is a great profession. It can eventually lead you to the life you are looking for. Owner of your own business and more time spent with your family. For educational opportunities I reccomend a program Certificate, AA or BA in Building Construction or Sustainability. Green inspectors will be in demand. Doing insurance inspections or get certified in doing VA inspections to get your business going. It takes time to grow. Joining an association will also be a benefit also.

Its to bad others have not had good experiences. For me personally an injury limited me from the jobs I was used to getting in construction. The inspection business is less stressful and less physically demanding. Good luck with your research and thanks for serving.

Tom

 

Thanks for the input guys. I guess I'm more interested in residential stuff. Good call on HVAC work... Although I know firsthand how much it sucks working in an attic during the summer.

 

I had someone call me on a recommendation from a past customer a couple of years ago. They had just moved to my area from out of state and purchased a house finished with stucco and stone on the outside. They had heard of the problems stucco houses sometimes have and were concerned about purchasing a stucco home. They pointed out to the inspector a couple of things that concerned them. Long story short they got the 35 page report that relieved their concerns and they went though with the purchase. After they moved in a started living there it quickly became apparent there were major problems. When they called me they were asking me to make repairs (not really the kind of work I do) so I recommended they get an EFIS Inspection test to identify how bad the problems might be. This is a test where they use moisture probes to check for higher than normal moisture behind the stucco, and also look for and point out other problems, or potential problems. In numerous places there wasn't even any sheathing left behind the stucco to probe for moisture, just rotted wood. Beyond that were many other problems too.

The repairs that needed to be made in my opinion were the entire exterior needed to be stripped off and repairs made everywhere the frame and sheathing needed it. That also would have included removing a very large deck which was attached over the top of the stucco and bolted (not very well) to a rotted frame behind. I didn't really do an estimate on that because there was definitely a lawsuit brewing, and this really isn't the kind of work that I want to do anyway. To make the repairs properly would have easily been six figures. I'm not sure how that turned out but I felt really sorry for them. Especially since they had concerns to begin with, and probably the only reason they went though with the purchase was because of the initial home inspection report that only found a few cosmetic issues.

I think the moral of this is to not take this line of work lightly if you should decide to go that route. I think that's exactly what the guy in this story did. He went through the motions, filled out his template inspection, collected his small fee, and as a result convinced some very nice people to make a $500,000 + mistake. I agree with the suggestion to hire independent professionals who have no stake in working with realty companies or banks. I've been asked a couple of times recently to look at properties for people I have worked for in the past. I'll usually do that at no charge because it's good for business in the long run, and it's easy to look at building and give an opinion on whether the potential buyer should run or investigate further.

As an aside, there don't seem to be that many people doing the EFIS inspection work (at least in my area), and there are still a huge number of houses that are being built with it. Many of them are still having the EFIS installed improperly (where 99% of the problems arise from), so there for a very long time to come there will be a lot of work in this more specialized area. Just a thought.

 

Good points JRA.

I had some issues with my home inspections in the past. That's one of the motivators to get into the field... learned a lot by fixing stuff that had indicators of problems to begin with.

Appreciate the head's up with EFIS, hadn't considered that area.