Responsibilities of a Home Inspector

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/08/2017 08:08 AM EDT

Hello,
I have been working sometime in real estate firm for a long time. After accompanying a few colleagues for home inspection, I thought, I should become a home inspector. Currently, I have decided to take a course from Freedom business School. I wish to do some homework before I join. I want to know the full responsibilities and work of a home inspector. Can someone please help.

“A home inspection is a high-liability,in-depth, multi-disciplined technical analysis of the home conducted under adverse circumstances in front of a demanding audience, requiring the generation of an incredibly detailed written report prepared in an unrealistically short time frame for an inconceivably low fee.”

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 06/06/2016 12:54 PM EDT

Roy just said it. Expect a lot of nights with very little sleep while building your business. I average anywhere from 16 to 18 hours a day, between being a father and building my business.

A lot of people think that they can just jump right in and make big money quick. It takes sacrifice and passion, not only for money but to keep people safe.

Number 1, you have to keep yourself and everyone else around you safe. Sounds easy right? Every home is different and every house has a story. Can you hear what the property is telling you.

Are you willing to pay attention to the electrical system? What's the difference in between a main panel and a sub-panel and can you tell the difference? You'll need to learn about bonding and grounding, conductor sizes and what each is rated for.

Can you safely traverse a roof and safely get on and off? Will you even walk a roof and if you do, which ones do you stay off of? How can you tell if a roof is safe to walk just from looking at it from the ground and viewing the material. There are tale-tale signs.

If you see a V crack, settlement cracks, horizontal or vertical cracks, which ones will you know to call out and refer to a structural engineer and which ones do you have the clients monitor? How are they going to monitor the cracks?

Will you be able to comfortably explain to your clients what you are doing or are you going to have them wondering what's going on?

The list goes on and on. I'm not trying to discourage you, in any way. I'm just laying it out there for you in under a minute.

Micheal, you are trying to scare me off. But I find the job challenging. But, considering both of your opinions, I might want to rethink. May be I have to meet some more real home inspectors before I finally choose it. I shouldn't rush with it, isn't it.
Thanks for your replies. It helped me make a choice.

Buddy, before you decide to become a home inspector, you first need to learn to spell. You are quick to rush things and you will be a piss poor Inspector, if you do. It only takes 30 seconds at most to see how my name is spelled, by looking at my reply to yours. Let me slow things down for you. Do you see the picture with the 2 guys to the left of you? No - slowly look up towards your left (go a little slower now), you will see 2 men. Good - now look right above the picture... you will see 5 stars and 4 of those are filled with the color gold. Just above the picture and stars, you will find my name.

Let me spell it out for you: MICHAEL.
You switched a couple of letters around.
I am sporting around a pair and it is nothing but disrespect towards me and lack of education on your part by mis-spelling my name.

From here on out just call me: MIKE, and try not to mis-spell that.

Look young'n .... I am in no way trying to scare you off. I am wondering how you ever got to the position that you're in now though. You definitely didn't score high on any written tests. How can I make that assertion? Easy, you only heard what I was saying, you didn't listen and you obviously don't know how to spell. Don't blame it on spell-check either (or I'll nickname you Lazy).

Let's say that you happen to really be educated. Okay, then you mis-spelled my name and took what I said out of context, and out of spite.

I have 19+ years in this industry and I'm just stating my own experiences.

Okay, let's look at it another way:
You become a home inspector in your state (good for you). You don't listen to the one's that came before you trying to help you out. You inspect an electrical panel with solid strand aluminum with over loaded breakers, undersized conductors and multiple double taps. You even had an illegal tap before the main. You didn't catch this because you never pulled the dead front. You see on the news a few days later that the house burned down and took the life of 2 elderly people and 4 children. Can you live with that, knowing that you could have prevented that tragic night?

Let me spell it out for you: MICHAEL.
You switched a couple of letters around.
I am sporting around a pair and it is nothing but disrespect towards me and lack of education on your part by mis-spelling my name.

That's a bit harsh, guy.
So if one of your HI clients transposes a couple letters in a communique with you, do you lecture them as well?

Dom.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 06/10/2016 12:01 PM EDT

Dom D'Agostino wrote:

Let me spell it out for you: MICHAEL.
You switched a couple of letters around.
I am sporting around a pair and it is nothing but disrespect towards me and lack of education on your part by mis-spelling my name.

That's a bit harsh, guy.
So if one of your HI clients transposes a couple letters in a communique with you, do you lecture them as well?

Dom.

Dom, I most certainly do not. I simply state that my name is spelled as I pointed out above. Take it how you want, if someone replaced the 'O' in Dom with a 'U' and added a 'MY' at the end of your name, tell me that wouldn't offend you. There is no difference. My name is not spelled Micheal that is the same as saying: Michelle (a ladies name). I've got to much going on than to have a disagreement with you. You are a seasoned Inspector with around 15 years of experience, a Certified Master Inspector and a member of FABI. I tried to help the original poster, not once but twice. How did you help this newbie out but encouraging him to rush through things?

Speaking of that ... you know I have respected pretty much every Inspector and vendor in this industry for 2 decades. A new guy can walk in here dis-respect me and he gets applauded for it. That's alright.

Original poster:
Please accept my apologies for the harsh words but as a father of 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls), I can tell you that the ones who listened to me are far better off in life; than the ones that didn't.

See that's the problem with America. The teachers just don't care anymore. Parents let their children run wild and that's why there are so many idiots, in our world today. I take back my apology and I don't care who likes it. Take the extra 5-10 seconds and make sure that you spell the name correctly. You will appear smarter and gain a friendship along the way.

Here is what I have a problem with. As a CMI you are supposed to help this industry not find fault with other inspectors. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't a CMI held to a higher standard than your average Inspector. By God, I am fixing to fill out my paperwork and send to the CMI board.

The time it took to reply to my 'harsh' words could've been better spent by helping this newbie out. This guy is going to end up with paperwork stating that he is a home inspector and he's going to be blinded to issues that hurt him and his business. I'm looking out for the guy and you should as well.

Give me a break. Let it go, it wasn't an insult, it was a mistake. Perhaps he "fat-fingered" on a tablet or phone. Haven't we all?

People misspell or mispronounce my name al the time; it is what it is. I'm not "Dominique" (a woman's name) yet I'm constantly called that; so what. I've never berated someone for it.

YMMV.

Dom.

Michael,

Before becoming a home inspector, I taught English. I've attached a word document where I highlighted the typos in your response to Dom. There are 13. I understand that this will be seen as a jerk move, but sometimes you've got to taste the medicine that you dish out.

Here's the real point- The guy never said that he was going to go out and start inspecting homes today. He said he was thinking about enrolling in a training program in order to become educated enough to start performing home inspections. Your posts are discouraging, not helpful. Instead of telling him that he is not ready, and that he will be responsible for the deaths of 6 people, why not tell him how much you love being a home inspector, and encourage him to look for supplemental education to go along with what he will receive at his school? Why not tell him to look up Home Inspection University, and to do the training available through InterNACHI? Encourage him to attend the Ultimate Inspector Conference and other inspection conferences offered by ASHI and other groups. Tell him to find a local association and attend their meetings to learn more. That would be more helpful than belittling him for a single typo.

P.S. people misspell and get my first and last name wrong all the time. It doesn't bother me at all. You can call me whatever you want and I won't be offended, because my self-worth has nothing to do with what other people say about me.

Lesson learned.

It's true, I love being a home inspector. Here is my advice: go through the training and find a mentor that you can talk back and forth with, over the phone. Join either ASHI, NAHI, or InterNACHI and get you some field training. Find a software that you're comfortable using and know it inside and out. Overlook certain things that other's like I have to say but listen to those who came before you. If this is really what you want to do then by all means do it. I do apologize for some of my comments above (please accept my apology) but please be careful out there and explain to your clients what it is that you're looking for, what you've found and your recommendation. I am not going to talk Nathan Thornberry up, but I will say that he is a good man and the most successful inspectors, use his products. I wish you luck and much success into your journey of home inspections. Stay safe out there.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/07/2017 08:24 AM EDT

Deliver a quality inspection and prompt inspection report

You need to read a Home Inspection Standard of Practice .

If you're going to inspect a home for me, you'll need to first show no realtor affiliations of any kind. Then, you must be willing to scramble up through a scuttle and inspect the roof from the inside - right to the eaves. Spiders or not. And are there wasps up there or evidence of critters getting in. That's just for starters. I "pre-inspect." Miss something? Very embarrassing. I'm not so interested in how glitzy you report your findings, or how fastt - I'm interested in what you find - or not find.