Home Inspections

If you research the home inspection industry, you'll find that there is no shortage of home inspection training schools. Some home inspection training school's advertise that you can make seventy to one hundred thousand dollars a year and more. You could in a perfect world. The training is usually adequate and they will prep you to take and pass the state certification tests, take you out on mock home inspections. Home Inspection training/school is expensive.

Many new home inspectors I've talked too have said that these schools rarely ever touch on or discuss the subject of what it could cost to start a home inspection business. They say that they do touch on some basics though, it can be a home based business, there is no overhead and not many tools are needed to start.

Most states now, require that home inspectors be State Certified. I base the following on the State of Nevada, your state may differ.

Before you take your state test, you must be finger printed and background checked. You must pay for this out of your own pocket. Then you take the State test if you pass the background. You must pay to take the test out of your pocket too. There's a fee that you must pay to take the test. After all the above is done and assuming you've passed the state test, you must submit all the above results to the state to get your certification. There is a certification fee, the application fee that you must pay to the State to submit it. I can't say what the dollar amounts are because every state is probably different but they are not going to be inexpensive. Here are some more costs that you'll have to pay to get your state certification. Usually, to get your state certification, you'll have to submit proof of insurance with your application to the state. E & O Error and Omissions & General Liability insurance. The E & O is usually around $2200 to $2500 for new inspectors.General Liability varies. Then there is the business licenses, County license and any cities within that county jurisdiction. You must have a business license from each city to work in them and the a license from the county.

Assuming that you've paid all the thousands of dollars involved and you have your state certificate, insurance, licenses, what about the tools you'll need? A pencil, writing pad and flashlight aren't all that's needed. You really need a report writing software program to do the reports. These cost anywhere from $250 to $1300 dollars or more. Some home inspectors use a laptop tablet computer to do on site reports. Tablet computers are expensive. You'll need ladders, a good step ladder for breaching the attics and an extension ladder for the outside. You may already own a ladder but if you don't, price them, they are not inexpensive. There are other tools you'll need to make the job easier and faster, they all cost money and nothing is inexpensive. You also must have a van or truck.

Assuming that you've met all the above criteria and bought your tools, your ready to move forward with your business. What's next? This is the toughest part of starting a home inspection business, Marketing. Getting your business out there. If you have really close friends that are Real Estate Agents, this would be very helpful, but you probably don't. Home Inspection Is a Target Specific Market. Home Inspection services are specific to mostly home buyers and sellers. How often do people buy a house? Once every 5 or 10 yrs? Here are some marketing strategies that new home inspectors usually do.

Yellow Page Advertising. The cost for an add can be anywhere from $150 to $1000 a month for a yellow pages ad. It's a big waste of time and money. Hardly anyone uses a phone book anymore. Brochures and business cards. The business cards are a must. The brochures will cost you an arm and a leg to be printed, then you'll have to distribute them. You'll have to drive around to hundreds of Realtor offices (fuel costs) and ask if you can leave some next to the other one hundred or so home inspectors brochures already there.

You can give a presentation to the real estate agents in the various real estate offices you visit, giving them the same speech that all the other one hundred or so home inspectors have pitched to them before you. What can you possibly tell them that they haven't already heard so that they will use you? They probably will care less about you and what you have to say, but they'll be happy to gobble down your free doughnuts, cupcakes and cookies. They'll probably never remember or use you either. The doughnuts, cupcakes and cookie cost alone will bankrupt you.

Your going to need a website and hosting because it is your best bet for Marketing. This is costly if you want a decent website. Are you going to design your own or hire a website designer? Hiring a web designer is expensive. Usually thousand's of dollars. Assuming you get an active website, what now? Sit back and wait for the phone calls and emails to come rolling in? You'll be waiting a long time. Your website is just not going to appear on Google, Yahoo or MSN/Bing's search pages. It doesn't work that way anymore. You'll need to have your website Search Engine Optimized (SEO) or nobody will ever find you.

Search Engine Optimization is expensive. Usually thousand's of dollars just to have it done plus the cost to maintain it monthly. Research Website/SEO optimization for a better explanation of it. If you choose to have your website optimized by a professional, (and I recommend it) be sure and do background research on the company you select. There is allot of unscrupulous so-called SEO companies out there If you are thinking about starting your own Home Inspection Company, I hope this has given you a little insight to what's involved in starting up your own business. It's not as EASY and CHEAP as you might think. If you are thinking about buying into a franchise, they too are extremely expensive too. (13k and up, way up) and they don't do much if anything for you and, you'll still have to pay them a percentage of every home inspection you do under them.