Are home inspectors interchangeable?
I travel far and wide to get the best training I can
- Pool, with leak detection - I traveled to Bryan, TX and Dallas, TX to take pool classes.
- Septic - I traveled to Laughlin, NV and Irving, TX to take the NAWT certification course from different providers. I don't know of any other inspector who has taken NAWT courses both in-state and out-of-state to be better informed. I passed the exam both times. You'll find me in the NAWT provider directory.
- Sewer - I traveled to Boulder, CO to take a class on inspecting sewer lines from Jim Krumm. I chose the class because I believe it is the best in the industry.
- Mold - I am a mold assessment consultant, the higher of the two levels of licensing for mold assessment offered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. (#MAC2045) While I don't condone a government limiting who is allowed to inspect for mold, that is the case in Texas. You'll find me in the database.
Relevant parts of my background before inspecting
- I graduated with respectable grades from a department of mechanical engineering that was ranked among the top ten in the country by U. S. News & World Report.
- I have 262 reviews as a guest on Airbnb. I've stayed in an RV in New Caney, a fairly new house in New Braunfels, and a basement in New Jersey. I've stayed in Los Angeles, Newark, and many places in between. These visits have improved my understanding of homes and of what makes for a good, furnished rental.
- I've flipped or disposed of eight houses, performing some of the rehab work myself.
Signs of dishonesty to be on guard against
A more dishonest inspector may be more willing to hide defects from you, especially when under pressure from the buyer's agent, seller's agent, or seller. Look for these potential signals of dishonesty from the inspection firms you’re considering:
- Claiming to be licensed or certified, especially in an ancillary service such as mold, when the online directory shows no evidence of his/her licensure/certification.
- A firm that touts certification by InterNACHI. The firm doesn’t know that InterNACHI is not a good educator or doesn’t mind misleading you into believing that it is. Online InterNACHI courses are too often ineffective (as the student can simply ignore the video and take the multiple-choice quiz at the end of the content repeatedly until he/she passes), old (I recently saw a copyright of 2010 on their course on decks), and inaccurate (and you can see their COO misidentifying the purpose of the holes in weep screeds on YouTube). InterNACHI does offer a small number of in-person courses taught by contractors that are worthwhile, but if you go to an inspector’s profile and see a predominance of “InterNACHI” under “Provider Name”, he/she is probably taking the online courses.
- Use of the word “engineer” by someone who has no training in engineering, or to imply that because an engineer is working at the firm, the inspection, which is performed by someone who is not an engineer, will benefit from the engineering background.
- Use of the words “us” and “we” to give a solo-inspector firm the impression of greater size.
- Use of other terms such as “accredited” or “forensic”. These terms, when applied to home inspections, are nonsense and are probably designed to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Multi-inspector firms
Inspectors and the owners themselves report that owners of firms that employ multiple home inspectors pay only 30% to 60% of the inspection fee to their inspectors[1][2][3][4]. Revenue that is siphoned by the business from the inspection then goes to the owner and to activities that seem aimed more at winning market share, such as for marketing activities, rather than to something that would be net productive from a sector perspective. There does not seem to be much need for a division of labor to be able to efficiently inspect homes, as there does to, say, manufacture a car. I hope you will not support multi-inspector firms with your business.
