How to become a home inspector & start a home inspection business 

Becoming a home inspector is easy. Keep in mind when looking for a home inspection school please remember your education can only be as good as your instructors. If I wanted to become a home inspector I would look a for a home inspection school providing instructors who have a minimum of five years on the job experience as a home inspector, who owns or has owned his or her own company and who have performed at least a few thousand home inspections.

Can one realistically expect a first class home inspection education if your home inspection school's instructor has no first hand knowledge of how to perform a home inspection?

If school says they can teach a new home inspector to CONSISTENTLY KEEP $400 or more a day five days a week, fifty weeks per year ask them for the names of a few former students making 1/2 that (I am sure they will have a reason they can not give you that list) OR obtain a written money back guarantee from the school! I am not telling anyone not to go to school to become a home inspector. I suggest prior to laying out funds to a school that are not refundable one consider the quality of the school they are picking and make a determination as to the dollars being spent on school vs. the dollars one is likley to earn as a home inspector.

Home inspectors typically are paid a percentage of the home inspection fee. I have heard of home inspectors being paid anywhere from $80 to $200 per home inspection. Think about it for a second, does your boss pay you 100% of what he or she takes in? Who pays for the insurance, vehicle expenses, marketing expenses, postage, people who answer the phones, vacation time, etc. Each home inspection takes at least 5 hours of time when all the off site time is added up. An honest school would tell you it takes time to perform the home inspection (2.5 hours +/-), get to and from the home inspection (1 hour +/-), prepare the report (1 hour +/-), go back to the site to pick up the radon canister and travel back home (1 hour +/-). How can one do this in just two hours?

Before you do anything else there are two files that are likely to be the two best files you download this year. These two files are FREE. One file is in a PDF format and the other is in Excel. NONE OF THE NUMBERS IN THE TIME OR EXPENSE CHART ARE "MINE" THEY ARE JUST STARTING POINTS FOR YOU TO APPLY YOUR NUMBERS OR ANTICIPATED NUMBERS TO SEE THE IMPACT CHANGES WILL HAVE UPON THE PROFIT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT EARN.

The first page shows you how a typical home inspector spends their week. The second page shows you what type expenses a typical home inspection company faces. The last two pages show you how you can decide how much you want to earn as a home inspector and how hard you will have to work in order to achieve your goal. ONCE AGAIN -- NONE OF THE NUMBERS IN THE TIME OR EXPENSE CHART ARE "MINE" THEY ARE JUST STARTING POINTS FOR YOU TO APPLY YOUR NUMBERS OR ANTICIPATED NUMBERS TO SEE THE IMPACT CHANGES WILL HAVE UPON THE PROFIT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT EARN.

For the NON customizable PDF version click Time, expences and the impact of pricing on profit in PDF

For the Totally customizable Excel version click Time, expenses and the impact of pricing on profit in Excel. The advantage of the Excel format is you can plug in all of your own numbers if you wish to and see in real time how different factors change your ability to earn a profit.

Consider about 8,000,000 people live in New Jersey. If three people live in each home and if 5% of the homes are sold each year that would be about 133,333 sales per year. Lets guess and say about 120,000 home inspections occur (look under Existing Home Sales by State for an up to date figure).

Right now there about 650 still licensed home inspectors (about 900 licenses have been issued) plus some unlicensed ones. 120,000 / 650 = 185 home inspections per licensed home inspector. If an inspector charges $400 per inspection (many inspectors charge much less some charge more) and performs 150 home inspections that inspector would take in $ 74,000 per year, minus expenses that eat up at something like half that gross. Make sure your budget includes $16,000 +/- for keeping your state mandated $500,000 errors and omission claims made insurance coverage for at least four years after you stop inspecting homes.

If one perfoms 185 home inspections per year (less than 4 inspections per week) for $400 each how could one have a $400 a day profit?

Sure, you can make money as a home inspector. I do very well. However it takes years of time, investment and effort. It is not an easy way to make a million and there is no possible way it can not be learned in a few weeks or months time.

All information on this site is the personal opinion of Michael Del Greco. He does NOT represent the Home Inspection Advisory Committee, The Division of Consumer Affairs, Office of the Attorney General or any other State Agency.

Education New Jersey Home Inspector Training

File last updated May 22, 2012 * Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved by: Accurate Inspections, Inc. A New Jersey home inspection firm 56 Woodland Drive, Woodland Park (formerly West Paterson) NJ 07424 973-812-5100 providing New Jersey Certified Home Inspections in NJ, by New Jersey Licensed home inspectors. Inspector of record Michael Del Greco, New Jersey Home Inspector License GI 0121.