Tom Raymond

I agree with Bill, and will add the product most commonly used here in WNY was PermaStone.

There is a 60s development nearby that has 100 houses on 200' circle lots with the remainder being common area. In the early 2000s the HOA decided to update the surveys to GPS. They halted after 18 lots were done and only 3 homes were within their 200' circles.

It's a synthetic cedar shingle like Braava, Enviroshake, DaVinci, etc. It's either a defective shingle or it's installed incorrectly. In either event it's a complete tear off.

Many of the original ceiling lights on my old house were mounted to pancake boxes that had a male threaded nipple in the center of the box. Seems to have been a common box when converting from gas to electric lights. I'd wager it's 3/8 NPT.

CPI is the Certification you receive upon completion of Nacho training. Certified Professional Inspector. CMI, Certified Master Inspector is the expensive program you're thinking of.

We have been at very low inventory levels here for years. Covid craziness made it worse, and drove prices sky high. One working class neighborhood I inspected in recently has more than doubled. I just pulled up my zip code. There's 7 listings, 4 are vacant land, 1 is distressed, 1 is a trainwreck of a foreclosure (vacant over a decade, leaking roofs, crumbling chimneys, and it's stigmatized...the last owner killed himself there). There is 1 saleable house out of 7 listings. Nothing is getting inspected unless it's at the margins, top of the market or the bottom. It's worse than 08.

I much prefer my camera. It's far easier to shoot one handed, and it has a wrist strap.

Makes me itchy just looking at it.

Monitor. I'll bring a comfy chair and some popcorn.

Nobody hires you for what you drive. Nobody is going to know what that is until you get there. Start ups are confusing enough, no need to complicate the matter with unnecessary expenses. You need to get you and the tools necessary to do the job, to the house safely, on time, with repeatable reliable results.

On the Michigan trip the ladder was my 15' folder. It got me both in the attic and on the roof, but I knew that it was big enough before I left. A 17' would easily fit without all the luggage, but I'm not a fan of that size. It's too big to be a small ladder and too short to be a big one. My 22' will go if one of the seats are down.

I have inspected out of: Subaru Outback KIA Sorento GMC Sierra Crew Honda Accord Hybrid Touring Ford F150 Super Crew Powerboost (hybrid) I like my tools under cover, but I never really liked them "in" the car with me. The Honda was surprisingly spacious. All my tools, including a folding ladder, fit in the trunk with luggage for three for a long weekend when I drove 380 miles to Midland, MI to inspect baby brother's house. My current setup has all my tools in waterproof boxes, under a tonneau cover. My folding ladders fit in the bed of the truck. My 24' extension sticks out far enough to need a flag. Anything bigger goes on my trailer. Not as convenient as an SUV or a wagon, but cleaner and quieter.

There are two ways to build a referral based business; be exceptional and wait for the referrals to come, or pander to others for their client base. If you're good at home inspections the Realtors won't refer you regularly. It's a broken model. Market directly to your audience. Do good work. Word will get around, eventually.

Do a good job. Provide excellent value. Be patient.

You charge what you want. If the person you sub for wants a piece of the action he marks up your fee. You want $100, he sells it for $200.

My 15' folder and all my tools fit in the trunk of my wife's Honda Accord Hybrid Touring, along with luggage for three for a long weekend. A 22 folder would fit with one seat down. That said, I drive a truck. I do more contracting than inspections and I pull trailers. I don't like having my tools inside the car with me, they make too much noise, so a wagon or SUV doesn't work for me.

Don't do it. It's the hardest lesson to learn in business, but you have to charge a price that's fair to you, not your customers. If you don't, you won't be in business very long.

In NY you must have an Associates degree and apprentice (more like intern) for 2000 hours to be an associate appraiser. To be a home inspector you need to complete 140 hours of school and pass a test.

And one more thing that no one else mentioned... online training sucks. Get out of your basement, off the computer, and into a classroom. Odds are the training will still suck, but you'll gain a little experience interacting with people. On top of everything else you need to know, you need to be a people person.

You can't use your drone commercially without a license. I'd start there. Then what Marc said.

Our primary job is to manage expectations, because nobody knows that we are there to observe and accurately report the condition of the house.

If you call an asbestos removal contractor to look at that, they won't test it, they'll tell you to remediate. Your landlord will argue remediation isn't necessary. That's when you pay for testing. If you're worried about asbestos in your housing you should consider moving to something built after 1990 or so.

I built one with my daughter over lockdown. It's 8x8 because someone tossed 2 sheets of pressure treated plywood on the scrap pile of a house I was building and I brought them home. The platform is a ridiculously overbuilt pallet for 18' azek beadboard split in half, then married back together with PT 2x4s through them. 6' sidewalls and a 6/12 roof make it 8' tall. A ridge beam eliminates wall ties so I can stand up in it. I kicked the end rafters to the outside of the walls and tied the tails the same, sub-fascia and soffit in one go. Walls and rafters are new 2x4s. Walls are angle braced without sheathing, roof deck is OSB leftover from pallet racking I sold years ago. Shingles are leftovers from the house. I had to buy a bundle of hip and ridge. Siding and trim is all dog ear treated fence pickets. Siding is lapped and face nailed to capture both planks. Corners will overlap siding and tuck behind fascias. It's not finished because boards were out of stock for almost a year, and of course, I ran out. The doors are roughed in for a pair of 32" slabs. If I find something I like they'll go in as is. If not, they'll be cambered so the trim doesn't look nippy where it meets the fascia, and be simple tongue and groove pine, maybe with little windows if I have the ambition. It's on this year's to do list, but so are about a million other things.

Two years ago we trenched and installed 400' of drain tile in our yard. We dug up three different clay tile drainage lines running perpendicular to our trenches. All of them were packed solid with clay soil and sediment. My basement floor drain is glazed bell hub clay tile and is clear for over 200'. It's 152 years old.

I don't think the current push for walk and talks to replace SOP inspection is a good idea, but they should be an available alternative for folks that want a little advice but don't need an SOP inspection. I've done several for an investor buying distressed properties. She knows they are in rough shape, but doesn't always know how rough. I've done two for a union plasterer that knows what he knows and what he needs help with. It's wrong that a contractor can provide these kinds of consults but a professional consultant can't. We are in business to make money. Our associations and licensing bodies shouldn't be preventing us from doing so. Imagine we run lemonade stands, would you tolerate being forbidden from selling a glass of water?