Possible career change at 50.

[sgille]

I have been looking for a career change for a while and would like to be self employed again and have often though about doing home inspection in the past. I have been a maintenance manager of an industrial plant for the last 9 years and truly hate my job but there are bills to pay so I get up every day and take care of business. I guess my question is to the guys that have been doing HI for a while is, are you making a good living and how hard is it to get stated and what training courses are good to start with.

Thanks for any feed back in advance and hope to be answering question for other on this forum years down the road.

[hausdok]

Well,

This is a tough gig and it's even tougher to get started in. It's not so hard to start up a HI business but once you've hung out your shingle, getting the work is pretty tough for a newbie. Then it takes about two to three years of being in the red before you can garner enough steady work to ensure you make a profit every month.

Now, that's the normal reality. Here's a dose of reality. Since the recession began, this profession's numbers have probably dropped by at least 30%. People who were in business for decades had to close their doors. I know one guy who has been in business since 1989. When the bubble burst he had to sell one of his investment properties a couple of years ago to pay his bills. He didn't get anywhere near what the property was worth and he's barely hung in there. Now they say we're heading into another housing slump.

Unless you have enough to tide you over, this recession is the worst possible time that you'll be getting into this gig.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Steven Hockstein]

"" "" ""

Grass is greener.....

[Phillip]

Like Mike said we all know folks that was in the business for a long time that has closed their doors and no longer doing inspections.

Some of us took on jobs to help make ends meet.

If you will do an search you will find a lot of topics on starting out.

[Marc]

There's no school to prepare you for a career as a home inspector. All you will find is schools of a few weeks or so that meet regulatory requirements. Accomplished inspectors have necessarily taught themselves the profession and industrial plant management won't contribute much towards a career in home inspection. I've been there. That's one reason it's so tough getting started in this gig.

Another reason is that you'll likely need to start your own business. Most inspectors are one-man shops. You won't find an abundance of home inspection employers out there taking applications. You'll have to learn all about running a business, managing advertising, what works, what doesn't, the ethics problem, etc. There's a lot involved.

Do it because you love the work, don't do it for just the money. It's a poor provider unless you toss ethics out the window.

None of the guys here stand to make money by encouraging you to join the profession so they're telling it like it is. Home inspector associations or franchises will have a different story.

Marc

[Scottpat]

Yes, this is a great profession. As with any self employed business it takes time to build your business. It also depends a great deal on the area you live in. I'm fortunate to be in an area that is going strong and homes are selling and being built.

Before I made the switch I would check on just how many homes are being sold and how many home inspectors are in the area. Keep in mind that about 30%-40% of the home sales will have an inspection.

At one time SC had a bunch of inspectors in it due to their easy license law. You need to check on that..

[John Kogel]

One more bit of info, maybe unsubstantiated - 20% of the inspectors in your town get 80% of the work.

Performing inspections and reporting are the easy parts. Marketing your biz and getting consistent results is the hard part.

[Tom Raymond]

That's the second reference to the 80/20 rule I've seen today. Painfully true.

[Phillip]

I guess that I'm part of the 80% that only gets 20% of the work.