Home inspection schools

[dlynde012]

Maybe some of you could help me out. I am seriously considering becoming a home inspector and I am looking for the best school in Arizona, not an online course. I want a hands on education. I have been looing at both Sun Tech and Kaplan (Inspector Training Associates). Do you have any opinions on either school,. or have any other suggestions. Thank you so much for your time. Dennis

[hausdok]

Umm,

Doesn't Doug Hansen teach at the Arizona Kaplan branch? If so, that would swing it for me in a second. No more discussion, nadda.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[JEuriech]

Dennis,

ITA overall has a very good reputation. They have recently expanded into Arizona and are just getting this school started. So far the instructors they have recruited are some of the best in the industry. They are very knowledgeable. I would expect the school to do very well.

Arizona SunTech started in Tucson and expanded into the Phoenix area. Arizona SunTech does offer you the opportunity to go out on inspections and do your required parallel inspections that in needed to become licensed. I don't know if ITA is set up to do this yet.

May I suggest that you go to a couple of local ASHI meetings prior to picking a school and talk to some of the experienced home inspectors there. I think you will get a ton of information that will help you to decide which school to attend.

The next ASHI meeting will be on September 8th and 9th and you are not required to be a member to go. More information can be obtained at the following web address: http://www.azashi.com/calendar_of_events.cfm

Jeff Euriech

Peoria, Arizona

[MelB]

Dennis,

I strongly agree with Jeff, go to an ASHI meeting or three before deciding on a school. You will get a lot of useful information by talking to your soon to be peers. Of course a NAHI or NACHI meeting would be good too, as everyone on this board loves all the groups. Cue fireworks...

[chrisprickett]

Dennis,

I'm the lead instructor at Arizona ITA, and I formerly taught at AZ SunTech. You can call me at 623 297 2557, if you have any questions.

[Jim Morrison]

Chris Prickett is comfortably placed in the top 1% of HI's in the country and is more than worth a phone call.

Jimmy

[homnspector]

I went through AZ sun tech course and was not impressed. Not a total waste of money but close. A.B. was late most days, one night didn't show up at all. Of course, Chris wasn't teaching at that time ...

[dlynde012]

Thank you all for your input. I would love to go to an ASHI meeting but I really want to get started on the course, and the meeting date is after the start of Sun Tech's course. I am gettingh the feeling though, that you all prefer ITA and Kaplan. By the way, ITA does offer a 30 parallel inspection program, but it is quite a bit more money than Sun Tech. i will just have to see if I can afford that. Thanks again, Dennis

[Brandon Chew]

I went to ITA here in NY. Here's my story in a nutshell:

-- I wanted to go to HI school even though it was not a requirement for me to do so.

-- There were many schools I could choose from; most were a good deal less expensive than ITA.

-- I wanted to learn it right the first time.

-- After some careful research I chose ITA.

-- I got what I paid for.

They know their stuff, they've been doing this a long time, and they hire excellent instructors.

Hope this helps. Brandon

[dlynde012]

Just as a follow up, I enrolled in ITA, paid my deposit, an was then told on Sept. 6th that they were not holding the class this month due to lack of registration! Their next course is in November. Sun Techs course for the month of Sept. started on the 5th.

I can't wait forever and ITA had their chance. To me this was very unprofessionally done. Dennis

[Scottpat]

Just as a follow up, I enrolled in ITA, paid my deposit, an was then told on Sept. 6th that they were not holding the class this month due to lack of registration! Their next course is in November. Sun Techs course for the month of Sept. started on the 5th.

I can't wait forever and ITA had their chance. To me this was very unprofessionally done.

Not to defend Kaplan/ITA but;

My son had a similar issue at his university this semester. He needs a particular math class, he enrolled and it was cancelled the first day of class due to lack of registration. It was too late for him to switch to another class that he needed so he will have to wait till it is offered again.

It's unfortunate that this happens, but it does.

[kurt]

Kaplan's made the move to become the pre-eminent education provideer & they are expanding so rapidly there are bound to be glitches.

I wouldn't call it unprofessional as much as I'd call it a problem of unbridled growth.

[hausdok]

It's economics. If you don't have enough folks registered to pay for the class, it will cost the school more to train those registered than it will to cancel class and pay the rent and overhead on staff and the building for that time period. I teach a class at a local community college. I know that I need to have at least 24 students registered, in order to justify my salary, or they won't offer the class.

All of the schools do it. Doesn't make it feel any better, but that's the way of it.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike