i really want to be a home inspector ...

[Jim Morrison]

Well Erol,

Just because I talk a lot, don't think I'm an authority on what it takes to make it in the HI business. Plenty of folks flop out at various stages of their careers, but the ones who have the best chance are the ones who honestly review and reinforce their weaknesses for the rest of their careers. Maybe it isn't so different from other professions...

Bill,

Please bring your son to IW next year so I can tell him all about my support group for sons who learned the HI business from their Dads. Talking about it is the first stage of the healing process.

[Brian G]

Originally posted by bjloden

Then Marvin needs to know that the cost to run this business after you have paid for education is not trivial. Insurance will eat up a lot of resources as will advertising. A website is a must. Licenses and professional dues are piled on. Then there is the cost of continuing education. Reporting systems are a must, and home books or software don’t come cheap. You have got to have a computer and all of the software.

Bottom line, knowing what I know now, I would not try to get into this business. Of course I’ve invested too much time and money to get out now.

I couldn't help grinning at those parts, having lived them not very long ago. By the time I found out what it was really going to cost me to get my new business off of the ground, it was too late to bail out or I would have.

If you're in a state with anything approaching serious legislation it isn't cheap to keep one going either. I just sent in the final payment on this years' E & O, with 6 months left before I have to do it all again. There are licenses, fees, dues, expenses, etc. on a never-ending rotation, you simply have to learn to plan and cope.

I get a call or two a month from people who ask me how to go about becoming a home inspector. If they're not in my area I'll talk to them, at length. If they are in my area I send them to the state's website, and warn them about that first years' E & O cost (being helpful, you understand). I'm a nice guy, but I'm not an idiot.

Brian G.

Generous, But Not to a Fault [:-mischievous]

[kurt]

Cost of an HI business startup is still amazingly cheap by the standards of modern business finance. Try opening up a small retail outlet, or worse, how about a small mfg. business? One of my close friends is in the woodworking industry; he's got a 6 man shop (tiny by modern standards) & builds custom cabinets for the wealthy, big corporate board rooms etc.

His new table saw was $57,000; that's one table saw. The rest of his equipment rounds out to somewhere around $500,000. His building is a cool $750,000. He's a small fry.

Little or no barrier to entry is part of the problem w/ maintaining professional fees & practices. Anyone can get in, so they get in. Of course, they are often the same remodeling contractors who couldn't ever figure out what a margin is, or whether they were making money or not. So of course, they run their new HI biz the same way. If money is passing through their hands, they figure they're making it.

It's a cheap biz to enter; not so cheap, or easy, to stay in.