Home Inspection in NYC?

[jmlcarpenter]

Hello

My name is Jamel Carpenter and I am new to this forum. I am considering becoming a home inspector. I am was just wondering how the real estate market affects my clientele? I'm not so sure how the market is here in New York, but the prices to buy homes are high in some areas. Do you think that taking up a career in home inspection would be a good idea for someone living in NYC, like myself? I am in my mid 20's if that matters.

[Scottpat]

Originally posted by jmlcarpenter

Hello

My name is Jamel Carpenter and I am new to this forum. I am considering becoming a home inspector. I am was just wondering how the real estate market affects my clientele? I'm not so sure how the market is here in New York, but the prices to buy homes are high in some areas. Do you think that taking up a career in home inspection would be a good idea for someone living in NYC, like myself? I am in my mid 20's if that matters.

First you need to realize that it will take a few years to build up your business. You will need money to live on and to keep your business going during this building period.

As for the location, it all depends if folks are buying homes. This price of homes has little to do with anything. It all depends if the homes selling!

You need to check on the licensing requirements for NY.

As for your age. It has been my experience that the younger a person is the more difficult time they have getting folks to realize that they know what they are talking about. I guess you could call it The Experience Factor. It is the perception that an older person has more knowledge and experience.

My son-in-law has experienced this with his HI business, he's heading back to managing a department in a big box retail store and he is 27.

[hausdok]

Hi Jamel,

Welcome to TIJ. I personally think that this profession needs a lot more young men and women of your general age group. However, it would be a shame if, at your age, you followed the typical pattern of entry into this profession and went to one of these ridiculous 10-day schools and then hung out a shingle. In that case, your age will probably work against you because you will appear to be inexperienced compared with your contemporaries.

The simple fact is, we don't need any more 10-day wonders (which I am) in this business. The profession needs people with an education, people who have critical thinking skills, people who can write, people who understand building science, and physical sciences in general, and people who're trained in how to run businesses. There's a lot more to it than simply doing a home inspection and the reasons that so many fail have a lot more to do with the stuff unrelated to home inspection than anything else; stuff like taxes, and managing books, and dealing with customers properly, and being able to plan one's time properly, etc., etc.

We need people with college degrees to come into the profession as interns. We need them to learn the home inspection side of the business from experienced inspectors while at the same time enhancing the businesses of established inspectors with their business training and skills. We need them to have a vision of the future for the profession and not simply be focused on bagging as much cash as possible in the shortest time possible so they can pull out of the business as soon as possible. We need a system where magazine ads will no longer tout the ridiculous lie, "full-time pay for part-time work," that currently draws so many into the profession only to see more than 3/4 of them fail within two to five years.

We need those young folks to mature in the profession, gradually take the reins, and then reform it into a true discipline with a single set of professional standards that requires rigid testing and peer review to enter, so that 20 - 25 years from now it will no longer be possible for the profession to be the dumping ground for every vocational rehab program in the country.

Whether or not you can be successful in NYC will depend on whether you can get the necessary training and experience to allow you to obtain a New York State license and then whether you can manage to survive the current down-turn in the housing sector that's presently putting a lot of folks in the construction sector - and some home inspectors - out of work.

If you haven't got at least a two-year degree, I'd suggest hanging tough for a while longer and going back to school and packing on some business courses and anything else that can be applied to the home inspection sector, and getting that degree, before jumping into this business. We're already top-heavy with old farts like myself who are only in it for the short term. If we don't start thinking long term and getting new blood that's better educated than we are, we're never going to be able to elevate the status of the profession to a true discipline.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike