Actual Inspector Gross & Expenses

General Inspection Topics General Inspection Discussion
21

Here is what I say…screw me all and do it, think big big big.

Here is my advice. Keep your job and study study study…do some inspections for family., neighbors, friends any house any condition and practice. From start to finish. Have every family member be every personality and ask ever question they can think of.

Next hire the top 3 or 4 inspectors to come inspect your house and get a report and compare them. Find out what they are doing and be totally different. Don’t try to play catch up, play different. Think outside the box.

Since your off on weekends, become the weekend home inspection solution. We work weekends! Some people need an inspection on Sunday and numerous inspectors don’t work on Sundays…

T me the biggest problem is under capitalized. That’s why I say keep your job and do it on weekends.

You can make from $10,000 a year to $10,000,000 a year. Your the only roadblock from doing so…

22

No one here is going to divuldge exactly how much they make. To be honest I’m happy if I make enough to keep alive. I love this job it’s my passion and it allows me “freedom” from reporting to 8 hours of work and a boss… That’s why I started this well before I retire from the military which is in 5 months.

23

Thank you everyone for your input. It’s very helpful and I really appreciate it.

Hi Russ,

I know we’ve never spoken but you seem to have quite the reputation and a lot of peoples respect on these boards. That seems like a very valid way to start. I live in Washington and as I’m sure you know you must be licensed through one of there few approved courses. I think I’d like to study myself, do some inspections for friends and family as you’ve suggested (brilliant Idea by the way) and try to do some “job shadow” type jobs if I can find someone. I’d like to do this before I become licensed to see if it’s something I want to do as licensing would require me to take almost a month off work and pay all the fees to go to a class as the closest one is 3 hours away from me. I’d like to know it’s something I’m definitely interested in before doing that.

Who can recommend to me some good sources for studying outside of the licensing courses? I see that interNACHI seems to have quite the list of training available for free here on there site. I’m guessing quite a few members have gone through it. Would you recommend it for someone checking out the industry?

24

Two-a-day sure gets in the way of a lot of things I’ll bet… The way you tell it, it sounds more-&-more like a J-O-B, no? :stuck_out_tongue:

25

I don’t expect anyone to give me exact income, I can always hope someone will give me rough figures though. I understand you make what you put into it if you spend your time wisely. Every industry has it’s own ranges of income for effort though and that’s what I’m trying to get a feel for. I’m looking for part of what you’re describing (the freedom), I’d like it to help me pay for some toys as well, the more the better. I’ve always been a fan of work hard play hard.

26

Depends on where in Washington you are setting up business. If you are in Moses Lake, the numbers will be vastly different than in Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma, Ocean Shores or Vancouver.

Where will you be located? What is your background in inspecting / construction / or one of the trades?

Initial training for your license will run from $3000 to $4500 depending. You may also have a cost for the ride alongs. Some inspectors charge heavily for the ride alongs, some don’t charge at all. Initial license and test fees are $980. So you are in it for almost $5k without any tools, report software (or pre written reports), marketing, insurance, or anything other than your license.

$310 is real low for the average. I would put the minimum, except for the lowballers closer to $350. I can’t remember the last time I had an inspection under $400.

27

Nick,

Thank you for that, it’s always important to make sure that the “customer” feels that they are getting more out of the relationship. The article that you linked me to was great. That is an awesome idea and if I decide to take this road, I will definitely do a presentation as you’d suggested. There is nothing worse than a boring sales meeting, which makes them all the more powerful when everyone is expected to be dulled to sleep but instead they are brought to their feet. Brilliant marketing on your part.

It seems that you have a lot of experience and I’d be interesting in getting your opinion on where I should go to study more about the HI inspection industry?

28

to much to type it is all out in the open here somewhere. I have a broken foot now so i am not working. I am a G.C and specialized in Stucco in the good ole days I made $around 3 to 500,000. per year then. Lots have changed. You are young and strong now I am 43 not so easy when you are this age and you better put away a ton for retirement. Time with your little one cannot ever be replaced do not miss out on to much for a buck.

I get my cast tomorrow but should be home after 2 call me at 954-922-0584 and we can talk as long as you like. As anyone around here knows I am honest to a fault and will tell you how I feel. I truly wish you the best of luck but take me up on the call and you can bounce your ideas off of someone twice as old as you for free. I am much less a dick in person on the phone than here as a great many could tell you. :slight_smile:

29

Look at that, another Washingtonian. I live in Vancouver right now, but I want to end up in the Tri-cities. I would have to weigh the Pro’s and Con’s of starting a business somewhere that I’d eventually be moving away from. Either way, it is no Moses Lake.

I am expecting around $6-7k to get licensed as there are no schools in my area and I would have to spend nearly a month in Seattle. What could I expect to pay for start up costs after licensing (tools, insurance, etc…)? I’m glad to hear I was figuring on the low end of the price range.

As far as background in construction trades, zilch. I’ve help add on a laundry room, master bedroom and built a storage shed once :slight_smile: I have no knowledge of laws and ordinances and realize it would be A LOT of studying. Do you have any recommendations as to where to start studying?

30

Michael,

Sorry to hear about your foot, I hope it heals quickly. I really appreciate your offer and will definitely take you up on it. I love to learn and I know all I have is learning to do with regards to this.

32

Brother to me…learning is learning. Wether its in a class, on the internet or hands on training. It all has its up and downs. I prefer hands on to anything else. I mean hands on from the point of inspecting, customer relations, marketing and follow ups.

I read an earlier post of someone saying its about $5 without tools! OMG…is that super cheap or what? Your starting a BUSINESS…not a job. Thats where I personally think most go wrong. They treat it like a job and not a professional business. I have watched 3 individuals here go from, almost start to BOOM and its a freakin great thing. I really enjoy watching people I love make it. Each one of them will help. Their names are John Shishilla, Preston Halstead and Troy Pappas. Good people and met them all and would have them inspect my house hands down and they all have been in the business under 3 years.

Don’t let these people tell you that you need anything. You can learn ANYTHING, hell I did. I worked on Missiles and then went into this. Don’t let them BS you. I think Troy went from Banking to this or something.

If you really want to learn and find some interesting points of view and information. Go on inspector websites and pull their sample reports and read them. I mean READ them, see what they report on. How they word it. How they present it. How it is packaged. What terms they use. How they explain it. Then simply put ask yourself as a buyer which report would you want? Then instead of writing a report like someones, your actually combining the information of the BEST reports compiled.

Where is the best place to learn? Depends on how you like to learn and the best way you obsorb information. The amount of information a person must know to perform properly in this profession is absolutely mind boggling. The top people here are some pretty smart Mofos.

Look at Charley Botteger (spelling?) Jeff Pope, and even Billy Borner…he was absolutely ragged on when he was new, but he is steadfast and resilant in his desire to learn and has some thick skin.

Don’t ever set out to be the biggest, set out to be the best and most profitable. You know your company could perform 10,000 inspections a year and you can make $20,000 or you can do 500 and make $300,000…always keep that in mind. The biggest doesn’t mean the best or the most profitable…

33

I think it is reasonable to think an experienced inspector might be able to gross $70-to-80 K performing 200 inspections a year, but it will most likely take a few years to figure out how to accomplish that.

I’m not saying this is easy, but for those of us who treasure our freedom and independence more than money… It’s a great profession, no employees, no warehouse full of tools & material, no fleet of service trucks… Goin’ fishin’ any friggin’ time you want. I will do this business (my way) until I’m physically unable.

34

no one is arguing…go fishing…

35

I started out as a general contractor, owned a heating & cooling company and performed home inspections part time, just to make some extra beer money. Within several years my inspection company, I was making more money than my general contracting and my heating & cooling company combined.
So it is okay to start out inspecting part time to find out if this is for you. Do not quite your day job, until you get several months of living expenses set aside. You need to devote your yourself to education and marketing. If you can do both of these better than your competition, you will not have any competition.
Getting along with Realtors, who do not get paid unless the house sells, is the hardest part.

37

Hey P.I.

Whats you name? Sadly I’ve been thinking about you all night. Boy that does not sound good :frowning:

When I was your age I followed the money. I went and did what I saw those around me doing and they made the big bucks and had great lives. Practically did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. When they wanted something they bought it. No worries they just made more money to pay the bills.

I did not have a kid yet and had a awesome first life. I partied like a rock star, traveled and even was smart enough to pay off my first house and have not had a mortgage since for more than a few months at a pop when changing houses.

If I could go back in time to when I was your age knowing what I know I would go to school and become a Doctor most likely. Either a Surgeon or Chiropractor. I think they have good gigs if they do it right.

When I was young and saw friends join the Military, Police or Fire department i thought they were crazy. Why not just do what I do and work with builders give them great service make contacts and it was not just about being the lowest price. I did great.

Now those guys that I thought were crazy “the smart ones” took EVERY training opp that they could and tested for every promotion they could are sitting pretty.

Sure I had a lot more fun but again I did not have a child and only worried about me.

In the above public service careers if the Doctor thing is not for you you’ll bust your *** for a while but if you do as I suggested with the training and such you will advance quickly. Be a Fireman or paramedic and you can still inspect part time if you like.

Most importantly for your family you will get benefits which I never had and had to pay for myself. I pay over $16,000 a year for medical insurance with a $2500 deductible yearly. Hell maybe OBAMA CARE will fix it for you. I think it will help destroy our nation but that is another discussion.

Most of the guys that went into public service after school are either retired or way up in rank. If you choose that route take advantage of every educational opportunity they offer you and you’ll go far.

To be in the home inspector biz you basically will be being a laborer unless you go multi inspector firm but you must first gain experience and you may not make it.

I am truly trying to tell you what I would do differently now if I had a chance to go back in time. I wish you the best in life and at least give some thought to what i suggest.

Time flys by and you must figure out how to protect yourself and your family when you are old. Consider pre pay college for your child. My parents gave that gift to my child when she was born and it was the best financial investment I have seen. The cost have risen to unbelievable prices from when they purchased it ans my little one is only almost seven.

Save, Save, Save, do not go into debt and listen to Dave Ramsey on the radio once or twice and you may hear a few good ideas.

I am not a very religious person but i know that a great many churches offer his program Financial Peace University and I really believe in his theories although i am not currently following them.

He has a quote. Live like no one else now so later you can live like no one else.

Best of luck to you and please feel fee to call me anytime.

38

Hi Michael,

I really appreciate your thoughts. There is a lot of wisdom in what you said.

I have thought about the medical field in depth, but have decided against it because of the ObamaCare that you mentioned. I think the direction the country is headed is not so good for the medical doctors. I know several dentists and orthodontists, 2 doctors and a physical therapist, all of which have advised me not to get into the field at this point. If it was to remain the same as it has in the past, I would be all over it. With legislation being passed left and right that is designed for medical practitioners to be paid less, I can only imagine what the field will look like as I get into my old age. I could be wrong but that scares me so I’ve decided to steer clear of it.

I have also thought of public service fairly seriously and have intentions of becoming a public servant in my older age as a state representative or similar. As much help as we need, I don’t like the idea of career politicians and want to steer clear of that as I don’t think that is how our system was designed to be run. My brother-in-law is a State Trooper, who has taken every opportunity to increase his salary (SWAT team, Bachelors Degree, Bike Cop, etc…) and does fairly well, well above average I would say. Has incredible benefits without a doubt, but still looking for more. It’s something I’ve considered as well as he basically could guarantee me a position as a state trooper if I wanted through his connections. It is a similar situation it seems though maxing out around $90k in my area. Still employed by the now unsteady government (which hasn’t increased trooper pay at all in 5 years).

The benefits are tempting, but in my experience so far with J-O-B-S is that employers are only willing to pay you as little as possible to keep you around. I don’t think that I want to be a part of the rat race of typical employment.The only reason someone would have to employ you is because they are making more off of you worker than you cost. I would rather earn my full wages compared to what someone can scrape by paying me. I think that the “security” offered by these private or public sector jobs is very false, which is why I only intend to enter public service once I’ve become independently wealthy. Although that may be hard as wealth has been demonized, demonstrated by the recent presidential election. The reason I’m looking into this field is because you certainly seem to have the freedom to go as big or stay as small as you want depending on your own ambitions.

I understand your concern with family, as I’m concerned as well. I don’t want life to pass me by, my daughter is only 3 but it’s ridiculous as it seems she was born last week. However, I want to provide an above average lifestyle for my daughter and make sure that she has had opportunities and experiences that others only dream of. I need to get this done now to prevent me becoming older and saying I should have done more. I know Dave Ramsey’s teachings well, I’ve gone through his total money makeover book 3 times now and am still taking baby steps but am trying to follow the plan, as it makes incredible sense. I haven’t taken the opportunity to take his FPU course locally but intend to do so, hopefully in the near future. I fully intend to live like no one else, as I currently am. My family is the reason for my drive for success, not the excuse for it’s absence as some use it (not you).

My name is Parker, I’m sure as I continue my studies into the field, you’ll hear more from me. I’m going to be taking advantage of the opportunity to talk with you and bounce some ideas off of you. It’s always good to get the ideas that have been tried and tested (bad or good) from someone with experience. Hope all is well and your foot gets better.

39

My girlfriend has been a Realtor for over ten years. She even gets tried having to fight the Realtor on the other side from screwing over her client. I am not talking about hard negotiations.

I do not have much time personally to take you around, but if you want I bet Steve Wessler (A NACHI member that helps me) will take you around. Steve can take you around the Lake Ozark area, where I have not went office to office yet. We will appreciate the help.

40

I will take you up to a small real estate office that the Realtors seem nice and I get along with. But there is one Realtor there that after Steve inspected one of her houses with me, I had to promise Steve I would never make him deal with her again. Steve has never made me promise him that in all the years I have know him. The last I heard, this office is using all uncertified inspectors. If you can get that office back, you are the man!