can I do a home inspection?

Jim since we are both in Ohio and fairly close we may both be under the same home inspecting rules, has a client ever took you to court for a wrong opinion or is it not stressful like that in our area there seems to be a lot of horror stories about getting sued

Greg, you can get sued for anything, all it takes is a complaint and filling out a couple of forms.

I don’t live in fear of lawsuits but they are real and not always of merit.
Go for your goals knowing you can be sued but don’t hold yourself back, just be careful and learn, learn, learn.

InterNachi is a forum for any inspector who joins, your gonna meet some great guys here and some trolls. Same as on Linkedin or Facebook. Stick with the guys that pay it forward and you’ll do fine. You can return the help when you get more experienced.

Sounds to me that you haven’t met the minimum requirements set out in your “requirements” area regarding five (5) inspections performed prior to paid inspections. If you don’t have a program for reporting already in use and you have no means to create a report how were you intending to get this under your belt… Pass the job onto someone else and join in. There’s and old saying:
“There is no substitute for experience”.
There are standards you may still need some clarification on… If you are capable, which it sounds likely you are, get your experience. You should understand that being a carpenter… Right?

I made you invisible everywhere including www.nachi.org/directories.htm

You were smart to take your time. There is no reason to rush things. Follow in Michael Meeker’s footsteps. He takes every continuing education course he can and reads every book I send him. He had a little advantage over many inspectors in that he was already an experienced general contractor. Construction experience is helpful, but not if you are doing it wrong over and over. So go here www.nachi.org/education.htm and attack every course on that page.

Hi Greg,

First of all you should go to your control panel above and fill in your profile, as you have already seen people really need to know where your from to be able to help you the best.

Some advice, as Nick stated, take as many courses here as you can and understand what you’re reading.

Don’t be afraid to come here and ask questions, any questions. We all were in your shoes at one point in time and only stupid people either don’t ask questions or think they know it all. Nobody knows it all, but there is a vast amount of knowledge here covering all aspects of a home.

Be sure you perform a few “practice inspections” on your own house and ask family & friends if you can do a mock inspection on their house, this is to get a system & an inspection process flow in place.

In Ohio it is a requirement to be licensed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture to perform WDI (Wood Destroying Insect) inspections, it is also against the law to call out the presence, absence or damage caused by WDI unless your licensed. If you’re not licensed and run across WDI damage, just call it out as damage. In these parts I see Termite, Powder Post Beetle, Carpenter Bee & Carpenter Ant damage.

The same goes for Radon. Legally, unless licensed, you’re not supposed to talk about Radon or Radon mitigation systems. The Ohio Department of Health controls that license.

Feel free to call me anytime with any questions or if you’d just like to talk about the business.

I used to keep my boat at Anchor Point, which is in Curtice, not to very far from you.

Part of being a HOME INSPECTOR is dealing with the daily situations that arise.

Experience has taught me many areas of the inspection industry.

Ex 1. You drive 50+ miles to set up a radon test and agent finds there is no key and asks you come back tomorrow.

Ex 2. Picky clients calling asking you out of the ordinary questions. Like do you test every outlet in a 10,000 square foot house.

Ex 3, Buyer, seller, both agents, family members all present at inspection. Seller is confrontational from the start.

Ex 4, utilities are stated to be on and upon arrival they are off.

Ex 5. There is a hummer parked under the garage attic access opening.

There are so many situations that come up and need to be addressed in a professional manner.

HOW much is an inspection, how do you fix this, how much does it cost, would you buy this house. How old is that rodent turd?

Ask yourself these questions:
Is my company ready to do business,
Im I ready to represent my company with knowledge and skill, which I have learned.
do I have all the paper work in place to start working.
ie - agreements for all different inspections?
- insurance, E&O?
- inspection program?
- etc……

Ditto!!!
You have just proven how smart you are by education then asking yourself and others if your ready. Keep walking to the start line you’ll be happy you did and as my old saying goes “slow is fast”.