I would have said yes city occupational and county tax cert.
Has anyone noticed that Grandfathering provisions must of been in place prior to today, 7/1/10
they were
In other words, none of the 120 inspections can take place after today. Doubtful anyone in FL could get 120 inspections between now and March 1st. This could get real interesting when all the semi trucks from UPS and
FedEx rolls up to DBPR with reams of reports. I can finally use my iNachi discount for FedEx…cool.
The application is there and I just downloaded it…
The app was there at midnight but pearson did not add there link until after 8:00 am
For the cost of copying 120 reports plus postage and your time,
You could take InterNACHI Exam, have a nice dinner, and be done with it.
My application was sent in todays mail.
Maybe I’ll be able to advertise that I was the FIRST licensed Home Inspector in Florida. LOL (but only in business for 1 month).
Dennis P. Quigley
HomeSpector, LLC
And therin lies one of the biggest problems with this whole licensing law.
i hear u, but individuals that opt to get into this business still need to have the proper skills and education to be successful. Although a State License may give them some initial undue credit, that will be short lived if their service is sub-par. Word of mouth, whether it’s good or bad spreads fast in my county.
Tell me how NACHI is helping this business by more than doubling its numbers in the past six months. The success rate of passing the “proctored” test is over 90%. Only one person failed to pass in Hallandale. NACHI has become nothing more than an inspector mill for inspectors who have no place else to go. How many of these guys have been “in business for less than a month”. Our market has been flooded with guys who know nothing about home inspections, but are able to pass a test. Then they pound their chests and think they have the right to go out and do four points and wind mitigation inspections. The integrity of your business is being compromised.
I do believe the proctored exam is a bit weak, and i tend to agree with you that NACHI appears to be an inspector mill at the moment. I took the exam without opening a book like most probably. Even though I am new to NACHI, I do not consider myself one of the monkeys pounding their chest. I have paid my dues throughout the years having been involved in related fields -Contractor, Structural Engineering, Property Adjusting and Real Estate. My decision to become a home inspector draws from my knowledge in these fields and what i can offer because of this knowledge. I still have a problem trying to understand why or how the licensing has flooded the market with home inspectors. I’m not saying that it isn’t, I just don’t see the connection. Before licensing you could just get a name and start doing inspections, if you could get the jobs. Much simpler than taking an easy proctored exam – and less expensive. I believe that the market is flooded due to Contractors (like myself) needing to diversify since there is no construction work out there. I have always offered home inspections as well as other consulting services, just didn’t call myself a home inspector. I guess time will tell how the new licensing will effect existing home inspection co.
**William, I can’t agree with you more. **
That would be a valid point if your facts were straight. But you are incorrect.
First: The state did not rely on the passing of a proctored exam for grandfathering. It required membership in a state or national association that, among other things, required passing a proctored exam. Although it is true that Florida InterNACHI used a proctored exam, one cannot join Florida InterNACHI (and therefore does not qualify for grandfathering) without first joining InterNACHI. Membership in InterNACHI is a requirement to join Florida InterNACHI. And membership in InterNACHI requires this: www.nachi.org/membership.htm No other inspection association on earth has more rigorous membership requirements except for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Add on top of that the proctored exam that Florida InterNACHI required. And then add on top of that the additional state requirements.
Second: Everyone who passed our proctored was an existing InterNACHI member who had already passed it unproctored. So why would you think many should fail? You make no sense. The existing inspectors who passed… already passed earlier. And since the time they passed it unproctored, they also had access to all our free education. So why would you expect them to now fail. The 60% who failed (link takes a few moments to open) were never permitted to join InterNACHI and so moved on to ASHI (which has no entrance requirements at all). Would you expect people with valid drivers licenses who passed their driver’s exam when they were 16, to now fail if they had to take their driver’s exam again? The only person to fail Florida InterNACHI’s proctored exam twice in a row was a Florida state-licensed General Contractor.
Third: As for InterNACHI’s membership numbers increasing, this is true. But it is true across the planet. InterNACHI membership increased, right through the recession, in nearly all states, while every other state and national inspection association (with vastly varying requirements) lost members… every one of them. We gained members in licensed states, states considering licensing, and states with no licensing. We gained members in the U.S, Asia, Africa, Canada, and in 55 countries. We gained more already-licensed inspectors in licensed states than any other time in our history. We now have more P.E.s than ever before. We have more code-officials now than ever before. The number of courses, quizzes and exams we administer continues to increase too. And the amount of traffic we handle continues to increase. It is silly to attribute InterNACHI’s continued worldwide growth on the recent Florida home inspector licensing law (which BTW, we didn’t author).
Two words… Instant Credibility!! (cough, cough).
A license in hand, makes everyone equal in the consumers eye.
What’s the difference between an inspector with one day experience and 25 years experience??? Who cares!!! They both have a license, so the State says they are equally qualified.
Ditto.
Which is why InterNACHI’s members as a percentage of all licensed inspectors increases everywhere licensing is adopted. Once licensing is adopted and everyone has the exact same state-issued credential… everyone is sent back to square one and then it becomes an all out marketing race. On your mark, get set, go!!! Best marketer wins in licensed states.
I hear what you are saying, and agree to some extent that many unscrupulous inspectors may benifit that way. But I also don’t think that the general public is aware enough to read that much into the license issue. A good portion of inspections are done on the referral basis through insure agents and realtors, who will weed out these underachieving inspectors that are riding on the industries coattail. I can tell you that when i decided to start my home inspection business a few months ago, i was very confused with the licensing requirements or lack of. I would go on line and see inspection companies in Florida advertising themselves as licensed and insured ---- then i would read how the industry is unregulated and there is no licensing requirement, or for that matter, no license available. People will always try to find a way to beat the system, and in the case i just mentioned they are referring to there occupational license as if it were a State License. My point is that although many may try to take advantage of the “instant credibilty” that the new license may offer, they still have to perform or they won’t last. I think everyone is overreacting just a little bit out of fear. Its human nature to feel threatened by change. It will pass and the strong will prevail.
I agree to a point…
Butt…
As the “weak” drop out, a new batch of “graduates” will take their place. Each cycle, the prices that the “market will bear” drops, due to the ‘weak’ lowering prices, trying to survive.
Get back to us in another year or two, and let’s see if you’ve changed your mind.
Yes. But having steered InterNACHI members through many states that have adopted licensing, I can assure you that the strength needed, after licensing, is more marketing than credential (in part because the credential issue is resolved by the state).
Once licensing is adopted anywhere, my focus changes dramatically in that state. My job in Florida now is to provide licensed InterNACHI members with many competitive advantages over licensed non-members, such that over time, InterNACHI members prevail. And BTW, the staffers here at InterNACHI are pretty good at that. 
I think the real fustration lies with what we see daily.
Some of the ‘bad elements’ of the Florida inspection industry have not been pushed out by licensing requirements. (Something that Contractor licensing does do with it’s tough requirements.)
Simply joining NACHI, passing the test, and your grandfathered in. Nothings changed.
Now that grandfathering has ended, above and beyond the 120 hours of education, passing of the proctored exam, getting a criminal background check and fingerprints, acquiring general liability insurance, and paying the licensing fee… what more would you like to see?
I don’t think we can complain too much here. And give the Department a little break, they didn’t author the law, they are just implementing it.