InterNACHI is seeking input from experienced professionals across the industry to create a co prehensive Jog Task Analsysis (JTA) for the home inspecture industry. A JTA helps define the essential knowledge, skills, and tasks required for home inspectors to perform their job effectively. The results of this survey will guide training programs, certification requirements, and develop new assessments. This JTA aims to identify the qualities of a minimally competent homeinspector; essentially, what is the minimum level of knowledge and responsibilities that one needs to do a home inspection correctly. Your responses will help establish a clear framework that supports current and future home inspectors.
This survey should take approximately 30 minutes or less to complete. All responses will remain confidential and will be analyzed collectively.
Thank you for your time and expertise in advancing the home inspection profession!
i tried to take it but the way the second question was listed i couldn’t answer it. decks are required to be inspected in wv, so it would be very important and daily, but it was listed with other things that are not, like sheds which are not required to be inspected so that would be not at all and never inspected for me. hard to split it up like that.
First, thank you so very much for looking at the survey. It’s so important for us to have a sense of what home inspectors are doing as an everyday/ every month, etc part of their inspections.
While the questions are grouped together by subject matter, like exterior attachments like decks or sheds, each question is distinct and independent from the others. We can look at and answer each question individually, in addition to as part of a subject group.
Put another way, you absolutely can answer that decks is a “daily”(every inspection) for you while something like a shed is not. In fact, we strongly encourage you to out things within a category when there is that much difference in importance between individual inspected items.
If you have any more questions or difficulties, please let me know and myself or someone from Education will assist.
Over 250 inspectors had their voice heard just last night!! WOW! Thank you so much, it’s truly essential that we hear from “boots on the ground” as we plan future exams and trainings.
Thank you for filling out the survey! I could bore you to death with the science behind these surveys and why they’re built the way they are, but most briefly - if you felt that everything included was necessary as part of a home inspection, the group of subject matter experts who helped create this survey did their job well! They outlined what they believe is essential for home inspector competency, but the only way to validate that information is to have as many other actively practicing inspectors agree (or disagree). So again, thank you! You’re proving the process and invaluable to the creation of a new home inspector exam.
Thank you so much for completing the survey! I know the format is different from what we’re often used to in surveys, but is for good reason. There is a mathematical formula where if you take how often a task is done and how important that task is (or isn’t), you get what’s called a “criticality scale”. Some inspection tasks, if you fail to perform them have the potential for very real harm and significant safety issues. In the exam world, you can weight those questions more heavily compared to tasks that don’t have as much potential harm. For example, failing to note the presence of aluminum wiring can have a more significant impact on a client than failing to inspect a detached shed overhead light. There is always room for debate, but generally this is what the science of exam writing has told us. I hope that helps explain it a little more and thank you again for completing the survey!
I don’t need a reply, but “Inspect and describe any unused electrical panel(s) and unsealed openings” sounds like two different focuses during the electrical inspection. I think I know what an unsealed opening is, (no cover on a junction box, for instance, or no blanking plate on an empty breaker knockout.) But what is an unused panel? I had a panel I wasn’t using and gave it to my brother for his new workshop. That was an unused panel. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I don’t mind responding. Being on a forum again reminds me of being in high school 100 years ago heh.
You’re spot on with what “unsealed openings” were meant to imply. An “unused electrical box” was debated at length with our panel of subject matter experts and ultimately they decided to include it in the survey with an implied definition of “any non-function electrical box found on the property”. There was concern that if they specified “main electrical panel” it would be too specific to include any of those oddball cases you find where you should note in a report you found an electrical box, but it’s not necessarily serving it’s intented purpose.
Thank you for letting me know the term was unclear; I will inform the subject matter experts as they are very eager to see feedback and results from the inspection industry at large. They staked their reputations on this in some ways.
I wanted to make sure you saw what the implied definition of an “unused electrical panel” was. I’m going to speak with the subject matter experts and let them know that it wasn’t as clear as we would’ve liked.
I started this survey and can’t get past the second question. The questions are written oddly, to me. It is important to inspect everything, but not always comment on, especially if there are no issues. Clients don’t read much of the report as is. Things that are important for safety concerns should always be inspected where visible and readily accessible and noted if tested or not tested (where applicable) such as receptacles, steps, and handrailing. The only flaw that I have found in the current SOP is that the “Inspector shall describe the type of wiring…” and yet, we are not required to pull the electrical cover plate (dead panel), which is the best and many times, the only way to do so.
If you are attempting to complete the survey on a phone, due to the way the questions have to be organized, you have to scroll left and right to answer the second half of the question in order to progress. I highly recommend using a table or a computer.
This survey is rather unlike most of the surveys we’re familiar with taking. They often only happen once a decade and it’s specifically to confirm the tasks and responsibilities (JTA) of an entire industry (in this case home inspectors). We’ve contracted with a psychometrician who is guiding how we ask questions to guide how we might write future exams and they have their own industry best practices that we’re following for this project.
