Home Inspection Schools: What are some good ones?

http://www.arbutusinspectiontraining.com/

Joe Mahr is another longtime inspector and good friend. Like Alan I’ve known Joe for at least 12 years or so and had dinner at various national seminars with him. Should be good instructor.

Amen to that.

Sorry I missed that. Glad someone could help though. :slight_smile:

I attended AHIT, over all great 6 day class, paid $1495 plus hotel and meals. I would recommend this to everyone, 1 thing they taught and stressed on was to inspect and report on heat exchangers, gas leak testing, and co2 levels. They also taught the importance of dates and age of equipment and roof coverings, not sure why when that is out of our scope? AHIT has a great startup packages for you also to start your own business and they’re support at anytime in super. 1 thing is for sure is that it’s good to see that your interested in attending schooling, I personally think every inspector should have to go thru a credited schooling to qualify them before calling themselves a certified inspector.

Brian,

Remember that many come to this field with a good degree of knowledge or experience (some with decades of experience) in construction, engineering, building trades, etc. While much of this may be ew to you, it may be old hat to some.

Blanket requirements for education overlook that many have hands-on experience that far surpasses a few days in a classroom. Similarly, experience requiremetns overlook that classroom education can provide a variety of topics, and updated information not always accounted for “in the field”.

Both are excellent, but neither should be mandated provided a necessary degree of expertise has been demonstrated.

I was never schooled, but had years of field experience. However, I did attend a lot of dinner meetings at various chapters and always managed to learn something. Had to excuse the power-plays, personal attacks, and rumor mongering as “politics as usual,” but still worth the price of admission.

I attended American Home Training Institute and was very pleased with the classes and teachers. They can set you up with everything to get you going at a resonsable cost. Tools, Bussiness cards, Brochures,Web sites, Report forms, Reporting Software all on top of good training and classes. And excellent support network.

Kenton -

PITI in KAnsas City (www.homeinspectiontraining.net)

Hey Guys,

In Atlanta, GA I am an instructor for their HI Class at AREA www.education-area-ga.com

Not that I am biased but this is a great 1st HI course.

The reason for learning how to determine dates of equipment is that you can get a reasonable estimate on its age. In addition, if there is a recall for the equipment, it’s usually isolated between certain dates of manufacture.

I went to AHIT too. It was a good training since I wasn’t able to afford the time to go to ITA in Oceanside at the time. Remember, the primary purpose of the HI schools is to produce income by providing you source for getting the training. If you turn out to be a good HI, then that’s secondary to them. They don’t really make any more money from you individually if you’re a good or bad HI.

Did any of the HI school mention what the survival rate of new HIs are in the training? It’ll vary from area to area. In Northern California, we have AHIT and ITA pumping out brand new green home inspectors as fast as they can fill the classes. Consequently, I personally think that the number of home inspectors in my area exceeds the number needed to service the area.

Don’t forget that 10% of the realtors make 90% of the transactions and they aren’t going to change their choice(s) of who they refer to their clients just because you show up in their office with a shiny new business cards. It will take a lot of marketing effort for any new home inspector to enter into a already competitive market.

The Ontario Trade Academy in Toronto is very good.
I would highly recommend it to anyone!!! :smiley:

Website is out of date. Waterman works for Boeing. Arbutus, by name no longer exists. The classes are now run by Bellingham Technical College and are done in various communities around Washington. I took this course and found it to be very good.

I second that. Stan Harbuck is one of the best. We performed two complete home inspections at the end of the course; and we saw hundreds of examples of system defects. Stan gives it to you straight.

AHIT, American Home Inspectors Training. Do the hands on so you at least have a clue what you are doing when you start out. And the 2 day marketing class. Well worth it.

America’s Real Estate Academy, Inc. (AREA), in Atlanta has a very informative class, and reasonably priced.

“I need to asemble a list of home Inspection schools for the US and Canada. Here’s what I have so far (question mark means I’d welcome comments), If you know of others that you think are good, please post them…”

Hi,

The Arbutus program had always been operated under the auspices of Bellingham Technical College. As of earlier this year, BTC has fully taken over the program. Information regarding the BTC program is available in other parts of this forum. Thanks.

Steven Smith
Program Coordinator

Midwest Inspectors Institute
514 Delaware Street
Leavenworth, KS 66048
i.e., Kansas City suburb
Local: 913-680-1757

Toll Free: 800-305-1520

Fax: 913-680-1758

E-Mail: info@midwestinsp.com
Web: www.midwestinsp.com

Texas

www.buildingprofessionalinstitute.com

www.championsschool.com

EIFS/Stucco

http://www.exterior-design-inst.com/

http://www.awci.org/