I recently started the Home Inspection Standards of Practice course. I found in the exterior section that “inspect the exterior course” is part of the certificate program.
I completed the exterior course program, but have not completed the Home Inspections Standard of Practice course. Should I complete the practice course first before starting the courses like the exterior course program and others ?
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That’s a good place to start, but you can take the courses in any order.
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You need to take the Standards Course, and memorize it before you do anything else as a new inspector!
Everything you do is associated with the standards.
Other courses are not going to affect your liability, like the Standards requirements. It will also help to prevent stupid questions here. The certified courses help you meet your state continuing education requirement, but they are not standards. They are opinions of how you do on site inspection. They may or may not be correct in your location. Standards are definitive which can get you fined, sued, or suspended in your state.
Standards are not how to inspect. They are what you must do in every inspection report, and what you are not required to do as an inspector. When you get a complaint, which you will get if you’re around long enough, the “Standard” determines if you’re at any fault and is your defense when replying to these complaints.
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I agree, Standards should be your 1st. next best would be tackle what your strong suit is, and finish up with what your weak area is so you can dedicate more time on it .
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Thanks, Patrick
Thanks for your feedback, it does make sense to have the Standards requirement engrained in memory.
here we go
I’ve working through the course for the past week for my “pre-license” certificate. I wasn’t until about 5 minutes ago that I realized there was a course for SOP. I wish that was the first course listed in the 120 hour courses. In fact, it is not listed at all. Taking it now. 
Yes, the SOP is important.
Hello everyone. Ruben here. Wrapped up the Standards of Practice course and I found great value in it! This is surely the place to start as it outlines the do’s and don’ts of inspections.
I am continuing with the additional courses, but I do look forward to referring back to SOP course and SOP’s themselves. Thank you.
Good luck with your studies Ruben. If you are in a state that requires licensing, make sure you compare their SOP with interNACHI’s. Many will vary to a certain extent.
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Thomas,
Thank you for your comments and direction. I am located in California, which does not does not have a state licensing at this time. That said, I am welcoming all the training I can obtain along with help from fellow inspectors to ensure the best business practices are carried out.
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I had a question to the group. I was on the fence of starting a home inspection business and a handymen business. Per the SOP- I don’t want a conflict of interest, especially when it comes to going through the inspection process. I would assume, the best practice is to have two separate business and have no connection at all to each other?
I was trying to hit 2 birds with 1 stone…but I dont think, that will be possible
I do both, same company. I don’t inspect what I repair or repair what I inspect.
I’m de-emphasizing the repairs as the inspections are keeping me busy but it’s taken 3 years to get to the point that I’m routinely turning down repairs.
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i run both under the same company as well. i have a dba set up to do inspecting to separate the webiste a little. i never had to worry about it at all while doing contracting, but i didn’t do a lot of that lately, mostly tech work. i figure it will be at least three years as everyone says before i can pivot full time and stop fixing things completely, but working with fiber optics is fun and pays really well. i am old now and those things are very small so i’ll be giving that up in time naturally i suppose. lots of good info here to find, i’ve spent hours reading through these threads. one common theme you’ll find is that the inspecting is the easy part. running the business is the hard part, along with writing the reports. it took me almost six months to get into good writing habits and i still have trouble with it sometimes. avoiding liability is a skill that takes a lot of practice. good luck.
It is a marketing decision. I would likely crosslink the two sites but make them separate BDA’s.
Then follow the standards of ethics. As Mark stated:
Hi, Stephen.
A pleasure to meet you.
I concur with, Dave Fetty.
Take the courses in any order, and keep written notes.
During your final test to become a CPI, you will be tested on all the courses you have taken.
Good luck and remember, the message board is invaluable tool to learn.
If it’s an item not within the SOP, or has been more than 12 months, no problem. Otherwise, it would be simple enough to set up 2 separate businesses under one corporate umbrella I imagine. I recently set up multiple businesses under one LLC, and just have 2 names (LLC name, and DBA name).
Very informative course. Before taking this course, I was under the impression that inspectors were required to be “subject matter experts” about everything involved in a home. It is a lot less daunting to know that inspectors are not expected to be the experts on all the various systems. I am excited to learn about all these systems. Being a big DIY guy my whole life, it is going to be fun learning what they signs and symptoms are telling me about the home
state regs need checked before doing work on a home after an inspection on it. in wv, it doesn’t matter what i looked at, i cannot work on a home i inspected in the last 12 months. from your comment, it looks like you’re saying that a home can be inspected within that 12 month time frame if it was working on something that wasn’t inspected. in wv that can get folks in trouble. if i misunderstood the comment, my bad. just a clarification.