Home Study vs Live Courses

Inspection Education Topics Inspection Education & Training
1

I am considering Home Study…I am in my slow time now and need to get myself educated before my busy spring season begins…I do not have the money to travel extensively for education…Home study is definitely cheaper.

Anybody have any referrals for this? I have looked at many, but don’t want to be “sorry” I purchased the wrong course, if you know what I mean?

I appreciate it, thank you.

2

I used the AHIT home study and I would be willing to offer it up for sale.

I have most of the material in the picture. I cant seem to get the hang of attaching the links.

I also may use the Radon home study that Nick posted in the educational portion of the message board for my recertification.

Dave

3

I find that there is little differance between Live Courses and Home study as far as material content in concerned. The big advantage to live courses for me is the open disscusion between students and professor and between students themselves. Where else can you find open disscussion between many people all involved in the same line of work? - I’ll give you a hint… :nachi:

Carson Dunlophas a well respected distance education program. Check to see it meets your local requirements.

4

I can reccommend Allied Business School’s Home Inspection coarse. It is online,good price,great material information. Very good customer service, ect. You can take it at your own pace. You can not take the final protored exam until 30 days from when you first start,and you can also take up to 1 year to complete. So check them out.:slight_smile:

5

http://www.hometraining.com/](http://www.hometraining.com/)

I took the Home Study course, & enjoyed it so much I went to the extended 2-week school in SLC. Only good stuff to say about Stan & his class!

Russ

6

Go with AHIT (www.ahit.com). I took the distance learning course and it is super. Very respected school and the personnel and instructors are topnotch. Give Jim Heubner a call. Tell him Bob Hutchinson sent you.:slight_smile:

7

I used AHIT’s radon training course, which turned out to be ESA (http://www.esaassociation.com/), which was a 100 page book. After “reading” the book, I took their 100 question test. Uugg! Too many of the test questions where usless for a radon tester and the book was a snore. I’m an engineering graduate from Purdue University and I had trouble focusing on the book. Go to a live course for this subject.

8

I actually did an appreticeship for a year…nothing and I mean NOTHING will prepare you for a home inspection…like performing a home inspection. There are so many other facets that are present. I wish it was just looking at something and it being black or white…Many times it’s not so easy.

The best education I have ever gotten was when I went on inspection and had other inspectors visit my company and rode along and told me what they did…

9

http://www.nachi.org/classroomsharm.htm

10

Hi, SprinklerGuy.

I am an instructor for both home study (online) and live (classroom) courses. There are times when I have to teach a live, hands-on classroom. Such as when I assess contractors as they demonstrate to me lead-safe practices.

Otherwise, I strongly encourage students to look at InterNACHI’s online curriculum (free to members, join at InterNACHI® - International Association of Certified Home Inspectors).

There are many advantages online has over classroom, including:

  • InterNACHI online courses are free to members. The cost of one classroom course may hundreds to thousands of dollars.
  • There are no travel or hotel costs associated with InterNACHI’s online courses; they are available all the time, anytime, from anywhere. The cost of one classroom course requires the inspector to incur out-of-pocket travel and accommodation costs.
  • InterNACHI CE credit hours are calculated by a prescribed word count formula (Approved by InterNACHI, AICPA, and NASBA): ( # of words / 140 ) + ( Video time in min. ) + ( # of questions x 1.85 ) ] / 50 = CEUs. It is not possible for a classroom instructor to calculate CE hours with such a mathematical formula and actually teaches less content hour-for-hour than an online course.
  • InterNACHI’s online courses are edited to eliminate set-up time, off-topic discussions, bathroom breaks, lunchtime, pauses, etc. Classroom courses contain much wasted time.
  • InterNACHI courses provide assurance to each student that the course will teach the content as certified according to the stated course goal and objectives. It is not possible for a classroom instructor to provide such guarantee.
  • InterNACHI’s courses are forever subjected to industry-wide review by regulatory officials, students, boards, and other instructors of the course content, instructional design, and delivery. A classroom instructor is neither evaluated as such, nor is the instructor’s classroom material open to critique by an entire industry.
  • InterNACHI’s permits inspectors to take courses over again. Classroom courses are usually taught only once.
  • InterNACHI courses provide each student access to an online forum and interact with hundreds of other students, experts, and instructors to ask questions, interact, and discuss the course content and experience during and after taking the course. The classroom instructor has limited time to answer only one question at a time, while everyone else waits for his or her turn.
  • In summary, online courses allow students to study and learn at little or no cost, without having to travel or lose business, when and where they want, with well-developed, accurate courses taught by experts, using updated course material, pictures and video, at their own pace and schedule, with the ability to review and repeat, and with the assurance they’ll end up with a thorough understanding of the chosen topic.

Check out InterNACHI’s curriculum at Free Home Inspector Training Courses & Online Classes - InterNACHI®.

11

I did both. I like learning on my own, so online was good for me.
But to get the real learning experience, Russ said it. Hands on. Nothing is better.
Start with the INACHI courses. The price of the courses (the membership fee) is MUCH cheaper than any other school out there, plus you have the message board (which is really the best learning class there is) to ask any questions you may have and you will get a quick answer(s). Then on top of that, you get even more classes that might others offer but for no an additional fee. Last year I did over 100 hours of continuing education and only scratched the surface.
Good luck!

12

Does anyone realize this thread is almost seven years old? I’m pretty sure sprinklerguy has made his choice of education by now.

13

Who knows, he might be a sloooooow learner :wink:

14

He has completed his training, went into business, made his fortune, retired, and spent his kids inheritance by now.

15

Still applies as I had students learn the Carson Dunlop Home Inspection technician Certificate that was over 600 hrs and I would boil it down to the same as taking 200+ hrs in InterNachi.
Mind you it takes dedication to go through this on your own and not all can commit themselves at home.
Still need lots of hours of hands on learning after this and I stressed to continue learning to all in the Class.