Andrew… 99.9% of all of your clients will never ask about SOP and don’t know to. One of the main purposes of www.nachi.org/comsop.htm is for YOU to tell your CLIENT you are using them, not the other way around. Keeps your neck out of a noose later.
Anyway, the type of commercial inspection you gave in your example is very typical… you probably won’t ever be hired to inspect the Empire State Building, but what’s good for us is the “smallish stuff” as you put it, changes hands a lot. Apartment buildings, small offices, wharehouses, pizza shops, etc. and the money (price you can charge for light commercial) is much better (per hour) than home inspections.
Andrew…unfortunately, that is not accurate. TREC does regulate all inspections for all real property that are part of a real estate transaction and that includes residential and commercial. What is true, is that you are not required to use the 7A-0 residential form for reporting commercial jobs but the state SOP still applies (to the extent that it applies). In other words, if you inspect a commercial roof then the TREC roof SOP applies. If you inspect a commercial item, say a walk-in cooler or something, that is not part of the TREC SOP then it does not apply. I know…gobbledy-gook…Now, you can depart, with agreement of the client, and use ASTM 2018 or the iNACHI SOP but it needs to be in your inspection agreement or Scope of Work.