Very cool.
Feel free to give me a ring.
I may be heading to San Diego for my Granddaughter’s birth early sept ,but not sure yet.
OakBrook is not to far from O’Hare airport.
Thanks Bob.
Email me at calltheman@comcast.net and I will share a few secrets that will help you get tons of business. I stopped most advertising 2 years ago and have even shut down my web site because I can not keep up with the work.
Brock,
I agree with starting out part-time. It will take a while to build business up to the level of being self supporting.
Inspect YOUR home multiple times. And do a report each time. Inspect your friends and family’s homes as well. You have to do 4 mock inspections so that will give you some experience on 4 different style homes with different issues. It also gives you an opportunity to educate your friends and family about their homes and gives you some confidence.
I would say definitely become an affiliate member of you area association of Realtors. If you already know a couple realtors then make sure you talk to them about giving you an opportunity to inspect for a client.
Make sure you get good inspection software. Home Inspector Pro in my opinion is the best. However, I am bias due to the fact that I really have only used that software. But NOBODY can beat their customer service!!! The more professional your report looks the less somebody will question your experience. We are in the digital age so written reports may be looked at as a little less professional. (I’m not hating on guys that use written reports. But if you have hand writing as bad as mine then the right choice is software)
Get a website. Dominic with Home Inspector Pro is the best when it comes to helping you out as you’re just starting. You have a bunch of different templates which are highly customizable so that you can set yourself apart. Dominic has great info for optimizing your website to get you on that first page of a search engine.
Spend all of your spare time taking the courses and exams on here. Download your certificates from those exams and put them on a page on your website to give people some confidence in your ability. It also shows that you care about continuing education.
Read all the different threads on this message board and Home Inspector Pro’s message boards. There is a ton of great information and advice. Everyone on here loves to help each other out. It also gives you an opportunity to learn from others mistakes. Don’t ever be afraid to post something on here. Whatever your questions and whatever you’re struggling with, you can rest assured that all the people on here care about your success and want to help. It is important to have a good support system, and if there ever was a support system it is right here!
Learn your Standards of Practice and come up with a routine for inspecting. This will make it easier to remember and less of a chance of missing something. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Do the same thing over and over and it will become ingrained. Ask people on here what their routine is and they will be glad to give you advice.
Get you business name on your vehicle with your contact info. This may not be a big business bringer right away but with time people will start to see you over and over as you drive your normal routes and with time you will start getting calls. But don’t expect it to work right away. Took me like six months before I got my first call. Oh yeah…make sure it looks professional. You want people to be confident that you ARE professional.
Word of mouth, as everyone knows, is the best advertising. Tell everyone you talk to what you do. Make sure you ALWAYS have your business cards on you and make sure those are professional as well. Best place, just starting out, is Vista Print. They will send you all kinds of deals for cards and brochures. All you pay for is shipping, or if you upload files from your computer and if you upgrade the card quality. But they do a great work and best of all it’s inexpensive. And just starting out inexpensive is GOOD!
You obviously have some contacts in the building industry. NETWORKING is key. We can’t afford fancy advertising so networking is gonna help get your name out. I had a real estate office in the Des Moines, IA area, where I just moved from, that has a breakfast at a nice hotel the first Tuesday of every month. I made sure to get invited to this type of function because there were probably 20-30 other agents and builders that show up to this thing. It was a great opportunity to get my cards in their hands, rub elbows and build rapport. It helps to have an outgoing personality in that situation. You have to want to genuinely meet these people and shoot the breeze. Finding common ground and make sure you don’t come across like you are only there to market yourself. Even though you are! And frankly, so are they! 
The great thing is that this is YOUR business. You get to mold it into whatever you want it to be and run it the way you want to. This message board will give you so many different ideas for how to structure your business and what has worked for other inspectors. It certainly has helped me in figuring out mine. And the fact that every post ever made on this website is available to you means that you really do have an endless supply of help and ideas that will assist you in becoming as successful as you can be.
My dumb arse quit this business a few months ago due to some personal reasons. And I was set to never look back. However, I missed it and couldn’t stay away. The money I spent on my education, the time I put into building my business, the countless hours I spent up in the middle of the night working on my website and taking courses and exams on here made me think that I was an idiot for ever leaving. Inside I felt like not only was I letting myself down, but that I was letting everyone on here down, who took their time to help teach me things and give me advice. And Dominic who had put up with my endless questions about software and marketing and all kinds of technical crap that he didn’t have to talk to me about but did because he truly cares and wants to help. What a waste of their time I would be if I just up and quit. So here I am, back at it.
Just realize that this message board and Home Inspector Pro’s message board will be your best friend. There is always someone on here at any given hour of the day. And everyone wants to help you. No one on here thinks of the next guy as competition. They will shoot you straight.
Welcome to the profession! I hope you’re successful and I look forward to seeing your posts on here in the future.
I hope all this made sense to you.
ROCK ON!
Scott Hand
Appears! Appears! Appears! Very important words not to be boxed into a situation u might have bit of question about.
You may wish to buy back your website.
I would do it fast if I was you.
I already tried for Scott. The cybersquatters wanted $1500 for it. Scott’s getting a new domain instead.
Yeah! Darn cybersquatters!!!
I’ll let you know what I will be going with Dom!
Thanks for your help, again!!! 
Good choice. Service and product second to none.
homeinspectorscott.com is available! Just $10.69*/yr
handinspections.com is available! Just $10.69*/yr
Scott,
I am just getting started also, Thanks for some very helpful information.
That is what we are ALL here for! You definitely joined the right association for that!!!
Thanks guys, I am just getting started also, by what you all have said I belive I’m on the right track
Rock On!!!
Thanks for sharing and welcome back Scott!
Years ago when I was part time I thought for a long time…Did I really want to do inspections? Just kept waking up each day realizing that yes climbing through sweltering attics, walking through sprinklers, and coming home smelling like a pig was appealing. you really have to be wired to do what we do. I think the endless amounts of learning, the various kinds of people I run into, and that each day is exciting and different make this a rewarding profession.