Good morning, seeking some feedback from Inspectors in the Nashville, TN region. Is there sufficient business that you stay busy and can generate a decent income? I’ve been looking into uprooting to move to that area, but would like to know if there’s a strong enough market that it makes sense for my family and I. Please let me know if there’s any insight you can share! Much appreciated…
[There are 692 active home inspectors in Tennessee]
[In 2024, there were 33,935 homes sold in the Tennessee region, compared to 33,429 closings in 2023. ]
About 80% of buyers get a home inspection.
So that’s 27 thousand home inspections by 692 licensed inspectors, or an average of 39 inspections per inspector. Some do more, many do less. I did over 500 inspections myself. Pareto says 20% of the inspectors are doing 80% of those inspections.
But lets say you are average and charge $425 per inspection with 40% overhead.
39 inspections gets you $16.6 k gross, and 10k after expenses (license, insurance, software,gas, uniforms, tools, marketing, etc). $10k taxable income and there won’t be much tax on that so plan on keeping most of that. No State income tax.
Can you live on it? Remember, 80% of the inspectors are making less than that. Most don’t even make it one year.
Let’s take a look at TN State data on licenses. On page one I see that among the first 30 licenses listed alphabetically, only 7 are active. Of those only two survive from pre-Covid, more than 3.5 years in business. 2 out of 30.
You are very smart to post your question. It shows that you are doing your research to find out if this is a good decision to become a home inspector in TN.
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Interesting, thanks for the feedback, Bert! 39 Inspections average seems like quite a low number to survive off of. From your experience, how many inspections did you have first starting off in your area, and are there certain parts of TN, to travel to, that don’t make sense for ROI?
Bert is in East TN and I’m in the Middle which is the Nashville area. We have around 250 home inspectors give or take in the middle TN market! about a dozen of us have been around for more than ten years in this market! Our market as are most have had a substational decrease in the number of homes being sold and consaquently the number of inspections we are doing! But, for those of us that have been established for a period of time we are not in hurting for business as many other are. I do not have a large company with two inspectors we will do around 500 home inspections. We also offer radon testing. Stucco/EIFS/AMV inspections and Commercial inspections. We have been in business since 1995…
You will need to obtain a license in the TN, but if you have taken and passed teh NHIE and have 90 hours of education under your belt that should be easy for you to take care of. I think now is a good time to move while it is slow, that would allow you to get yourself established and hit the ground running once home sales come back, which I antisapate being early summer in our area.
As a new inspector you should be able to do around 50-75 inspections in your first year. Double that in your second and then level off at 300 or so in your third year.
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What state are you a home inspector in now?
Thank you for the feedback, Scott! Nashville and surrounding areas are where I would prefer to reside and do inspections. I definitely have the hours to obtain a TN license, since Washington State requires 120 hours of education. Moving my family across the country isn’t something I would do without some proper research first, which is why I wanted to ask some questions from the guys on the ground.
One more question, can Home Inspections be sufficient to live off on one income?
In the Nashville market, it would be difficult to live just off a single home inspector income, especially starting out. Most solo inspectors will only net around $50,000 to $75,000 after they have become established and that is pretty consistent around the country. It all depend on what your family needs to live on. The majority of inspectors I know that are married, their spouse works.
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Great, this is some good info to chew on when considering inspections in another state. I appreciate all the feedback from everyone that contributed!
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