Hi everyone, I have recently been certified through InterNACHI, and have been looking into starting my own home inspection company. I was wondering if anybody had any tips or insights on any prerequisites that should be done before doing my first inspection, such when to file as an LLC, or any other tax/legal requirements. Also, is it looked down upon for a new inspector to start his/her own business before gaining extensive experience in the field working for somebody else? Any advice is much appreciated!
Field training, for me, was essential (thank you, Sir Roy Lewis). Talk to a CPA about llc, s-corp, sole proprietorship, etc… Attorney to look over your agreements. A business course could be helpful, if you’ve never been self employed. Insurance, marketing, further study, the list goes on…
The first thing you should do is check to see if you’re required to be licensed in the state you plan to inspect in. If not, I would recommend an inspection course, the one I took many years ago had information on and courses about setting up an inspection business and getting a CPA is IMO the only way to go, how to advertise and get business, how to perform an inspection and form and build a process to follow, courses on structure, mechanicals, plumbing, electric, report writing, etc.
The actual process of inspecting houses for compensation IMO should be done only after you have everything else in place, education and knowledge on what you’re doing, business set up, E&O insurance, report writing software, etc. For me it took me 6 months and 18K to get my business up and running over 18 years ago.
After you’re set and ready do a couple of practice inspections on your house and friends houses to get set up and form an idea of how you want it to flow.
