Originally Posted By: ecrofutt
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
No, HI is not a good jumping off point to get into custom home building. If you want to be a builder, go to work for a builder and take courses. That will provide you both hands on and classroom learning.
It may take as long as 3 years to develop your HI business to the point of self sufficiency. You could be logging that time getting builder experience and training instead.
Either option is a long hard road.
Some thoughts, from my website, on Experience as it relates to the Home Inspector.
Experience:
This is the area that more Home Inspector's disagree on than any other area. Truth is there is no one particular set of experiences that adequately covers ALL of the system's in and around the home, how they work together, and how they age together. Once a person decides to become a Home Inspector, they must do a lot of learning and studying on systems outside their particular area of expertise. Look for continuing education in several different areas of a home's systems.. It's more important than any one set of background experience.
Some people with these experiences think their experience is best for being a Home Inspector. My thoughts:
Engineers:
There are many classifications of engineers. Electrical, Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Marine, Transportation, Sanitary, Highway and Geological just to name a few. Ask them what their specialty is and ask them to put their Professional Engineer's stamp on the line for the Home Inspection. Few will because their engineering specialty has little to do with residential inspection outside their specialty. Yet some market themselves as better qualified than any other person, because they are an "Engineer".
"Yes, I had my home inspection done by a Structural Engineer. I had to replace the furnace, the plumbing flooded the basement, and an electrical fire burned down the garage, but dang, that ridge beam is in fine condition."
Former Home Builder's:
Well, Home Builders usually coordinate all the sub-contractors that actually build homes but how much actual building and installing does a home builder do. After the house is built, the builder moves on to build other houses. They don't often stick around to see how the houses age. They seldom see the house again after the first year, unless they get sued for crappy construction.
Former Municipal Code Inspectors:
Yes, they do (or should) know the MINIMUM standards for their area of inspection expertise. But what does an electrical code inspector know about plumbing or heating or air conditioning systems.
Nothing is wrong with any of these or other specialties becoming Home Inspectors. But don't look to heavy at the past experience. Rely more on continuing education in several different areas of the home's systems since becoming a Home Inspector.
--
Erby Crofutt
B4U Close Home Inspections
Georgetown, Kentucky
www.b4uclose.com
. I plan on moving forward with my own business as opposed to getting back into the corporate world. My concern is that I have no prior experience other than 16+ months of new construction of my personal home. I live in North Texas and the housing market here is still in boom. What is the reality of being successful in this business without years of depth in construction? I've reviewed several HI courses as well as a General Contracting degree plan at a nearby junior college that could give me the basics but is a lot of hands on required? Also is HI a good starting point to get into new construction?