Employment Opportunities
Home inspector jobs are difficult to find, because there are not many home inspectors in the population of any state. About five percent of homes sell each year in the United States. To actually make a living from the home inspection business, a home inspector ought to inspect 400 homes per year. Rounding it up, if one million people live in an area it would mean there are about 303,00 single family homes. If five percent of these homes sell each year, it would mean about 15,151 sales. If 80 percent of those homes get inspected, there are approximately 12,121 home inspections performed. If we divide the 12,121 by 400 home inspections per home inspector, it would mean there is work for just 30 home inspectors per population of one million people.
Sure, considering that some home inspectors will be busy, while others will seek jobs, there can be many more that 30 home inspectors in an area. Making a living out of it, however, is a whole different thing. There are schools telling future home inspectors they can earn as much as $500 a day, but they do not include expenses, nor the long weeks when there is little or no work at all due to holidays and other events such as snow storms.
If you perform 400 home inspections and charge a $400 fee per inspection, your business would gross $160,000. Expenses would eat up at least half of that amount. Moreover, as a home inspection business owner you have to pay an additional seven percent of Social Security, plus additional payroll taxes, and benefits such as health insurance will also come out of your profits. Earning $80,000 as a business owner or $50,000 as an employee would net about the same amount in the end.
Home Inspection Training Options
Just as with any other jobs, there are certain qualifications required for home inspection jobs. Needless to mention, you have to be well trained in the ins and outs of the job. Fortunately, nowadays there are various means of earning the requisite knowledge, including online home inspection courses that allow you to study from the comfort of your own home.
Another possibility is to join a home inspector as an apprentice and learn the trade first hand, and actually watching a qualified professional in action is one of the best opportunities to learn. This, however, would also require individual study to cement your practical knowledge.
If you really want a full-time career in home inspection, you can also enroll in a chapter of a national organization so that you make the right contacts and get an insider’s look into the home inspection business.
Required Qualifications for a Career in Home Inspection
As previously mentioned, you must be very well versed in the fundamentals of construction and maintenance of houses. A real interest in this field will help, but to actually become an authority in matters relating to home inspection and home repair and renovation you also need to have excellent communication skills and excel in your capacity as a home inspector. Home inspector jobs involve frequent interactions with customers, real estate agents, moneylenders, other home inspectors and many home owners. Making the right contacts and dealing with the right mix of people is essential for good business, so it is very important that home inspectors have great communication skills and are really good with inter-personal relationships.
In addition to the theoretic approach and the hands-on knowledge about home building and repair work, home inspectors must also be willing to constantly improve themselves and gain further knowledge to keep up with the pace of the industry and stay on top of the latest developments and trends.