Many choose home inspecting as a second career, after working in the real estate industry or as a general contractor. The experience is no doubt helpful, but it isn’t the knowledge needed to become a successful home inspector.
Linkhorn Inspection Group, which did 110 inspections in its first year of business, completed 2,363 inspections in 2015. Only two years ago, Linkhorn’s business had three inspectors and company cars, tripling its size in 48 months.
AHIT alumnus Dan Kutchin started Northern Wisconsin-based HomeEx in 2012. Five years into the business, the couple’s home inspection service has hit its stride.
If your clients are experiencing fluctuations in their service — or minimal service — it may be caused by what's behind their walls.
Every household should have an emergency plan that includes an emergency kit containing a flashlight, first aid supplies, spare keys, cash, a change of clothing, sleeping bag, a three day supply of bottled water and copies of important documents and forms of ID.
In part two, AHIT senior technical instructor Bill Ross discussed three additional areas that inspectors should scrutinize when inspecting bonus rooms and additions: attic conversions, heat sources, and decks. [...]
Bonus rooms and additions should be inspected for the same issues of safety and habitability as the rest of the property.
With a boiler, the heat exchanger will not be visible for inspection. As you examine the burner area note if there is any evidence of leaking from the heat exchanger onto this area.
Inspecting a winterized/foreclosed home does not entail a different inspection report or different inspection procedures compared to a lived-in home. Yet there are definitely issues that can arise in a winterized/foreclosed home that you typically will not come across in a lived in home, for obvious reasons.
When inspectors test a home for volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals that in higher volumes can contribute to health problems inside homes, they should consider the unhealthy effects of fragrances of any kind and natural substances, such as citrus or pine, according to Blazovsky.
