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Starting a business

Starting a Home Inspection Business in Canada

With houses and condos being built at a record rate, it’s a great time to enter the home inspection market. With the right resources, the barriers to entry for this industry can be overcome. If you’re interested in how to start a home inspection business, start by getting the right training, learning from experienced home inspectors, and learning where to find clients.

Getting the Right Training

A great first step is to check if your area has any licensing requirements for home inspectors, as the requirements may include specific types of training programs. While most provinces don’t regulate home inspectors, there are some that do, so you need to make sure that you comply with any requirements that your province has.

You’re unlikely to find a single course that teaches you everything you need to know about home inspection. It requires knowledge of plumbing, electrical systems, HVAC, construction, and residential building codes. You’re better off finding primer courses on those subjects to build a range of knowledge. Ideally, you should have a background in the construction industry. Be wary of any organization that claims it can teach you everything you need to know in a short course, as there’s far too much to learn for that to be true.

Shadowing an Experienced Home Inspector

After you’ve built up your knowledge of fields related to home inspection, it’s smart to contact home inspectors in your area and request to follow along on a few inspections. You get the opportunity to see how home inspectors go about their jobs, and there’s no substitute for hands-on experience. Not every home inspector is going to let you come with them, so don’t get discouraged if the first few that you contact turn you down. Keep asking around and you should find some that are willing to take you along.

Finding Clients

When you’re ready to start inspecting homes on your own, you need to find clients. If there are any home inspection organizations in your area, register with them so clients can find you when they conduct searches. Setting up a website and social media profiles for your business helps clients who do their research online find you. You should also contact businesses and professionals in your area that frequently require a home inspector, such as real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and real estate investors.

If you land a job through one of them, it could result in consistent work. Even though you may not need special licensing to become a home inspector, the job requires quite a bit of work. You need extensive knowledge on homes, and you must be able to clearly communicate any issues that you find, which isn’t pleasant when a potential buyer loves the home. But when you do your job well, you provide a valuable service for people who are making the biggest purchases of their lives.

Marketing Your Business

Don’t forget about marketing your home inspection business. Try setting up social media pages, sponsoring local events or teams, network with real estate agents, and more.

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