Can You Recommend Home Inspectors and Pest inspectors in the Houston Area (worth, between)

[HappyBaker]

Thank you, marksmith15. On top of the Internet, I would like word-of-mouth as well. :-)

[Sherifftruman]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

NACHI hasn't changed anything in the regards to passing their test to become a NACHI Certified Inspector. They will take your money, yes, but to become a NACHI Certified Inspector and get on their membership list, you MUST take and pass their test. Here's step 2 of the process better known as the test:
https://www.nachi.org/aboutexam.htm

In regards to the CEUs, you'd have to ask your States requirements about that. In Texas, their website training does not qualify for the annual CEU requirements. In Texas we have to go to a classroom environment for 16 hours a year. Our local college does it, sometimes I teach it, depending on the subject matter. Foundations and structural component framing are the subjects I'm usually asked to teach/review. My sisters uncle in law teaches the WDI part, if you have that license. If you don't have it, you're missing a huge revenue stream on just the inspections. Any WDI treatments are a bonus.

They're accredited in NC.

I haven't tried to do WDI certification myself as in NC it's just one test for everything, as if you were going to be an exterminator. Works out fine as I have a couple of pest companies I work with that will do the inspection, I pay them and roll it all in to my fee to the client. That way they just have a single point of contact and I usually can make a few bucks depending on which company I use.

[Sherifftruman]

Originally Posted by HappyBaker

Thank you, marksmith15. On top of the Internet, I would like word-of-mouth as well. :-)

Kind of surprising you got nothing in the Houston forum. You might try Nextdoor also.

[HappyBaker]

Interesting to read all the interactions!

Sherifftruman, I have finally got some very helpful response there now. :-)

[Ghost Town]

Originally Posted by HappyBaker

Hi, I need a home inspector and a pest inspector for buying a home in either Missouri City or Sugar Land. If you know of good and thorough ones, can you please tell me? Please tell me their names, company names, contact phone numbers, or website URLs.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Check Yelp for reviews and call the best rated inspectors. I will not provide any recommendations here. But I left very positive review for the inspector I was working with. I already responded in one recent Houston thread (not sure if that was your thread or not).

[HappyBaker]

Thank you, Ghost Town. I have checked Yelp as well. :-) Let me go to the other thread to take a look now.

[Sherifftruman]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

NACHI hasn't changed anything in the regards to passing their test to become a NACHI Certified Inspector. They will take your money, yes, but to become a NACHI Certified Inspector and get on their membership list, you MUST take and pass their test. Here's step 2 of the process better known as the test:
https://www.nachi.org/aboutexam.htm

In regards to the CEUs, you'd have to ask your States requirements about that. In Texas, their website training does not qualify for the annual CEU requirements. In Texas we have to go to a classroom environment for 16 hours a year. Our local college does it, sometimes I teach it, depending on the subject matter. Foundations and structural component framing are the subjects I'm usually asked to teach/review. My sisters uncle in law teaches the WDI part, if you have that license. If you don't have it, you're missing a huge revenue stream on just the inspections. Any WDI treatments are a bonus.

Incidentally, I went ahead and got certified. The test was not super easy, but not that hard either. Gives an hour and I was done in 25 minutes after going and changing a couple answers on review even. Got a 90%. Decently easier than my state exam I'd say. Certainly easier in that my state still only gives the exam 4-5 times a year and you take it in a big room with a hundred people using a bubble sheet. So, in a state without licensing and regulation it's a decent start as far as competence but I would still want to get recommendations about people as well.

[Barking Spider]

You can go to Home | American Society of Home Inspectors, ASHI and do a search for inspectors. NACHI is kind of a joke among experienced inspectors, since its really a pay to play organization owned by an individual. The testing is really a joke. Everyone that joins is instantly a "certified" master inspector, even though they may have never done an inspection.

[TrapperL]

NACHI is kind of a joke among experienced inspectors

What you meant to say is among ASHI Inspectors. NACHI has and always been the most respected association in the USA. Here's a few reasons why you are so wrong:

1) iNACHI has requirements that one must complete before applying for membership. A$HI does not. You can join A$HI by doing nothing more than sending them your hard earned money.

2) iNACHI doesn't encourage or require new members to go out and perform a certain number of unqualified fee-paid inspection for poor, unsuspecting consumers as the only way to achieve full membership. A$HI unconscionably does.

3) iNACHI doesn't permit newbies to perform their first inspections on actual consumers. Newbies who wish to apply to iNACHI must do 4 mock inspections. A$HI has no such requirement and their Candidates or Associates regularly perform their very first inspection for an actual fee-paying consumer. Not a good thing....

4) iNACHI recognizes that consumers are most harmed by inspectors who don't know how bad they are. That is why iNACHI make their online exam open and free to all... to alert these consumer killers that they should go back to school or not enter the profession. iNACHI's free, online exam has alerted tens of thousands of incompetent wannabees each year, some of which have instead joined A$HI and went out on the street to harm existing inspectors and murder consumers.

5) iNACHI recognizes that newbies need a rigorous ramp-up system. iNACHI has it: www.nachi.org/rigorous2006.htm A$HI doesn't.

6) iNACHI recognizes that fees (for exams or education) are much like a tax in that they deter inspectors from taking it. That is why all of iNACHI's education is affordable or free and much of it is online so that there are no time and transportation costs. This has resulted in iNACHI delivering more continuing education than all other groups and schools combined... and for pennies per hour. A$HI offers no or little free education.

7) This industry is changing all the time as are iNACHI's courses and exams. Passing an exam once, (years ago) doesn't alert today's inspector to that which he needs to know. That is why iNACHI requires members to pass the entrance exam every year. A$HI has no annual exam.

8) iNACHI requires advanced courses as a condition of membership. A$HI does not.

9) iNACHI's online courses contain quizzes that alert the quiz-taker when he has answered incorrectly and tells him/her which one's he/she missed. In other words, the quizzes are educational in and of themselves. It does an inspector no good to learn that he/she answered an x number of questions wrong without telling him/her which questions. A$HI keeps its members in the dark about their weaknesses, any one of which could be deadly to the consumer.

10) iNACHI believes that the industry should be full of successful full-time inspectors and that business success and marketing is the only way good inspectors can stay in business. That is why iNACHI has developed so many success tools www.nachi.org/success.htm. What good is it for a technically proficient inspector to go out of business? How does it help the consumer to have our industry flooded with unqualified newbies cutting their prices to get their inspections in and in some cases, waving their newly printed licenses that they got due to A$HI pushed legislation which essentially triples the number of newbies overnight. I don't blame A$HI, they are tied to the NHIE which only makes money if the state uses their minimum standard exam to flood our markets.

Kinda hard to argue against the truth. ASHI is a farce at best, always has been, always will.

[HappyBaker]

Welcome to the party here, Barking Spider.