Home Inspection Course?

Question

Hi All, I'm considering taking a couple online classes from the St. Lawrence College Home Inspection course, perhaps the Structural Inspection & Electrical Inspections classes to start.

I have 2 objectives I would like to achieve:

1. Become more knowledgeable on the "important stuff" when walking through a building for this first time. I always hear "look at foundation, electrical, floor joists etc." but when I get there are look, I feel like it still doesn't tell me anything lol

2. Have the option of submitting a more competitive bid if a deal seems worth it (by leaving out the inspection condition). I know the landscape is changing and multiple bids on every property are declining, and maybe home inspection conditions are coming back, but for SFH, I feel like it will still be a while yet, so I would like to have this option in my pocket.

I'm a chemical engineer and my partner is a software developer, so although we're in technical fields, I feel like we don't have any useful transferrable skills that help us determine the quality of a building. What are your thoughts on this plan? Or home inspection courses in general? Has anyone taken other courses and felt more empowered?

Nathan Grabau · Answer

I think there are some relatively simple ways to see whether there are structural and electrical issues, similar to how you can normally see how many layers of shingles may be on a roof, I think if its a few hour course it can cover those things. I personally would then prefer to punt and bring in an expert if we see signs of a more advanced problem. I think there is risk that you are taking on here that could create problems for yourself. I also think within the construction world, experience tends to be a better teacher than actual courses, and I have not seen many people successfully replicate experience learning in a classroom setting.

Michael Dumler · Answer

@Jamie Blair, to me, this falls under the category of letting the professionals who have years of experience take care of and inspect the home, while you focus your time, energy, and money back on the business. I'm all for learning and understanding the basics, but do you really want to be crawling into attics and crawl spaces for every deal that may be of interest? I agree with Nathan, that a few-hour course should be more than suitable to help gauage the major items in a home, but I would not spend a lump some of your time taking an inspector course. Hope this helps!

Jamie Blair · Answer

I totally agree when you say experience tends to be a better teacher than an actual course, I guess I feel like I don't have a ton opportunities for experienced-based learning.....and because of that the learning curve seems long and not very steep!

Thanks for your input!