Choosing a Home Inspector

Anyone with a license, flashlight, and business card can call himself a home inspector. But to entrust your inspection to just anyone is a risk not worth taking. After all, there are few transactions more important, more costly, or more lasting than the purchase or sale of real property.

To be confident, make sure your inspector is a full member, in good standing, of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI).

The American Society of Home Inspectors® is the national professional organization of home inspectors with members throughout the United States and Canada. Formed in 1976 as a not-for-profit organization to build public awareness of home inspection and to enhance the technical and professional performance of home inspectors, ASHI is the oldest and most respected professional association of home inspectors in North America.

An ASHI certified home inspector must:

Successfully complete a rigorous and detailed three hour written test
Perform and complete a minimum of 250 inspections meeting defined standards of practice
Complete 40 hours of continuing education every two years

Only inspectors who fulfil these requirements can display the ASHI symbol. Their professionalism assures buyers, sellers, brokers and agents that they will provide a thorough, unbiased, written disclosure on the real property in question prior to closing. ASHI's Standards of Practice and ASHI's Code of Ethics are to be followed by its membership.

Take the time to interview your inspector. Get to know about their background, qualifications and whether or not they are a member of ASHI. The effort you make in selecting the inspector of your real property or prospective real property will pay dividends for years to come.