In a blog post from two weeks ago, How to find a great home inspector, I gave two main pieces of advice on the topic; read online reviews, and read sample inspection reports. The same day this blog was posted, I received the following question / comment from a reader:
She's right. I made no reference to certifications or memberships in different home inspection organizations. I'll come back to that point, but first, let me lay a little groundwork to help this make more sense. There are three major organizations for home inspectors: ASHI, NAHI, and InterNACHI. They're not the only organizations for home inspectors, but they're the largest.
American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI)
To quote from ASHI's web site: "In 1976, a group of visionary home inspectors with the common goal of building consumer awareness and enhancing the professionalism of their field established the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). This not-for-profit professional association for home inspectors made its first order of business to establish and advocate high standards of practice and a strict code of ethics for the member community.
The Mission of ASHI is to set and promote standards for property inspections and to provide the educational programs needed to achieve excellence in the profession and to meet the needs of our members."
ASHI's highest level of certification is the ASHI Certified Inspector, or ACI designation. To get this designation, a home inspector must*:
- Pass the National Home Inspector Exam, which is a 200 question / 4 hour proctored exam. This exam is also used for licensing in approximately half of the United States.
- Complete the ASHI SOP and Code of Ethics online training.
- Complete a minimum of 250 fee-paid home inspections, with the reports in substantial compliance with ASHI's Standards of Practice. To verify this, the list of inspections must be submitted to ASHI, and then five reports are selected for submission. The reports are sent to an ASHI report verifier, who then grades the reports for compliance.
ASHI Certified Inspectors are the only true 3rd party certified Inspectors in the industry that are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)
*This is my summary of the requirements. For the full list, click here.
National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI)
NAHI was founded in 1987. To quote from their web site: "The National Association of Home Inspectors, Inc. (NAHI) was established in 1987 as a nonprofit association to promote and develop certified and licensed home inspectors in the professional home inspection industry."
