How to Start a Home Inspection Business: First 90 Days

Before you touch a single house, you need your state license or certification squared away, because operating without it can shut you down before you start and expose you to fines. Check your state's specific education hour requirements and exam schedule, since some states require 60 to 120 hours of coursework plus a proctored exam. While you wait on exam results, form your LLC and get an EIN, because separating personal and business liability matters the moment you sign your first inspection agreement.

Insurance is not optional. General liability and errors and omissions coverage protect you from the inevitable claim that your report missed something, and most brokerages will not refer you without proof of both. Get quotes from at least three insurers who specialize in inspector coverage, because generic small business policies often exclude inspection work entirely. Budget for these costs upfront rather than discovering them after you have already committed to a launch date.

This is when your equipment list stops being theoretical. You need a moisture meter, outlet tester, ladder, flashlight, and a reliable inspection camera at minimum, and it is worth buying quality on the items you touch every single job rather than cutting corners everywhere. Pair that hardware with report-writing software you can run from your phone or tablet on site, because typing findings into a laptop back at your car wastes hours you do not have in your first months.

Run at least five practice inspections on friends' or family's homes before you charge a client, and write full reports for each one. This is where software like Inspect Ace earns its keep, since a mobile-first platform lets you capture photos, dictate notes, and generate a polished report before you leave the driveway, which matters enormously when you are still building speed and confidence.

Use these practice runs to time yourself. If a 2,000-square-foot house takes you six hours right now, you know exactly what to work on before real money and real deadlines are on the line.

Call five to eight competitors in your market and ask for quotes on a standard single-family home, then set your starting price within that range rather than underpricing to win work you cannot yet deliver profitably. A too-low price signals inexperience to agents and attracts price-shopping clients who are hardest to please. Build in add-on pricing for radon, termite, sewer scope, and larger square footage from day one so you are not renegotiating later.

Your website does not need to be elaborate. It needs your services, service area, sample report, pricing ranges or a quote request form, and a way to book online, because agents recommending you will check your site within minutes of getting your name. A simple booking flow that lets clients pick a time slot without a phone tag reduces no-shows and looks more professional than a business three times your size run entirely on voicemail.

Real estate agents are still the primary referral engine for most home inspectors, so this stretch should be dedicated to meeting them face to face. Visit three to five brokerages a week, drop off a one-page flyer with your credentials and sample report link, and ask to speak briefly at an office meeting if they allow visitors. Agents remember inspectors who showed up in person far more than ones who emailed a PDF.

Offer to shadow-inspect a property with an agent present at no charge for your first couple of jobs from a new relationship, since watching you communicate clearly with a nervous buyer is what actually earns repeat referrals. Follow every completed inspection with a short thank-you note to the referring agent, because that small habit compounds into a steady pipeline over a few months.

By month three you should have enough completed jobs to start collecting online reviews, so ask every satisfied client directly rather than hoping they leave one unprompted. A handful of detailed five-star reviews mentioning your thoroughness and communication will do more for bookings than any paid ad in your first year.

This is also the point to tighten your internal systems: a repeatable pre-inspection checklist, a standard report template you refine after each job, and a simple CRM to track leads, follow-ups, and repeat clients so nothing falls through the cracks as volume grows. Tools like Inspect Ace bundle scheduling, reporting, and client communication together, which matters once you are juggling multiple bookings a week instead of one at a time.

Review your numbers honestly at the 90-day mark: how many inspections you completed, your average job time, and which referral sources actually converted. Use that data to set realistic targets for the next quarter instead of guessing.