Do we need an Advanced Home Inspector Exam

[Scottpat]

The thread on the NACHI exam that drifted to the NHIE started some good discussions.

I guess one would be that of an advanced type exam. The exam would still need to be developed in the same manner as the NHIE. It would need to be based on a current role delineation study and not connected with any membership organization. This way it would not have any bias to one group.

This expense for the development and marketing an exam like this would be fairly high. The market for such an exam is unknown and fairly small, I would think. An exam like this would need the support of the entire profession, including the various membership organizations. This type of exam could help to unite the various home inspector membership organizations into a more cohesive group. This would be similar to what many professions have done.

Another byproduct of such a exam could be a true certification program(testing & education would be a major part of it) that is not affiliated with any home inspection organization. That is not to say that those organizations could not recognize such a certification as part of the membership program. Realistically this would help the membership organizations by adopting a program that does not cost them anything to develop. I could even visualize home inspector regulatory bodies looking at a program like this for licensing programs in their states.

Anyway this is just a pipe dream that is open for everyone to discuss.

[JerryM]

Scott

I've talked to the folks at ICC about the type of exam you posted, but when one figures the start-up investment and then the maintenance it's just huge. The big problem is that far too many states want to legislate their own brand of licensing and the requirements differ by what interest group is in charge.

But some day, who knows?