Advice on state required parallel inspections

[Paul Tejan]

[:-banghead]

I have passed the required state certified inspection course and passed the Arizona State Exam. The problem now is that I live in a small city, Lake Havasu City, Arizona and there are about 6 inspectors in town. I’m concerned that they will be less than thrilled to help me since I’ll be in direct competition. The Arizona state requires 30 parallel inspections signed by a certified inspector. I am hoping for some advice on how to approach them or someone near me that could help me.

[chrisprickett]

Originally posted by Paul Tejan

[:-banghead]

I have passed the required state certified inspection course and passed the Arizona State Exam. The problem now is that I live in a small city, Lake Havasu City, Arizona and there are about 6 inspectors in town. I’m concerned that they will be less than thrilled to help me since I’ll be in direct competition. The Arizona state requires 30 parallel inspections signed by a certified inspector. I am hoping for some advice on how to approach them or someone near me that could help me.

Offer to pay them for teaching you.

[Scottpat]

Go out of town to get them done. Although I was under no requirement to have any ride-a-long inspections under my belt I chose to do some. I contacted two inspectors about 200 miles away (and asked them if I could shadow them for a week each. Yes, I had to stay in a hotel and spend some money but I learned more in those couple of weeks than did from anything else.

[chrisprickett]

Scott,

In AZ, you are required to do 30 parallel inspections. The inspector with whom you train, is required to review and correct each and every report. I've done this, and it's very time consuming. I used to do it for free, and found that the guys I trained had no problem being my competition. Like most other AZ inspectors, I have gone the way of charging for training. $50-$100 per inspection is the going rate.

Just wanted to clarify that it's much more than a "ride-along". The training inspector can be(and in cases has been) fined and sanctioned for not following the proper training procedure.

[Paul Tejan]

First I would like to thank everyone for very help full information. I went out to BTR and made a list of everyone in my area. Not a lot of inspectors in these areas.

I have been researching inspection software. I am trying to find software that will help reduce liability and not produce an alarming report, also providing a lot of real content. I am looking at 3D software, Porter Valley InspectVue, HomeGuage and The Uniform Building Inspection Report software.

Meanwhile I had scanned in the BTR report check list sheet to Word and was going to use it verbatim for the 30 parallel inspections. Is this not right? Would it better to purchase software program first. I would prefer not to.

[chrisprickett]

Originally posted by Paul Tejan

First I would like to thank everyone for very help full information. I went out to BTR and made a list of everyone in my area. Not a lot of inspectors in these areas.

I have been researching inspection software. I am trying to find software that will help reduce liability and not produce an alarming report, also providing a lot of real content. I am looking at 3D software, Porter Valley InspectVue, HomeGuage and The Uniform Building Inspection Report software.

Meanwhile I had scanned in the BTR report check list sheet to Word and was going to use it verbatim for the 30 parallel inspections. Is this not right? Would it better to purchase software program first. I would prefer not to.

Paul,

You can do a report in Microsoft Word if you like, as long as you cover all your bases. One thing to consider is that any half decent software will require a learning curve, until you are comfortable with it. The 30 Parallels are as good as time as any to learn the software.

If you plan to go work for a company, they will provide you with the program they use. If you are going out on your own, my advice would be to buy a good report software. Once you pay, you own it, so in the long run it becomes cheaper and cheaper. I'm very happy with Porter Valley, but you'll find many others that like 3D, etc...