Should I give up my Project Management career and become a Home Inspector?

[Bearblastbeats]

After years of working in engineering firms, and recently 5 years of active project management. I find myself unsatisfied and bored or underwhelmed by the work I do.

I recently purchased a house and tonight was the home inspection. The inspector was nice and the overall inspection went well and cost $350.

I thought to myself... I've been remodeling houses my entire life, I have a degree in architecture, and I'm a project manager of an ae firm... maybe I should become a home inspector?

I could potentially make the money I do now. But I wouldn't be in an office all day and I would be doing something more along the lines that I'm familiar with.

Is it worth the gamble to take courses to become certified and eventually quit my pm roll?

[Metta]

It seems like something you could learn and do part-time while keeping your PM job. That would help you figure out whether you would enjoy it enough to leave your PM job and it would give you a side hustle that could be profitable once you FIRE.

[Dave1442397]

I agree with going part-time. I know a guy who did that while working his regular job, and then when he retired he did home inspections for another ten years or so before giving it up. He was probably in his early seventies at that point.

[Honeymoney]

One of my family members is a home inspector and the key skills for success in the field seems to be marketing and customer service. In our area there is a lot of competition and plenty of retired builder/contractor/electrician types so it is challenging to get a foothold as a new inspector. Real estate agents seem to refer the same ones over and over again.

[profnot]

Ascertain the internship hours you need to accomplish to become licensed.

In my big section of our state, not one of the inspectors is willing to take on / train a future competitor. 

Anyone new must find an inspector to work under many hundreds of miles away to get their hours in.  If they can find anyone in the state at all.

[FallenTimber]

Not sure what state you’re in, but here in Colorado there’s no training or any kind of license required to be a home inspector. Not sure what the requirements look like in your state or how much of a commitment it would need to be?

[soccerluvof4]

I agree with trying it part time to see if you like it and also if you can get into the market of it. The key as others mentioned is getting in with the realtors because they do refer the same people.

[Bearblastbeats]

To be honest, I don't know if I want to go into Home Inspection either. I just don't find myself wanting this PM career any longer.

I recently took a job 5 weeks ago as a PM and have been doubting my choice ever since. If I didn't have a baby on the way and in the midst of purchasing a new house, I would probably quit and do a menial job to cover expenses and not have to deal with much.

[Goldielocks]

To be honest, I don't know if I want to go into Home Inspection either. I just don't find myself wanting this PM career any longer.

I recently took a job 5 weeks ago as a PM and have been doubting my choice ever since. If I didn't have a baby on the way and in the midst of purchasing a new house, I would probably quit and do a menial job to cover expenses and not have to deal with much.

I was going to comment that I don't know about going into home inspection, but support the giving up the PM role.
Can you get into a design manager role instead?  Those are fun and have 1/2 the headaches.

Or, if you want a part time job / other job, you could train in self-contained wastewater septic systems design and inspection?

I looked at the home inspector thing, too., and it doesn't really want an engineer for the role, and the liability if you retain your engineering PE then start home inspecting is higher than that for just home inspectors with their company insurance.   You need to know a lot about construction over the years to be good at it, plus the sales / customer service aspect.

But getting trained on septic fields is easier for an engineer, and if you are close to rural, there can be a lot of work.   The other field with a lot of work is hydrologist, or someone who inspects bridge / dam supports for smaller structures / roads as a consultant.

Yep -- I was looking for jobs that would let me earn money outside of the big cities.

[hops]

Obviously you know that if and when the real estate market cools off, that will make the home inspection jobs less lucrative.  You're then going to have a huge supply of inspectors fighting for a suddenly smaller pie of work, and that will drive down prices.

That would be my biggest fear. When I was house hunting in 2011 and 2012, a lot of inspectors had gone out of business. One I spoke with was blunt. He said the only thing that kept him from throwing in the towel and getting a job at Home Depot was that he'd cultivated a couple good relationships with investors who were loading up on cheap real estate. Even then, it wasn't enough to keep him busy full-time.