What would happen to your home inspection business if your target market grew overnight? Usually, certified home inspectors aim all of their marketing attention toward home buyers. Buyers are ready to take on an enormous debt. They need to know what’s up before they reach the closing table.

But everyone lives somewhere. Defects that put the resident’s health and safety at risk can exist in a rental unit as easily as any other home.

If you broaden your horizons to include renters, they will win and so will you. You’ll gain the potential for more work. They’ll gain a little more peace of mind about the place they call home even if their name isn’t on the deed.

Here’s what you need to know.

You’ll Need the Landlord’s Permission

If your client is a potential renter, you’ll need the landlord’s approval to enter the property. As either the property owner or the owner’s agent, landlords have the right to deny access. They probably know that refusing could result in the loss of a renter, but they might be comfortable holding out for someone who isn’t as concerned about defects before they rent.

If the renter is already a resident, the renter can grant physical access to the property but you might still need the landlord’s permission. Rental home inspections aren’t as rare as they used to be, so more owners expect them. According to CTHomes, landlords might deny access if rental inspections aren’t common in that market.

You Could Be Asked to Testify in Court

This isn’t as scary as it sounds. As a certified home inspector, you’re always at risk of being called to court as an expert witness or to affirm that your report is accurate. If home buyers sue the seller after moving in, their lawyer might need your word in person or by deposition to support their client’s claims. The defendant’s lawyer might also call you as a witness if they believe the plaintiff’s claims are false or exaggerated.

Renters could also end up in court one day. If your report notes defects that threaten their health and safety, they might want to break their lease or ask the court’s help in forcing the landlord to make important repairs.

You Will Probably Want a Lawyer’s Advice

Talk with a real estate attorney in your area before you take on new customers. Every jurisdiction is slightly different from the next, so the laws about who can and cannot grant access will probably vary. You might also want advice from your liability and E&O insurance providers in case you need additional coverage.

You’ll always need the landlord’s permission if your customer hasn’t yet signed a lease. If your customer already lives there, the legal issues around who can and cannot grant access might fall into a gray area or one where rock-solid laws or policies haven’t yet been developed.

It Is Your Job to Educate Potential Renters and Landlords

If home inspections for renters aren’t common where you work, you’ll need to carve out some time for market development. Educating renters and landlords about the ins and outs of rental property inspections helps ease concerns and point out the pros of always getting an inspection.

This is a golden opportunity for you to become a leader in your market. Research can give you lots of material for developing blog posts and other content that supports home inspections for renters.

What kind of rental unit problems, such as mold or roof damage, are common in your area? How often do renters find themselves stuck in a lease with a dangerous or unhealthy home? What legal issues do renters encounter if they try to break a lease when dangerous or unhealthy defects are present? How much more might the average renter spend on utilities in a home with an outdated heating and cooling system?

You can also help out landlords.

What’s the average cost of a landlord/tenant lawsuit? How much value is added to rental property when a landlord invests in repairs and upgrades? What might a landlord save in repairs by tackling a defect sooner instead of later?

Those are just jumping-off points. You’ll probably find many other avenues for content development and marketing outreach.

Just because a resident doesn’t own a house, condo, or apartment doesn’t mean their health and safety are any less important. Home inspections for renters might be a fledgling market, but it’s also ripe with potential.

Florida home inspectors pass a rigorous exam, but you can be prepared.

When you’re ready for your home inspection license in Florida, you’ll probably want some time to prepare before taking the exam. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation approves the InterNACHI exam, which is a proctored test. It’s not easy, but passing it means you’re all set to move ahead.

Once you’ve completed your ACI School home inspection course requirements, here’s what you’ll need to know about taking your state license exam:

How to Schedule and Pay for the Exam

InterNACHI explains that the Florida exam is offered at 9 different locations throughout Florida. The first thing you’ll need to do is select a location that’s convenient, then choose an available date and time.

Scheduling in advance is important, as the locations might not accept walk-ins. The cost of the exam is $125, and you can pay using a credit or debit card. If you need to re-take the exam, you might need to pay an additional fee.

There’s a wealth of study material available online.

Which Subjects You Should Study

The exam covers numerous topics, including general home inspection, plumbing, safety, structure, insulation and ventilation, interior, exterior, roofing, electrical, ethics, and several others.

InterNACHI also suggests several other study resources. There’s the InterNACHI home inspector courses and their “Wood-Destroying Organism Inspection course, both of which members can access for free. And there’s also the Florida Code, which is free to everyone. You can even take a free practice exam here, but you’ll need to provide some information to receive logins.

Passing the licensing exam is an accomplishment worthy of pride.

Scoring is Tough, but Fair

Earning your Florida state home inspection license isn’t easy, but good preparation will help. There are 120 questions, which are selected at random, and you’ll have an hour to complete it. If you don’t pass the first time, InterNACHI explains that questions on the next exam that you take will be different.

You’ll need a score of 80% to pass, but it’s a little tougher than that. If any section results in half or fewer questions answered incorrectly, the exam automatically issues a failing grade. Another way the exam is difficult is the weight that’s given to certain questions that deal with safety or potential public harm. Those questions carry a stricter scoring penalty for incorrect answers.

Passing the exam is only part of the requirements for gaining your Florida state license. You’ll need to provide fingerprints, be of good character, and obtain professional insurance, says InterNACHI.

Not everything in a home inspection is in perfect condition.

One of the most unnerving things about performing a home inspection is the possibility of damaging someone else’s property. You’re there to create a report that explains the condition of the entire house, inside and out. But when you’re in someone else’s home, you never know what you might encounter.

So is there a specific protocol for handing a broken item? Not necessarily. But there is a professional ethic that guides you in the right course of action.

Here’s what you should do:

Realize that Things Will Break

The very purpose of a home inspection is to determine the condition and functionality of everything that’s inspected. Not everything will be in perfect condition, and sometimes things do break.

Occasionally, something will break while it’s being inspected. For example, the knob might pull off a cabinet door when you open or close it. Then sometimes, something that’s not related to the inspection will be broken or damaged. Maybe you’ll accidentally knock something off a shelf.

The important thing to remember is that while it’s practically inevitable that something at some time will break, it’s not common, and usually the item isn’t expensive. If you do break something during an inspection, you’re not alone and it probably won’t cost you a fortune in damages.

Your report should document everything, including an item that was broken during the inspection.

Put the Broken Item in Your Inspection Report

Bottom line, you are responsible for anything that you break, but that’s all within reason. And when something breaks, you’ll add it to your report. A good illustration of what’s considered “within reason” is given in a March 2014 question posted in Arizona’s Daily Courier.

A reader asked whether his inspector was liable for repairing a GFCI outlet that was working before the inspection, but not working afterward. The response explained that inspectors should be responsible for repairs for anything that’s broken. However, if something breaks during the normal inspection process, then that item was likely faulty to begin with.

Anything that breaks while you’re performing an inspection should go into your report, because you’ll want the documentation and so will the home owner. If you’re clearly at fault, then you should offer to pay for the broken item. But if the item was bound to break, as in the case of the outlet, then you’ll use your best judgment on whether to offer to pay.

Contact your customer about the breakage as soon as possible.

Be Honest with the Home Owner or Agent

Adding a broken item to your report is only part of the process. If the home owner or agent isn’t with you during the inspection, you’ll want to leave a note or make a phone call to explain what happened.

This part might be difficult, but it’s important and it speaks to your integrity. If the person who hired you returns to find a broken item, he’ll naturally wonder whether anything else is broken, how effective an inspection you are, and whether he can trust your work.

If you take the initiative and explain what happened, your integrity is intact. You might be asked to pay for the broken item, but again, most breakage during an inspection is relatively minor.

If you’re in the business long enough, something will eventually break on your watch. It’s happened to nearly every inspector, and it’s likely to happen to you. The good news is that by and large, the damage is minor.

The most important things are to document it, and then let the customer know right away. There’s no way to be a good inspector and never risk breaking something. But you can control how you handle it.

Not every home needs one, but for those that do, an expansion tank can prevent some frustrations, messes, and more than a few headaches.

An expansion tank gives excess water someplace to go when there’s no room inside the water heater and the supply lines are at capacity. In a closed plumbing system, this little device can help prevent some big headaches for the homeowner. Add this to your professional home inspection checklist and go the extra mile for your customers.

What is a Closed Plumbing System?

A closed plumbing system lets water in through the supply line and doesn’t let it back out except through drains and sewer lines. If you thought that described all plumbing systems, you’d be in good company.

What a lot of folks don’t realize is that water can sometimes move backward through a supply line. As water heats up, it expands. In a plumbing system that’s already full, water needs someplace to go, so it travels the path of least resistance.

A closed plumbing system prevents backflow from happening. A check valve installed on the supply line creates a one-way path for water to flow in. From there, it needs someplace else to go once it expands. Certified Home Inspector Reuben Saltzman writes for the American Society of Home Inspectors blog that in a home without a check valve, a pressure regulator can prevent backflow and create the same type of problem.

What Does an Expansion Tank Do?

Knowing how a closed plumbing system and check valve function, you probably have a good idea about the job of an expansion tank. It’s a reservoir that’s on call to go into action as needed. When water heats up and expands, the excess flows into the tank. It is as simple as that.

Expansion tanks are commonly installed on the cold supply side at or near the water heater. But they might be anywhere, as pressure builds up throughout a closed system. Proximity to the appliance isn’t important.

Fast Water Heater Company says tanks perform best when installed “downstream of the shutoff valve.” Unlike what some expansion tank manufacturers say, the angle of the tank isn’t critical to its performance.

What Can Happen Without One?

When water expands, the amount of pressure that builds up can be impressive. Think about every plumbing fitting, every connection, every joint and valve in the home. Each connection that’s glued, soldered, or clamped is a potential point of failure when the water pressure goes up.

One of the more common problems happens at the water heater. The pressure relief valve might leak, which is its job. If you spot water on the floor near the water heater, it might not be a defective tank, but a valve that’s protecting the system, if in a messy way.

Saltzman says homes that need an expansion tank might have other symptoms. With pressure built up in the line, toilets might randomly re-fill. Faucets might leak, as well.

An expansion tank isn’t vital, but if a home needs and doesn’t have one, it can create headaches for homeowners. A broken supply line is possible, but it’s not the most likely scenario. More often, the pressure relief valve at the water heater will leak and leave a mess.

When you’re developing your home inspection checklist, add expansion tanks to your plumbing inspection protocol. What you learn could save your customer hassles and some money down the line.

Busy home inspectors that aren’t using some type of house inspection software are now in the minority. Not only is this a demanding profession that will challenge your schedule, but it’s also essential that you continue to build your client base so your business and income will grow long-term.

Handling all of these tasks manually invites errors and it’s simply too inefficient. Here are just six things that you can do with house inspection software that will make running and growing your business a breeze.

1. Save Report Templates. Do you want to customize your reports for your clients or even have several different templates available? You can quickly and easily do this by uploading a logo and adding your business contact information. Once that is done, just save your report template for future use.

2. Keep Home Inspection Report Archives. Keeping detailed records is essential for any business. Fortunately, your house inspection software provides several ways to hold onto those important archives. First, you can print hard copies of reports for a paper file if this is your system. More importantly, when you save a report to the cloud, you will be able to access it at a later date from any device.

3. Store Contact Information. Part of operating your business is finding new clients through lead generation. Your house inspection software allows you to save contact information so that you can follow up with clients for future appointments. This is one of the best ways to grow your business.

4. Save Time. If you’re a busy home inspector, rushing back to the office to sync each of your reports to your desktop or laptop before submitting is probably a step you’d rather skip. Fortunately, using house inspection software such as Report Form Pro allows you to do this. When you use the mobile version of the software, you can complete your report on-site and send it immediately, eliminating the need for that extra step.

5. Improve Your Business. Home inspection businesses can be competitive, and it’s vital that you deliver superior service to every client as well as find ways to improve your business. This means timely reports that are professional and clear. A home inspection software program will allow you to submit reports well before they are due, with clear explanations of defects thanks to the ability to markup photos. You can also review your past reports to look for ways to improve your processes and overall business.

6. Cut Costs. Using the right house inspection software can save your company cash. Choose the wrong program, and you may end up paying a costly monthly subscription fee for some bells and whistles that you’ll never use. A program like Report Form Pro, however, is just a one-time fee and then the program is completely yours. Time is money, so the amount of time that you will save by using this valuable program is going to save your business cash over both the short- and long-term.