Healthy Indoors | 69
gest investment in your life who has been doing this for 25
years or one who has been doing it for 2 years? And as
always, be wary of referrals from real estate agents. The
inspector they recommend may be good but they also may
either do "quickie" inspections where they say everything is
okay in order to please the agent and get more work from
them, or even get a kickback. Remember, the agent stands
to get a big, juicy commission if the sale goes through, so
why would they recommend a tough inspector who is trying
to protect the home buyer and point out all the defects in
the house?
Mark Jones is the president of Certified Inspections, Inc.
based in the NY, NJ, CT tri-state area. For further informa-
tion, please visit: www.certifiedinspections.com
ation, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and
Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the National Soci-
ety of Environmental Consultants, and the National Envi-
ronmental Association.
There are also home inspection schools or institutes
from which one could provide a diploma or certificate. I at-
tended the Building Specs Institute in Annapolis, MD, the
B.O.C.E.S. course in home inspection, the BTS Laboratory
course on mold testing, seminars given by EMSL Analytical
labs, and many continuous education seminars given by
ASHI.
Although work experience in related fields like con-
struction, architecture and engineering are helpful, they do
not address all of the specific needs required to perform a
quality home inspection, which is why specific training in
the home inspection field is paramount. Although licens-
ing is now required, what is more important is actual field
experience, so when choosing an inspector, one should
always inquire as to how many years of experience the
person has. For instance, I have been doing them for 25
years. Would you rather hire someone to look over the big-
i
