In 12 States, Anyone Can Call Themselves a Home Inspector

Imagine going in for your annual physical only to discover that your doctor has no formal education in medicine, no license, and no insurance policy in case something goes wrong.

It’s a disconcerting thought—to say the least—and, depending on where you live, it may be the reality for your home purchase.

Home inspectors play a vital role in homebuilding and home sales, exposing problems that an ordinary buyer could not reasonably identify during a showing, before that buyer becomes financially responsible for them.

But 12 states don’t regulate the profession at all, according to the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), and only 35 clearly require a conventional state-issued license or registration.

In the remaining states, the barrier to entry can be remarkably low.

As Dillon M. White, an attorney, constitutional law professor, and TikToker, recently demonstrated, becoming a home inspector in Minnesota may require little more than opening a business and declaring yourself one.

“I just became a home inspector!” he says in the opening of a viral post under his account “dadchats.” “Because I declared it as such.”

And while licensing requirements are often criticized for raising the cost of doing business—and, by extension, the cost of housing and construction—White’s video exposes the opposite risk: When a state establishes no minimum qualifications, consumers may not even know there is no regulatory floor beneath the person inspecting their home.

A safeguard with no national standard

The doctor comparison may be simplistic, but it illustrates the trust buyers place in home inspectors.

“A home inspection gives the buyer a picture of the home’s condition before they make a very expensive decision,” Fred Rodrigues, a Certified Master Inspector and Florida-licensed home inspector at Damngood Inspection, tells Realtor.com®.

“I don’t tell a buyer whether to buy the house,” he adds. “I point out what I found, explain it in plain English, and recommend the right specialist when the seriousness of a problem or the repair plan needs to be determined.”

He’s pointing to the critical role inspectors play in maintaining transparency of the real estate market. Homes are technically complex assets and, for most Americans, the largest purchase they will ever make. A missed structural, electrical, environmental, or mechanical problem can turn a seemingly sound purchase into a financial crisis.

That safeguard has become important enough that Massachusetts recently prohibited sellers from conditioning the acceptance of an offer on a buyer’s agreement to waive an inspection under certain circumstances.

The measure followed the state’s crumbling-foundation crisis, in which concrete containing the mineral pyrrhotite swelled, cracked, and failed after reacting with moisture—leaving some homeowners facing repairs that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now consider this: Would you rather have Rodrigues or White conduct your home inspection? 

Where home inspectors aren’t regulated

In Florida, where Rodrigues is based, home inspectors must complete 120 hours of approved pre-licensing education, pass the National Home Inspector Examination, and meet the state’s application and eligibility requirements. Licenses renew every two years and require 14 hours of continuing education, including two hours on wind mitigation.

On top of that, Rodrigues has gone further to qualify as a Certified Master Inspector. The designation requires at least three years in the business and a combined 1,000 inspections and hours of inspection-related education, along with adherence to the organization’s code of ethics and periodic criminal-background checks.

In Minnesota, professional preparation is far more ad hoc—as White exposed.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes is one of 12 states that don’t regulate home inspectors, setting no statewide minimums for training, testing, insurance, or continuing education. That leaves it up to consumers to evaluate an inspector’s experience and voluntary credentials on their own.

But even among regulated states, the safeguards vary. Testing is the most consistent requirement, with 37 of the 38 regulated states requiring an exam, and 27 specifically citing the National Home Inspector Examination. 

Only 25 require supervised inspections, ride-alongs, or other field experience. This means some inspectors can begin working after completing a course and test while others must document dozens—or even 100 or more—inspections.

Those disparities even spill over after inspectors enter the workforce: 30 regulated states require a fixed number of continuing education hours, typically about 13 a year, while ASHI identifies no such mandate in five. Insurance protections are similarly uneven: ASHI identifies an insurance, bond, or other financial-assurance requirement in 25 states, while no statewide mandate is listed in any of the 12 unregulated states.

The cost of a poorly trained inspector

“The role of the inspector is to find flaws with the home that weren’t seen on the showing or put into seller’s disclosure,” explains Michael Perna, a real estate agent in Michigan. “Not because sellers are hiding flaws and defects; most don’t know they’re there.”

Michigan, like Minnesota, doesn’t license home inspectors or require them to complete any specific training.

“Here in Michigan, there is no licensing or required training. You can print a business card that says home inspector and boom, you’re in business,” Perna says.

“Many do exactly that,” he adds. “They’re contractors or skilled trade like electricians that know a fair amount about a house and looking to make some extra money. Not with my client’s home they won’t.”

But regulation alone can’t eliminate the risk of a poor inspection.

“The quality can vary a lot,” Rodrigues says. “Licensing sets a floor, but it doesn’t create good judgment. I look at training, field experience, time spent at the property, the actual report, and whether the inspector will pick up the phone afterward.”

The consequences of choosing poorly can dwarf the cost of the inspection itself.

“About 12 years ago I had a client cheap out and go with a discount home inspector. He completely missed that the ash bore beetle had killed over 40 trees on the wooded property,” Perna says.

Removing and replacing the trees ultimately cost the buyers close to $85,000, according to Perna. They sued the inspector and won—but only after an expensive legal fight, and the inspector’s contractual liability was capped at the $250 price of the inspection.

That imbalance is central to the consumer risk: An inspector may charge a few hundred dollars to assess a home worth hundreds of thousands, while the financial harm from a missed defect can reach five or six figures.

“As I tell my homebuyers during an inspection, we’re on a bear hunt, we’re not worried about the chipmunks and squirrels,” Perna says. “Any good inspector worth their salt is going to find 15 to 30 things wrong.”

What buyers should verify

Perna and Rodrigues say buyers should evaluate an inspector’s qualifications regardless of whether their state requires a license. A state credential may establish a baseline, but it should not end the inquiry.

Perna recommends finding someone with experience inspecting the particular type of property being purchased.

“The quality of a home inspector varies greatly from one other another and even on type of inspection,” he says. “We use a different inspector when we’re helping clients buy a single-family home versus commercial building versus an equestrian property.”

Buyers should also investigate the inspector’s professional history and affiliations. National inspection franchises may impose their own training and insurance standards, while organizations such as ASHI and InterNACHI (Inter­national Association of Certified Home Inspectors) offer voluntary credentials and codes of practice.

The standards aren’t interchangeable with government oversight, but they can provide an additional layer of accountability where the state provides none.

And where oversight is limited, Rodrigues recommends doing your homework.

“Ask for a sample report,” he says. “Verify whatever license or credential the inspector claims, ask what isn’t included, and make sure there will be time to go over the findings.”