Home inspectors are the persons who examine the condition of the residence. This process checks the building’s fundamental features and rules violations, like water damage and wrong electric and plumbing systems. These home inspections help the buyers of the real estate properties to check the property’s condition. For this home inspector job, there is an examination process. One who clears the examination will get the home inspector’s license in Texas. More steps are involved in preparing and qualifying for the exam and getting a license as a home inspector in Texas.
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Preparation
Those who want to become home inspectors in Texas should first crack the qualification exam. For that, they should prepare themselves with the required educational qualification. The preparing person should attend 194 hours classroom and should clear the exam. For this job, academic bachelor’s degrees are not necessary. Completion of the certificate course is more than enough to become a home inspector.
The preparation process will increase the chance of cracking the examination. This qualification leads to the next level to get their license. Many private companies provide value-added courses for these home inspection exams. These courses will be helpful for freshers or people without prior experience who attend the exam.
How to get the license
Getting a license is an essential part of the process of becoming a home inspector. There are six significant steps involved in this license getting process they are.
- Complete educational requirements
- Submit an online application to TREC
- Take Exam prep class and Practice Exams
- Get fingerprints taken and pass a background check
- Pass the State Exam within one year of filling the application
- Complete annual Continuing education
These are the six steps to be followed to get the home inspector license.
The requirement to complete the Qualifying education Classes
The first requirement is 194 Educational hours, and it has two parts as national and state portions of the course. 40-hours for property and building inspection module I, 40 hours for property and building inspection Module II, 40 hours for Analysis of findings and Reporting, and 10 hours for business operations and professional responsibilities module are the 110 national education hours.
Forty hours of Texas practicum(ride-along), 24-hours Texas standards of practice module, and 20 hours for texas law module are the 84 state education hours. By completing both educational hours, 194 hours of education is over, and to achieve this, It takes about 3 to 6 months and $2699. Then submit the personal inspector license application and educational documents to TREC.
Fingerprints and background check
After completing the application submission, the application will be under the approval process. When waiting, prepare for the national and state exam by various courses that update the knowledge. By the law of the Texas Department of Public safety, fingerprints should be in the files. It will help make background verification easy. If any problems arise with the background verification, they will not provide the license. This process takes about 7 to 10 Business days and should spend about $38.25 as fingerprinting fee.
Pass the exam within one year
The applicants should pass the national and state exam within one year of application submission with TREC. The applicants should pay $199.00 as an exam fee at scheduling. The exam will be for 4.75 hours, and it has 200 national questions and 30 state questions. All will be multiple-choice questions, and 5% of questions will not affect the candidate’s score. The national exam passing score is 63%, and the state exam passing score is 75% or above. Candidates can have three attempts to clear this exam within one year and no waiting time between test attempts.
Renew your License
After completing this process, they finally provide the license, and the license holder should renew it every two years by attending the 32 hours of continuing education. And the renewal fee structure for inspectors is $32 for apprentice inspectors, $53 for real estate inspectors, $63 for a professional inspector. By paying this, they can renew their license.
Home inspection cost
The home inspector will charge about $300 to $500 for the home inspection. They will check installation, sealings, mold, water connection, electricity connection, and even more to inspect the home’s quality and safety. The main work of the home inspector is to check all features and provide a certificate about the house.