I have been performing various types of property inspections since 1994 and I have always wondered if the name Home Inspector really was the correct name for my profession?  Home inspections comprise about 50% of my business, the rest are various type of related inspections from bank to commercial types of inspections.

I have contemplated with changing what I call myself, some of the following are some names I have been contemplating:

Property Consultant; well it sounds good but what does it say that I do?

Construction Consultant;  same issue, but it does define the type of work I'm doing.  But, I do more than the name implies.

Property Evaluator: sounds more like an appraiser, but it could also work for inspections.

Real Estate Inspector; actually I like this one, but it is kind of awkward and limited in use.

It might not be possible to have just one title to identify a profession or what a person does.  We have all had to diversify in order to survive, but when the day is over I'm still a home inspector.  Whether I adopt another title or not will not really change what I do to make a living.

 Scott Patterson, Middle Tennessee Home Inspector

www.traceinspections.com

 
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7 Comments on Is Home Inspector the right name?

MAY
11
2009

 You forgot to add that a home is what you make it, A house is what you inspect. That's why I like www.houseinspections.com but it does fall short of letting people know about commercial inspections
5:20pm • #1
MAY
12
2009
121,224 Points

Yep, the name is important, but more important is the service you provide!
4:02pm • #2

Mike Schulz

 

(but more important is the service you provide!)

That would fall under the description of services of your company.  Getting people to find you is in the name of your company. And to be politically correct we are house Inspectors not home inspectors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home

 Now I use both terms in our company. Our name is Affordable Home Inspections but our web site is www.houseinspections.com

This way we tend to maximize our name exposure, in theory anyway :-)
4:24pm • #3
121,224 Points

True....  But the single largest factor is showing up in the search engines is the age of your website. The older the site the higher it will pull up, that is in Google.  Yahoo, is not as picky, but then about 90% of the population goes with Google first.
4:31pm • #4

I wish that was true and it still maybe. If this is the case mine should be number one spot :-) it's as old as the hills.........Mike
4:53pm • #5
MAY
25
2009
916,948 Points 178 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Scott, I guess there will always be a "wrestle" between how we perceive ourselves, how we want to be perceived and how the public perceives us.  At the end of the day when the public wants to find someone that can do what we do----including things beyond what we typcially do----they think "home inspector."
7:04pm • #6
JUL
16
2009
204,385 Points 2 Featured Posts

It's a difficult terminology thing.  If I'm buying a commercial building why would I want a "home" inspector to look at it.

I don't have a good answer yet!  But, like you, I'm working on it.
4:59am • #7


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Scott Patterson - Middle TN Home Inspector

Spring Hill, TN

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Trace Home Inspections

Address: Spring Hill, TN, 37174

Office Phone: (615) 302-1113

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