For our Virginia Realtors, I wanted to give an update on the licensing for New Home Inspections (called New Residential Structures - NRS). The definition of an NRS is: a new construction home prior to first tranfer of deed from the builder to the purchaser.
Effective July 1, all Home Inpsections in Virginia can only be performed by home inspectors licensed by the state (DPOR licensing board). Any inspector who was previously a Virginia Certified inpsector was automatically rolled into the pool of licensed inspectors. All others were required to apply to DPOR and be approved. While that transfer has gone smoothly, the separate licensing requirement to qualify for New Home inspections has not gone so smoothly.
As of the end of June, just days before the effective date of the July 1 licensing requirement for New Home inspections, there was only one DPOR certified training organization in the state that had trained and qualified about 80 home inspectors just weeks before. As of July 18, there were three certified training organizations, and about 200 trained inspectors. However, of those trainied inspectors, as of July 18, there were only 50 that have been licensed by DPOR according to a search of the DPOR website. That's 50 across the entire state of Virginia!
As a Realtor, if your client wants, expects, or requires a home inspection on a new construction home, you are limited to using one of these 50. To locate an NRS licensed inspector, go to the DPOR website (www.dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup) and in the search box just type the letters "NRS" and search. The results will include the certified training organizations, so first look for cities close to the location of need, and then make sure on the right side of the results screen that it says "Licensed Home Inspector".
I've also copied the results to my website as a courtesy to clients, until my NRS license is approved. You can find the results here: www.mhbi.net/virginia-licensed-new-home-nrs-inspectors.html . Note that I don't have links to the inspectors' websites, so you'll have to do the Internet search yourself.
Remember, this New Home (NRS) specialty licensing for home inspectors was demanded by the Virginia New Home Builders in 2015 - not by Virginia Realtors. As many know, the big new home builders don't like home inspectors on their property because we call out so many defects, and they were looking for a way to make it more difficult for all to allow clients to get the information they need before the final commitment with the builder. Deep pocket funding of most every Senator and Delegate in the state helped "grease the skids" for getting this bill passed. It will be a while before we know the cost and booking impacts of this licensing process on our clients purchasing new homes. In the mean time, we have to get what information that is available to the clients we serve.
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