ASHI vs. InterNACHI: Does it matter which home inspector you hire?

There are two major associations for home inspectors: The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), and the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI). If you’re going to hire a home inspector, should they be a member of one of these organizations? And if so, which one?

First, consider licensing

When the home inspection profession was new, it was important to have an organization for home inspectors. There were many questions that needed answering: What’s a home inspection? What does a home inspector do? Not do? What are the ethical responsibilities of a home inspector? What qualifies someone to be a home inspector? And a thousand others. ASHI was formed in 1976 to help answer these questions and turn this occupation into a profession. If you were going to hire a home inspector, it was important to hire someone who belonged to a professional organization.

But things have changed a lot since the late ’70s. In 1997, New Jersey was the first state to enact licensing for home inspectors. Many other states have followed suit since then; today, 70% of states have licensing or regulation for home inspectors. Requirements are wildly different from state to state, but most have a few things in common:

• Get trained. Probably through an accredited school.
• Pass an exam. Most states rely on the National Home Inspector Exam.
• Keep learning. This is called Continuing Education, aka CE.
• Follow the rules. ASHI established the first set of standards for home inspectors, and states typically adopt their own versions that look similar to ASHI’s.
• Pay your dues. Regulation costs money.

Regulated state: If you’re going to hire a home inspector in a regulated state, you can feel confident that your home inspector is at least doing the stuff above. Just make sure they’re licensed/registered/whatever. It’s usually not important for your home inspector to be a member of a national organization in a licensed state.

Unregulated state: If you’re in an unregulated state like Minnesota, there are no rules. Anyone can call themselves a home inspector. This is where I think it’s important for a home inspector to belong to an organization. The home inspector will need to follow a Standard of Practice, abide by a Code of Ethics, get continuing education, etc. If you want to know about the regulations for your own state, check out this regulation map.

ASHI vs. InterNACHI

These organizations have very different Standards of Practice. And in my humble opinion, it doesn’t make much difference to the quality of the inspection.

The Code of Ethics are different too… and again, I don’t think this makes much difference. Inspectors in both groups want to do the right thing.

Neither organization requires formal training, but both require continuing education. I’m not going to split hairs on the differences, because it’s boring.

The most notable difference is the entrance exam. InterNACHI uses its own internal exam; it can be done anytime, anywhere, as many times as you want, and it’s free. It’s not allowed by most states for licensing. ASHI uses the National Home Inspector Exam to be an ASHI Certified Inspector (ACI), which is their highest designation. This exam is used for licensing in most licensed states. It can only be taken at a proctored testing center, it’s not cheap, and there’s a waiting period if you fail. It’s a high-stakes exam.

So what’s the bottom line?

There are great home inspectors in both organizations, and there are surely some others in both. It’s far more difficult for a home inspector to achieve full ACI status in ASHI than to be a member of InterNACHI, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a superior home inspection.

The biggest “tell” for me is home inspection insurance companies. If members of one organization consistently produced fewer complaints or lawsuits than the other group, we’d see a difference in rates between the two groups. But that doesn’t exist. If anyone should care, it’s insurance companies. The fact that they’ll charge me the same insurance rate no matter which group I belong to is all I need to know.

Before you hire a home inspector, check their ratings online. Spend time on their website getting to know them. And read a sample report. This stuff is far more important than the organization your home inspector belongs to.

ps – I’m not unbiased

While my company slogan is Delivering the Unbiased Truth®, I’m actually quite biased on a couple of the topics in this post. First, I’ve been a member of ASHI since 2004. I’ve served on numerous ASHI committees, was a director for three years, and a chapter president for five years. All of the inspectors at Structure Tech are members of ASHI.

Also, I’m currently a director on the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors, which creates and maintains the National Home Inspector Exam. All inspectors at Structure Tech are required to pass the National Home Inspector Exam before conducting their first inspection.

And for the record, I wrote a similar blog post back in 2015, and my conclusions were the same back then: Q&A: What’s the difference between home inspection organizations?