Anyone who wants to pursue home inspection in the Sunshine State should know that the profession is regulated, like in some other thirty-three states. In Florida, the agency charged with the responsibility of license issuance is the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Specifically, the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC), of the Division of Real Estate) is the one that will issue you your home inspection license.
Read about my journey from cleaner to home inspector.
Here are the steps of getting what the Floridian agency calls a Home Inspector – Initial Active License by Examination:
Familiarize yourself with the state’s basic requirements
If yours is licensure by examination, the DBPR requires that you complete a 120-hour pre-licensure course from any of the Floridian approved institutions. The program taken should cover the eight (8) components of a home.
Upon getting licensed, you will need to present evidence of having done Continuing Education (CE) of at least 14 hours. It should be from the list of approved CE Floridian courses. The Department will require this of you during license renewal.
Do the Home Inspection Course
From the course list, here are the schools which the DBPR has approved for pre-licensing education (the 120 hours):
- A Better School of Building Inspection
- AAA Construction School, Inc.
- All American Association of Home Inspect
- ASHI (American Society for Home Inspectors) School
- Boss Construction School
- Champions School of Real Estate, Ltd.
- Cooke Real Estate School
- Dade Real Estate School
- Florida Home Inspector Institute In
- Stephens & Associates, Inc.
- General Home Inspections, Inc.
- Gold Coast School of Construction Inc.
- Home Inspection Academy
- Home Inspection University
- Inspection Certification Associates
- Inspection Institute LLC
- InspectionGo Training Academy
- Institute Of Florida Real Estate Careers
- InterNACHI
- Koning Enterprises Inc. Dba Contractors
- Mbition LLC
- Miami Dade College-School of Continuing
- National Education Seminars of Florida I
- National Institute Of Building Inspector
- National Property Inspections, Inc.
- Pillar to Post Professional Home Inspect
- Professional Home Inspection Institute
- World Inspection Network
The course list has 28 providers (institutions) and a total of 36 programs.
Attend the Exam
After completing the course, you need to write and pass any of the examinations approved by the DPBR. Here is the list of approved institutions/tests that the Department has published:
- Association of Construction Industry’s Certified Home & Property Inspector Examination (CI-HPI)
- Florida Association of Building Inspectors, FABI
- Florida Association of Building Inspectors, FABI
You can do this test either at a test center or at home. The test is $200 and is a compilation of 100 multiple-choice questions. - InterNACHI Florida Home Inspector Licensing Examination ($125 per exam)
- National Home Inspector Examination, the NHIE ($225 per test)
Apply for Your Certificate
As your fill in the application form (online or by hand), ensure you put a tick (✓) before all the following items:
- Give an application (registration) fee of $230 – payable to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
- Complete all background check items, and offer explanations where your answer to any of the questions is yes.
- Obtain general liability (or third party insurance) in the amount of $300,000.
- Fingerprinting – Here, you can use any Livescan Service Provider approved by the Department of Law Enforcement. Ensure that the ORI (Originating Agency Identification) is given to the service provider as you submit your fingerprints. If not, the DBPR will not accept your fingerprint results.
- Produce copies of all the applicable certificates from the course provider and the passing examination evidence.
In Florida, license renewal comes every two years. Then is when you need to present evidence of a completed 14-hour CE.
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