Bellingham Technical College and Washington Approved Home Inspector Education

Anyone who, from this point forward, wishes to enter the field of home inspection in the state of Washington will require proof of having completed a state approved fundamentals of home inspection course. There are only a few such courses available in the state, many of which require purchasing a franchise. The first course approved by the state, and offered through the state college system, is taught at Bellingham Technical College.

Prospective home inspectors and, also, experienced home inspectors who did not get their licenses prior to the law being implemented -- September 1, 2009 -- are now required to take the 120 hours of classroom training. Read that again: classroom training. Since I am involved as  coordinator of the training program for BTC, I am often asked  why people should choose classroom training instead of a correspondence or online course. That is easily answered -- such courses do not count and, while they might be interesting, the training will not be approved by the state. If the goal is to qualify to be an inspector in Washington state, then only classroom training will be accepted.

After the course is complete, at the end of the three weeks, students take one week of field training which is supervised by the BTC adjunct faculty -- all licensed and working home inspectors. Below is a photo of a recent class arriving on-site for that morning's inspection. 

These real inspections are invaluable to students because it gives them an opportunity to put the detailed information they learned in class into practical use. Each student, to graduate from the course and to receive a certificate from the school,  must complete all 120 hours of training, take a test and do five reports as part of the 40 hours of field training.

This is a very intense class, an understatement for sure,  but I have yet to have a student, even experienced builders, walk away without saying that they learned a great deal of valuable information that they did not know before.  The next class begins October 5, 2009 and will be held in Bellingham. Students, who have completed the course and field training, may submit their documentation to the state and then they will be allowed to sit for the licensing exams. Anyone who is interested in obtaining more information on the BTC program, may follow the link that is located to the side of George's head.

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