Home inspectors should embrace this technology for these reasons:

• Offering IR as an add-on to your normal work may give you a competitive edge. In fact, within a few years the use of thermography will be so widespread that if you do not offer IR, you will not be able to compete. Why not get ahead of the curve?

• People like you, who already know about building construction, have a much better chance of successfully using this technology than anyone else. Most infrared thermographers have no experience with buildings, so they have to learn about buildings. The infrared part is much easier to learn than the building part.

• As home inspectors, you already have the perfect market and client base. It is natural for you to offer this service.

• Rapid advances in infrared technology and the manufacturers’ economies of scale, have decreased prices on starter infrared cameras to the sub-$10,000 range and the trend is for even lower prices. If a home inspector can get enough business and skill using IR, he will able to afford to add this technology to his services.

• The message boards, forums and articles are a completely free resource for you to learn about infrared and interact with other home inspectors interested in this technology and experts in infrared thermography.

• To learn about anything, it is always valuable to have a mentor to call and ask about things you don’t understand. The message boards will allow you to ask a question or post an image and have experts tell you what you are seeing or how to get the image you need.

• You can rent an IR camera from a pool and the price is low enough to where you can try the technology without making a huge investment.

• Training classes are geared toward people like you…those with a building background learning about infrared. Nobody wants to waste time in a class where basic building skills take up most of the class time.

• Timing now is good. Energy efficiency and “green” buildings are becoming more important issues with energy prices on the rise.