As an educator and a professional home inspector, I am often asked by fellow inspectors, “Why do I need to be part of an association?” To be honest, you don’t. For the first six years after I got licensed, I had no desire to join an association of any type. Why would I need to? I held my residential contractor’s license and was pursuing my roofing contractor’s license. I know code, building practices, I took and taught continuing education (CE), and I just didn’t see the point in joining a professional association., was I wrong!

In 2016 I was looking at getting my required CE out of the way and started doing some research for where I could obtain focused home inspector education. I stumbled across a state-wide group called FABI (Florida Association of Building Inspectors) and they were having their summer conference only 45 miles from me, in Pinellas County. I filled out the registration and sent in my sample report.

That June, I attended my first FABI conference. With the “New Member” label on my name tag, I was approached by a few board members, including Mr. Manny Gonzalez and Mr. John Shishilla. These two men whom I had never met welcomed me to the conference and really made me feel welcomed. I don’t think I have ever had that kind of an experience with any organization before. So, I made it official and became a member of my first professional association.

That single conference taught me so much I didn’t know and reaffirmed the things I did. It wasn’t the classes or speakers that provided this education, it was the side-bar conversations over breakfast, lunch, and at breaks. How can you quantify that type of education? You can’t submit it to the state for CE approval. You can’t put a stopwatch on the conversations to track the time spent talking. The membership fee didn’t come close to the value of the knowledge that was shared that first weekend alone.

Since then, I have attended as many conferences as I can, was elected to the board of directors for the 2019/2020 term, became one of the instructors, started an official West Coast chapter, and joined even more associations. I became more involved than I ever thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, the live classes and presentations are always filled with more information than I could ever imagine. But it is the comradery and shared knowledge of 200-300 fellow inspectors several times a year where so much is learned.

Since 2016, I have developed my own training classes, been consulted as a knowledgeable professional, asked to travel to other association events to present, and given an unexpected opportunity to meet the elite leaders of the national associations, all because I attended that conference the summer of 2016. I have grown so much as a professional and I appreciate the opportunities provided to me by my FABI brothers and sisters in this amazing organization. Other associations have their own strengths as well, and I am a proud member of them:

  • ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) is known everywhere and currently has the most widely accepted national exam and standards of practices.
  • InterNACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors) along with the CMI® (Certified Master Inspector) program has by far the most online education and some of the best benefits for inspectors anywhere in the world.

But it is FABI, this little statewide association, that has my true loyalty. It is an organization led by Florida inspectors, with a sole focus on Florida-specific issues. FABI is “MY” association.