Money · 1 of 5

What home inspectors make

Typical

$74,690

Starting out

$47,140

Busy owner-operator

$114,200

The national median is $74,690 a year and the bottom tenth start near $47,140. Read those carefully: the federal wage survey has no separate line for home inspectors, so it counts them inside Construction and Building Inspectors alongside salaried city code officials. Most home inspectors are self-employed and paid per inspection, so a slow housing market shows up in your income within weeks.