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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. EBPHI has achieved accreditation as a producer of examinations and has also achieved accreditation for its National Home Inspector Examination®. Click here to see the press release for more information. 

EBPHI Accreditation Award Letter 

Before taking the NHIE, test takers are encouraged to review the exam Content Outline which includes:

  • Inspection methods
  • Reporting
  • Building Systems, including exterior systems, structural systems, roofing systems, electrical systems, heating and cooling systems, insulating and ventilating systems, plumbing systems, interior systems, and fireplace and chimney systems
  • Professional practice

Starting January 21, 2024 all examinations will follow the updated Content Outline that is based off of the 2022 Role Delineation Survey.

Many member-based associations/organizations have their own Standards of Practice. EBPHI’s sole purpose is to develop and maintain high-stakes examinations for the real estate inspection profession and to advocate for high standards for the profession. It is governed by a volunteer board of directors, but it is not a membership organization.

Membership organizations and for-profit companies have inherent conflicts of interest in providing tests for public protection. Trade and professional organizations are focused on the agendas and market concerns of dues-paying members. For-profit entities may have a bias toward generating revenue rather than protecting the consumer and enhancing the home inspection profession. Because EBPHI does not depend on membership dues revenue, it is free to focus wholly on consumer protection in home inspector competency assessment.

The National Home Inspector Examination® contains 200 multiple-choice questions. Of the 200 questions on the exam, 25 of those are pretest questions that are not scored. You are given four hours to complete the exam.

The National Home Inspector Examination® is administered at more than 300 testing centers nationwide and in Canada. All centers are equipped with touchscreen computer technology and most are available six days a week. Examinees may register online here.

Please note – If you are seeking licensing in Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee or Washington State, you MUST take the National Home Inspector Examination® through those states’ contracted test administrators.

The National Home Inspector Examination® is a home inspector competence assessment tool developed in accordance with accepted psychometric standards, insuring an unbiased, valid and reliable assessment of your skill, knowledge and experience.

The NHIE is used in 35 states and several Canadian provinces for home inspector regulation. It is also a membership requirement for the American Society of Home Inspectors,  American Institute of InspectorsHawaii Association of Home InspectorsAlberta Professional Home Inspectors SocietyCanadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors, and California Real Estate Inspection Association and is reimbursed by the US Veterans’ Administration.

To register online:

– Click here to find the online registration link for your state
– Sign in or create a new account
– Click on Register for a Test from the option on the right side of the screen
– Select Organizations – Government/State Licensing Agencies
– Select Jurisdiction – A National Home Inspector Examination (EBPHI)
– Select Account – National Home Inspector (EBPHI)
– Under Exam, click National Home Inspector Examination
– Follow the prompts to fill out demographic information and process payment

To register by phone:

– Call 855-807-3992

The National Home Inspector Examination® is available at any time the testing center you select is open for business and has seats available. Advance registration is required. Examinees may register online here.

The National Home Inspector Examination® fee is $225 per test in most states and in Canada. Please confirm when you call or register online.

There are many home inspector training companies and programs throughout North America. EBPHI does not review or endorse these programs. Be sure to compare any curriculum you are considering to the Content Outline of the National Home Inspector Examination®. Every question on the National Home Inspector Examination® is referenced to a published source or based on the consensus of the Subject Matter Experts (SME). This reference list does not imply that study of all or only these materials is required to pass the exam.

To aide candidates in their preparation to take the exam, we offer several manuals and practice quizzes for purchase.

EBPHI has created two manuals to to assist prospective home inspectors prepare and properly study to pass the NHIE – the Mechanical Systems and NHIE Content Manual and the Structural Systems and Business ManualClick here to purchase the manuals.

Many come to the home inspection profession as a second or a third career and may not have taken a professional entrance exam for many years, if ever. These manuals help to familiarize the candidate with the examination itself, and with the associated administrative procedures. They also include helpful insights into the types of questions the exam contains, and techniques for success.

References:

  • National Home Inspector Exam, Home Inspection Manual, 2019.
  • International Residential Code (IRC) 2015, 2018.
  • National Electrical Code, 2014, 2017.  
  • Carson/Dunlop, The Home Reference Book, 27th Edition.
  • A Practical Guide to Home Inspection, 2016. 

The Whole House quiz contains 50 questions and all other quizzes contain 25 questions. After purchasing, a quiz may only be taken once. To take a quiz more than once, additional purchases must be made. Feedback for missed questions will be provided at the end of each quiz. Click here to purchase a practice quiz.

There is no longer an online sample test available.

The National Home Inspector Examination® is scored by a scaled scoring system, which is used by exams like the ACT and SAT in the United States.

Since there are multiple versions of the NHIE, a scaled scoring system is a fair way to evaluate, score and adjust for differences in difficulty between the questions that appear on different versions of the exam. This method takes the raw score (the number of questions answered correctly) and converts it to a score between 200 and 800, with a passing scaled score of 500.

If, for one version of the exam, the determined raw passing score is 86, that score is then converted to the passing scaled score of 500. Scores lower than 86 will be scaled to numbers lower than 500 and scores higher than 86 will be scaled to numbers higher than 500.

The NHIE examination is designed to measure a candidate’s overall performance. Examination content area scores are not used to determine pass/fail status but are provided to offer a general indication of a candidate’s performance and may be used to assist in evaluating relative areas of strengths and weakness in each content area.

Scores are reported as scaled scores. A candidate’s total score determines whether he/she has passed or failed the examination after a comparison to the cut score. The cut score for a multiple-choice examination is the result of a study that is intended to define the minimum acceptable performance level and link this level to an examination score by relying on data collected from a panel of subject matter experts.

In the United States, you will receive one copy of your official passing score report before you leave the testing center. In Canada, your score report will be mailed to you. Score reports vary depending on your state and testing center.

Your passing score report may show your score on the scale of 200-800 or it may simply state PASS or FAIL. In most states, failing score reports show a graph of your performance in each content area of the exam. To find out more about what to expect on your score report, please contact your testing center directly.

Testing centers cannot provide score reports for test-takers who took the NHIE prior to 2010. Please contact us if you need assistance obtaining a duplicate score report for examinations taken prior to 2010.

No. You will receive your official score sheet with unique identification number and digital photo at the end of the examination. It’s your responsibility to follow through with the appropriate authority in your state.

Not right away. While the National Home Inspector Examination® is accepted in the majority of states, regulatory bodies will have additional requirements to fulfill for licensing. Check with the regulatory body in any state in which you intend to perform home inspections to be sure you are working within the parameters of the law.

We understand it is extremely disappointing to not pass an exam. The following may assist you in understanding the purpose of a high stakes exam, studying for the exam, and assisting you in passing the exam.

Some individuals have not been in a school or a test taking experience since high school or college, if ever. Getting yourself ready to take a high stakes exam requires understanding of test taking skills.

  • Read the question before you look at the answer.
  • Come up with the answer in your head before looking at the possible answers, this way the choices given on the test won’t throw you off or trick you.
  • Eliminate answers you know are not correct.
  • Read all the choices before choosing your answer.
  • If there is no guessing penalty, always take an educated guess and select an answer.
  • Do not go back and change your answer, usually your first choice is the right one, unless you misread the question.
  • A positive choice is more likely to be true than a negative one.

In some cases, the test taker simply does not know the material as well as they may think and are relying on the course of instruction and the course exams provided by the trainer.  We encourage test takers to review the exam content outline prior to taking the NHIE.

The 30-day waiting period between retakes of the exam is standard practice for high-stakes public protection exams like the NHIE. This wait period is in place to ensure the integrity of the exam. There is no exception to this policy unless otherwise required by law or regulation.

If you pass the NHIE and you are eligible for GI Bill education benefits you may be eligible to get reimbursed for the cost of this exam. You will need to complete a VBA-22-0803-ARE and submit it to the VA for reimbursement. When you submit the VBA-22-0803-ARE make sure you remember to include a copy of your receipt of paid in full for this exam, and a copy of your exam results. For questions please contact the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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