50 Years of ASHI

Similar organizations have come and gone, but the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) is still going strong, celebrating 50 years in 2026. That’s largely due to the diligent work of so many volunteers, said David Goldstein, a member of ASHI for more than 40 years and one of ASHI’s few lifetime ASHI Members. He grew up in the home inspection business, as his father was one of the first in the country to do this work.

“Currently, I am the chairman of the Standards of Practice and Ethics committee. Our committee has been working for the past almost five years on updating the Home Inspection Standard of Practice. There are a lot of committees out there with a lot of very dedicated volunteers looking to make ASHI the best and to keep it ahead of the curve,” Goldstein said. 

Goldstein has experienced the home inspection business from every angle—starting in 1973 with his parents’ family-owned multi-inspector firm, where he worked for several years. The company grew to become one of the largest independently owned and operated businesses in the country. By 1988, Goldstein and his wife, Dee, started their own home inspection company—AMBIC Building Inspection Consultants. From franchising to teaching, Goldstein has done it all and looks over his 40-plus years as a Member fondly. Today the New Jersey-based inspector’s services cover the Garden State and Pennsylvania, and he spends much of his time teaching. He frequently teaches continuing education at ASHI chapters throughout the country and at InspectionWorlds and is a court-qualified expert witness in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

Evolving Over the Years 

Educational opportunities have evolved greatly over ASHI’s many years, from in-person education only to virtual opportunities to today’s many hybrid classes. Goldstein recommends new inspectors take advantage of in-person learning opportunities as much as possible, in part for the networking and, just as importantly, the chance to learn from older inspectors. “There’s a wealth of knowledge out there. Take advantage of what us old guys have in our brains,” he said. 

ASHI has helped to facilitate many improvements to the industry over the years. “If you talk about how things have changed, in the old days there was no such thing as ‘errors and omissions’ insurance, or E&O,” Goldstein said. “I was one of ASHI’s first insurance committee chairmen. I helped put together one of the early insurance programs ASHI had available for its members. That was about 35 or 40 years ago.” 

He said licensing for home inspectors has had a huge impact on the profession. “Most of it has been positive, but some of it has been for the negative—such as weak regulations that a state might have passed. In other cases, you have very strong regulation and legislation, and that’s made a big difference.”

While Goldstein was fortunate to learn from his father, he said most home inspectors starting out 40 or 50 years ago were not so lucky. “Typically speaking, in those days home inspectors had no place to go; there were no schools or education available,” Goldstein said, adding that while ASHI had a few educational chapters, that really seemed to flourish in the ’80s, in large part due to ASHI and its dedicated Members. In the 1980s, two ASHI Charter members, John Cox and Speed Williams, started a school in the DC area, Goldstein said. “That was one of the first schools that I’m aware of. I can remember attending one of their classes.” 

Education has come a long way over the decades. Today, state regulations, licensing, and other varied requirements exist for home inspectors depending on where they work. Classroom training of 80 to more than 120 or even 140 hours and field training may also be required, Goldstein said, and that has largely helped the profession, he said. 

Goldstein has held a number of positions with ASHI over the years, including at local and national levels, and he’s watched as many committees and chapters thrived. “There’s a lot of other people who are just as committed and who’ve given the same amount of time I have,” he said. “The education committee has done a phenomenal job with education programs they put together over the years. At one time, ASHI had a technical committee who provided all sorts of resources to inspectors. The membership committee is always striving to provide all sorts of member benefits that will help not only promote the individual member but ASHI as well. ASHI has made inroads with some of the largest federal agencies, like HUD. There have been a lot of things that have been done over the years by a lot of people to help not only ASHI as an association but always also striving to help the individual members.” 

InspectionWorld & Camaraderie

InspectionWorld (IW) is a major highlight and ASHI benefit, as home inspectors travel from all over the country for the annual conference. Goldstein has taught at a number of IWs and will be teaching at the 2026 event, coinciding with ASHI’s 50th anniversary, February 15 to 18, 2026, at Valley Forge Casino & Resort in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. 

“I always look forward to those. I think in my career with ASHI I’ve only missed maybe two or three,” Goldstein said. “There’s a camaraderie that has developed. I get to see home inspectors I know from around the country, some of whom have become good friends for many years; perhaps it’s the only occasion where I get to see them face-to-face.” 

Goldstein will teach two classes at this year’s IW—one focused on structural defects and when to call an engineer, and another on consulting work and becoming an expert witness.

While education is the main focus of IW, the connections home inspectors make there can last a lifetime, Goldstein said. Some of the friendships he’s forged at IW, he said, are certainly unforgettable. “I’ve long thought if I ever did a cross-country trip and if I ever had any kind of problem for any reason during that trip, I probably have someone I could rely on almost anywhere I could go. That’s a wonderful thing,” he said.  

He said in general everyone he’s met through this work has been eager to share their expertise and experience to help other home inspectors. “It’s very rare that you’ll find somebody who doesn’t want to help you because they’re worried about helping their competition. It’s been more the opposite, where home inspectors embrace their local competition because they realize if they help their competitors, in the long run they’re raising the bar and helping not only themselves but they’re helping the profession.” 

Tom Lauhon is one fellow inspector Goldstein has worked with a lot over the years, on various ASHI committees and the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors Study (EBPHI). Based in the Kansas City area, Lauhon has been a home inspector since 1989 and an ASHI Member since 1992, when Kansas City started an ASHI chapter, of which Lauhon has been president multiple times. The group grew to the point where, in the late ’90s, they had to spin off into multiple chapters. “Our membership was growing, and people from out of town were coming, so we spun off a group in Wichita and a group down in the Ozarks and a third one in Columbia,” Lauhon said. 

While in the inspection business, Lauhon owned the Midwest Inspectors institute and trained more than 2,000 inspectors. Lauhon has also served as Standards Chair and created the standalone deck standard and the standalone radon standard, which even the EPA turned to for its helpful checklist, he said. Most recently, he served as the Education Chair through the end of 2025. 

Lauhon said being part of the ASHI community has been among the biggest perks of his time with the organization, while he points to credibility as the biggest benefit. He fondly recalls the first-class education and attending InspectionWorld over the years and sharing “war stories.” “The education is great; there’s no question there. And what happens in the hallway and in the vending room is probably worth as much if not more than what you get out of the classroom. I have lectured for ASHI a few times,” Lauhon said. 

While technology and needs are ever-changing, Lauhon said ASHI has done more good for the home inspection industry over the past 50 years than any other inspection organization. “ASHI was so well respected that if FHA or the VA was going to change anything in their program regarding homebuyers, ASHI had a seat at the table,” he said. 

He said the National Home Inspection Exam (NHIE) spun off from ASHI, too, as it had to be an independent organization for national certification. Lauhon helped to create their training manuals. 

Goldstein says education will continue to be crucial for all home inspectors, and ASHI will remain committed on that front. “Think about the rapid pace of technological changes that have helped our profession. Construction materials and methodology are changing, and home inspectors are going to need to keep pace with that as well. At the same time, the housing stock is getting older in the country. Home inspectors are going to need to know not only about the older, historic homes built 250 to 300 years ago, such as those common in some areas of the country, but also we have to be on top of all the new materials and methods that are now being used. Education is going to be paramount for home inspectors.”