An Adventurous Career with ASHI

John J. Heyn loves to share stories—and he has some excellent ones to share, from the days before high-tech inspections to his work for Ralph Nader. One of ASHI’s first home inspectors, aka ASHI Member #5, Heyn has done a tremendous amount of good for the industry, too. 

Heyn, 93, is a past ASHI president and early Monahon Award winner who was one of the first home inspectors to charge a fee, helping to put home inspections on the map in his lifelong home of Baltimore. He served as chairman of the Baltimore Better Business Bureau (1992) and was chairman of the Maryland State Board of Home Inspection Licensing (2001). He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1954 with a BA degree and an NROTC commission, then served two years in the Navy as a LTJG aboard the DDR Hawkins 873 in the sixth fleet. He went on to become a residential builder in the Baltimore area, starting his home inspection business in 1968.  

“I think my biggest present to ASHI over the years, way back in the beginning, was being a pretty good promoter,” Heyn says. “I responded to all the magazines and newspapers who wanted to hear about this ‘new inspection service.’ I think it was helpful putting ASHI on the map back in those days. ASHI Founder Ron Passaro did a really good job, too. I’m proud of that, and I’m proud of how ASHI has grown.” 

While this year ASHI celebrates 50 years as the leading association for professional home inspectors, in 1976, Heyn was one of the first to sit in a small circle of people alongside Passaro as talk of starting a formal group began. 

Heyn had been conducting home inspections since the late ’60s, and Passaro, doing similar work, read about him in an article in The Wall Street Journal. “The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, you name it, everyone was writing about this new service called home inspection,” Heyn said. 

The Makings of ASHI 

Passaro reached out to ask Heyn if he’d be interested in taking part in a more formal group. By then, Heyn was selling franchises to people he considered qualified home inspectors, and the idea of forming a group of fully qualified home inspectors was compelling. “We picked the name—the American Society of Home Inspectors—and Ron said let’s meet midway,” Heyn recalled. Passaro was in Connecticut and Heyn in Baltimore. “We met at Rutgers, and that’s how it all began.” The late Phil Monahon (for whom a prestigious ASHI Award is now named), the late Claxton Walker, and the late  Paul O’Connell were also at that initial meeting, Heyn said.

Heyn got into home inspections at first simply to help friends. People he knew were getting married and starting to buy houses. Knowing Heyn had been a builder, they wanted his opinion. They typically gifted him a box of candy or handkerchiefs afterward. But those friends told their friends who told their friends, and all of a sudden Heyn realized he might have a business on his hands. He ran an ad in the Baltimore Sun. “Have your house inspected for $35,” he recalled it saying. “The business took off.” 

Not only did the average person take notice; Ralph Nader noticed, too. At the time, consumer advocacy was a popular topic, and Nader’s own commitment to the cause was published in a book he wrote called Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, published in 1965. 

In 1971, Nader asked Heyn to perform two inspections—one for his office in Dupont Circle and one for his parents’ house. Heyn was pleased after he finished the work and received the check from Nader, so much so that he turned it into a newspaper ad. “I was pretty naive in those days, business-wise,” Heyn laughed. “I ran a nice ad saying ‘Ralph Nader uses National Home Inspection Service,’ showing his check. Ralph Nader called and merely asked me to remove his personal check from my ad in The Washington Post.” In 1979 Heyn invited Nader to be a guest speaker at the annual ASHI conference in Baltimore. “He accepted and was impressed with the meeting of home inspectors,” Heyn said. 

Making a Difference

In 1973, Heyn was asked to testify during a hearing for the proposed Truth In Housing Act that would require home inspections for every house being sold. “The bill was initiated by US Senator Philip Hart from Michigan to address issues of full disclosure, and I was asked to testify because of my home inspection experience and ownership of a franchise,” Heyn said. The day went well. Unfortunately, Hart passed away after the hearing and before the vote, and the bill didn’t pass. 

Heyn was successful, though, in getting what became known as the “Heyn Clause” inserted into contracts in the Baltimore/DC area, helping to further protect homebuyers around that time. The clause noted that the sale was contingent upon a home inspection report satisfactory to the buyer, or all deposits were to be refunded, Heyn said. “This clause was popular and lasted for quite a few years,” he said.

When it comes to Heyn’s training, he showed countless people, including Monahon, the ropes across franchises. Back then, he’d have them fly into BWI (Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport) for the day to go out on an inspection with him and provide resources like brochures and one-page report forms. They could be back home in time for dinner. 

Always an Adventure 

Today, at 93, Heyn is still celebrating the wins of life. He spent 70 years with his wife before losing her two years ago, and he marked his 93rd birthday on the Eiffel Tower in 2025 with his son. “On my bucket list was I wanted to have a glass of champagne at the Eiffel Tower. My wife and I loved Paris so much.” 

Heyn said he doesn’t have many friends his age these days, and of those he does, many use walkers or wheelchairs. “All things considered, I’ve been very lucky. I live independently. I try to walk a mile every day in this nice park near where I live, and this winter I joined a fitness club with a nice indoor track and stationary bicycles. I don’t push myself too hard, but I work out at least an hour each day—everything in moderation at this point.” 

He looks back on the home inspection business fondly, remarking how the industry has grown since his days of stopping by a payphone at 7-11 to check his messages and get a Tastykake. “Certainly everyone knows about home inspections now,” he said. “I’m really pleased that the inspection business has spread all across North America.” 

It’s not easy for an organization to survive for 50 years, he said, let alone grow and advance. While he points to the Covid years as being tough, he said, “ASHI is still around and still growing, and its inspectors are able to handle all the high-tech services available to them now. In my day, I had a one-page report with a carbon copy. Now, inspectors can go through the house with an iPad or laptop and have the report almost completed by the time they get around the house. A lot of people do radon and mold testing, too. It’s a lot tougher now, and I really admire the inspectors today who can handle all that.”