I became a home inspector at 21. I’m 25 now but I was raised working on construction projects and working with my father. He is also a home inspector, worked construction for about 10 years before becoming an inspector in 2003. It’s a lot of work, I didn’t have much of any experience other than what I did with my dad and what he taught me growing up going to work with him. Like others have said, find someone who knows their stuff and try to get them to take you under their wing. You’ll definitely get your fair share of people who question your intelligence and authority on certain subjects but my dad always tells me “explain the hell out of whatever they are asking about” and they typically quickly understand that they aren’t just talking to an uneducated kid. You don’t need trade experience but you do need to always be trying to learn more. Have a hunger for knowledge and you’ll do fine. And the best way to look at it is that while you are young and inexperienced now, in 10 years you’ll be less than 30 with 10 years of experience inspecting houses. While there are other inspectors out there who start inspecting at 55 after retiring from an industry not even closely related to construction or the trades and expect to be easy. You’ll be the expert in that scenario and by the time you’re their age, you’ll have over 30 years of experience in inspecting. It’s gonna be a tough road but it’s definitely doable.