field inspector

inspector

insurance consultant

field technician

employment specialist

Millennium Information Services, Inc.

For the first couple months, it seemed the pay wasn't going to be enough to make it work, but I must have passed a threshold and they sent me a new pay sheet, and it got a lot better.
The secret is that you WRITE OFF your milage to reduce your TAXABLE INCOME. For example, if you made $30k over the year but drove 16,000 miles, you have a $9,200 write off (16000 * .575), or reduction in your taxable income. You can also factor in your office supplies as a write off, and your cell service, and your home internet service, and your home office percentage of your rent or mortgage. You might only pay taxes on $17k of income, rather than $30k. Just throwing out numbers. Also, you can choose itemized car deductions where you track all car expenses, but most people just use the .575 per mile write off.
After California enacted changes to the way Independent Contractors are employed, I was offered a job with MIS as an employee, with paid holidays, medical, PTO, and sick time. They already knew my work style, and there have been no major additional demands placed on me. Also, they pay the milage with each check and it's tax-free, and the hourly wage is in the $15 to $20 range.
I like the job. When I describe what I do to people I get excited by it. I get to see a lot of beautiful areas, I get paid to drive (for me, about 4-500 miles a week), I meet different people and then I go on my way. I make my own schedule. They prefer I only work 8 hours a day and I like that. I could go on. For me it works. Oh and I like the 50% field work and 50% data entry at home aspect of the job, too.
I may be the exception, but generally I feel fortunate to have found a job that demands new skills i've developed over time, where I photograph and take note of liabilities, construction materials, water availability, the like. Pre-Covid I would do "high value" inspections photographing the interiors of some pretty neat homes. Jeez I gotta stop like I said whenever I talk about this job...



The real work once hired...
First, run this 1099 as a business.  You WILL travel up to an hour for your first address.  It will take you about 15 minutes to get all of your pictures.  You MUST sketch each property to the foot.  If you don't they will use Google Earth to verify.  They will reject your work.  So now an hour to the address now becomes another trip back.
When you do a handful of addresses, you must return to your office/home edit each picture, and draw the sketch using their software.  This is very time-consuming.  The average single-family home exterior only can take up to or more than an hour.
The average pay per single submission is about $15.  

Now do the math.  The travel there and back with fuel, wear and tear on your vehicle, the time it takes you to do the work and it might get rejected because things aren't perfect via measurements or the angles of the images are not what they want or you didn't document something in the image that they have seen will all be rejected.

REMEMBER:
If you save the mileage for taxes this might save you a few dollars.  You are also able to get tax breaks on any maintenance on your vehicle and food.  This would also include any clothing and equipment you may need to complete the job (Camera, Camera Pole, Construction yellow shirts, etc...)

When you do the math and calculate this as a business inside Millennium you average about $6.50 per hour.

They say over time you'll get pretty good and it will take you 15 minutes but honestly, you have to be realistic.  You might get some jobs that require no sketching and therefore this would be correct.  But when you add the sketching and measuring while some homes are more complicated this will take you a minimum of 45 minutes.

I would love to stick with this company but when you are a 1099 and trying to run this as a business while doing other things within your business like other inspections for other companies this becomes non-profitable; in-fact you loose money.

You are not really an employee here. You are your own business and your own day to day manager. That has its benefits, but you have to be motivated to complete your tasks. You better be motivated, because you will be expected to do complete surveys within 2-3 business days after they are assigned and in a rural market that is nearly impossible. It wasn't as bad before they were bought out by a new company. If you take it on as a part time position expecting to make $250 a month or something in a small area it would probably be fine. If you live in a large urban area, you can probably complete 25 inspections in a day and stay up all night completing them to make an average of $15 per survey and complete them by the end of the week to make them happy. Mileage will eventually destroy your car, and the costs of tires and repair of your vehicle is on you. You need to work all of that projected cost into your income expectations, especially in a rural market.  There is no vehicle reimbursement, except for very special situations when you travel for special work. Then, it still isn't enough. I loved the freedom of doing work for them, but I am not sure I would do it again because of the issues mentioned above.

Appointments are where you will make the bulk of your income, however, getting appointments can be a challenge: customers were not told one was requires, people on vacation, missed appointments etc. The majority of inspections are exteriors which average $10 each. If you are in an area that is suburban or rural ( especially if its rural) you may only be able to complete 2 or three inspections in an hr. especially if a sketch is required. Subtract your office/report completion time ( and office supplies such as paper/ink) and you are making at or below min. wage while occurring a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle and you receive no mileage compensation ( many other similar companies give so much per mile after 30-60 miles from your home office). No bonuses, or other incentives offered or increases ( as far as my experience) in base inspection pay even after a year plus. They say this is part time, but you will put full time hours in. And if you wish to do this an actual try to make a living in this field with this, you will have to work hours equivalent to a full and part time job. I now work for two other similar companies who for base exterior inspections average $15 per inspection plus mileage, an increase to base inspection or appointment inspection fees for missed appointments, wrong addresses, and larger sq. foot homes/structures.

I have been in the inspection business since the 90's , have worked for many different companies over the years  , When I started doing inspections I got $25-$45 per inspection . and many of them some days I would get 30 jobs faxed over to me and I covered Maine from Kittery to Fort kent , we had no GPS back then .
In todays world we make  $15 -$20 per basic exterior inspection , but we do at times can make more on each  inspections when a more through one is needed . each inspector  has their own area to work. 
Over all I am still working for Millennium , I feel they have a great training program , and they do care for us inspectors to do a better job so we can make more money on our end ..

Bottom line is one has to go with the flow , use your time wisely , group the jobs  together so you do not use more gas and time on an inspection . One thing is this company allows up  to 20 days to do an inspection , which most companies give you 4-7 days for turn around .
When I read the negatives on this company , all I see is complaints , I see people that wants to make money , but to make money one needs to work at it . I'm 71 years old now and still working , for me I just like meeting people and see different places , much better than sitting home doing nothing

A quality reviewer is to review and edit multiple screens of info including photos and a house diagram all in five minutes per policy. This is not enough time to review without errors slipping through. You are given multiple accounts with different specs but are not compensated for the additional knowledge you need to jump from each account. Instead, management treats you as if you are slacking off. I worked for years with about three or so errors a month. In the last year, many of us reviewers started getting notices that we were having more than ten errors. I find this very odd as I certainly was not slacking off. I worked from home, but this job was stricter than any positions I've ever had. I sat in silence everyday, as even a radio would be too distracting to concentrate and all the info that needed reviewing. I had more freedom and less stress working in a regular office. The company has been laying off reviewers, but instead needs to provide a decent time frame to review each policy accurately.

Advertise being paid $20-90 /hr, not true at all. Fails to mention you drive your own vehicle with no reimbursement. You drive miles from one inspection to the next and pay is not worth the gas, mileage and wear and tear put on vehicle. Once hired non paid training. Says paid weekly but I went several times not being paid on Friday like stated in my contract. You do field work which is very time consuming and a lot of driving. Then have to do data entry very time consuming not worth the pay. Especially being that you are adding miles to your vehicle I added up 6,000 miles in 2 months, destroyed my new vehicle and Im responsible for cost of tires and repairs. 

Stay away from this place! Unless you like racking up a bunch of mileage on your car for a $8 "inspection". They feed you this info in training that you can do 5 or 6 inspections in a hour amd make a bunch except the assigned jobs where all over the place and usually had a good 15-20min in between each of them. Sometime you get lucky and have them relatively close. But your job isn't done there, you then go home and do your reports and sketches for each house so tack on some more time there for that $8 you already drove for. Drove all over to do 70 houses in a week plus reports all for under $400. Honestly your probably better off with Doordash instead of these guys.

They started out with a bait and switch, talked about all these amazing $40 and $90 inspections then we get assigned TONS of $9 and $11 inspections requiring sketches and 20 to 30 photos. Absolutely bonkers! Needless to say it's all on your dime too. Gas, mileages and wear and tear. They have a crazy 15 day turn around and expect you to cover entire counties and fight and argue with people who don't want inspections done. Run away from this place. 

Oh and you will be traveling on to people's properties where they don't know you're coming and can end up in a very dangerous situation. 

For the money that this company pays out you definetly need a perfect working vehicle. Otherwise this is not a company you should work for. I was always under the impression that the work was going to pick up but it never did and at first my vehicle was running excilent, but when it came time to give it some maintenance (as I often do for the purpose if the engine life) I never seemed to make enough money to pay my bills and maintaine my vehicle.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Field inspector 109 salaries reported	$55.00 per hour
Inspector 4 salaries reported	$35.00 per hour
Insurance consultant 9 salaries reported	$49,000 per year
Field technician 1 salary reported	$44,500 per year
Employment specialist 5 salaries reported	$46,500 per year

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