Minnesota to South Dakota: home inspector license reciprocity
Minnesota does not issue a statewide home inspector license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is South Dakota's standard path for out-of-state applicants.
Your origin state does not issue a statewide license at this level, so there is no license to transfer. The destination's standard out-of-state path is shown; expect to meet it in full.
Reference only, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with the licensing board before you apply. Full disclaimer.
Home inspector license for a person already licensed in another state
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
South Dakota names no partner state and keeps no reciprocity list, so the same test applies whichever state you arrive from. SDCL 36-21C-8 lets the Commission issue a home inspector license to a person who holds a valid license from another state, a United States possession or the District of Columbia whose standards the Commission finds substantially equivalent to South Dakota's, on payment of a fee and a written application. The equivalence judgment is the Commission's to make, case by case. The statute names no examination, no course of study and no period of registered practice for this route, and the rules add only one document: a certificate of licensure from your own licensing agency, completed within the 30 days before you apply, stating that your license is in good standing and that no complaint is pending. The route issues the full Licensed Home Inspector credential, so an experienced inbound inspector does not start at the registered grade or wait out a year and 100 inspections. The Commission may also sign written reciprocity agreements with states whose standards are equivalent, but it publishes none.
Confirm the details with the Commission office in Pierre before you spend anything. It does not publish which states it treats as substantially equivalent, a separate application form or fee for the SDCL 36-21C-8 route, or a written statement on whether it waives the South Dakota examination for an applicant it accepts under that section; the section itself does not impose the exam, but the only home inspector application form on the Commission's website is the examination route's form, which asks for original score reports and original education certification. The 28-day figure above comes from that form's covering letter, which asks applicants to allow two to four weeks for processing once a complete application is in. If you take the examination route instead, the order is fixed: at least a 40-hour approved course first, then the exam through PSI, then the application within 60 days of the score report, then a year at the registered grade and 100 paid inspections before the experience log upgrades you to Licensed Home Inspector. One concession is published in writing for people who keep a license elsewhere: ARSD 20:74:04:08 lets the Commission exempt a nonresident licensee from South Dakota continuing education if that person meets SDCL 36-21C-8 and all the home inspector licensing requirements of their state of residence.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Waived
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
- Typical processing
- About 28 days
What you must already have
- Your Minnesota license must be active and in good standing.The section sets no minimum number of years the license must have been held, no requirement that it was obtained by examination and no limit on how recently it was issued. It also names no state. Every determination is made by the Commission on the individual application.
- The Commission must find that the licensing state's standards are substantially equivalent to South Dakota's. SDCL 36-21C-8 reserves that judgment to the Commission and it is made when your application is reviewed, so compare your own state's education, examination and experience rules against South Dakota's 40-hour course, 190-question examination and year with 100 paid inspections before you apply.The Commission publishes no criteria, no scoring and no list of states it has already accepted or refused. ARSD 20:74:02:11 separately allows it to sign written reciprocity agreements with states whose standards are equivalent, which would remove the case-by-case judgment, but no such agreement appears anywhere on its website or in the rules.
- You must have no disciplinary action or unresolved complaints on your record.Because the certificate must be dated within 30 days of the application, order it from your home agency once the rest of the file is ready rather than at the start.
What you'll do to get licensed in South Dakota
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($200). Non-refundable application fee for a home inspector license or registration, set by ARSD 20:74:02:08 and capped at $200 by SDCL 36-21C-6(3). The Commission takes it by check or money order. SDCL 36-21C-8 requires payment of a fee with the written application on the out-of-state route as well, and the Commission publishes no different figure for it..
- 2Background check. Complete a background check ($50). Every applicant for licensure or registration submits to a state and federal criminal background investigation by fingerprint check through the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI, and pays for it: a separate $50 check payable to DCI accompanies the application, with fingerprint cards the Commission office supplies. South Dakota residents may instead pay online through the Livescan site at atg.sd.gov and be fingerprinted at a local Livescan agency. Do not submit fingerprints before the Commission has your signed application, because results that arrive early are destroyed and the payment is forfeited. Failure to submit or cooperate is a ground for denial, and SDCL 36-21C-13 lets the Commission refuse a license for a conviction or plea to a felony or to a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude..
- 3Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam (if applicable). The South Dakota Real Estate Home Inspector examination, delivered by PSI at test centers in Madison, Rapid City and Sioux Falls. It is 190 multiple-choice questions, about 90 percent on the components of a home inspection taught in the pre-licensing course and about 10 percent on South Dakota's home inspection statutes and rules, and the passing score is 75. This is the route for an applicant not already licensed elsewhere. SDCL 36-21C-8 names no examination, so someone accepted as coming from a state with substantially equivalent standards should ask the Commission whether it is waived rather than assume it either way. South Dakota does not adopt the National Home Inspector Examination by name in its statutes, rules or guidance and publishes no credit for an NHIE score earned elsewhere, but its own study guide states that the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors, which owns that national exam, sets the 30-day wait between attempts at the South Dakota exam..
- 4Exam fee. Pay the exam fee ($133) (if applicable). Examination registration fee, payable by credit card to PSI when you schedule. Registration is through PSI's scheduling site, by phone on 855.557.0623 or by mailed form, and the candidate handbook is released once you select the South Dakota Real Estate Home Inspector exam. A candidate who does not pass waits 30 days before the next attempt..
- 5Other. A Commission-approved pre-licensing course of at least 40 hours, covering the principles of home inspection and including the South Dakota statutes and rules on home inspectors. A classroom hour is at least 50 minutes of actual instruction and no more than eight hours may be taught in a day. It is the education condition for registration under SDCL 36-21C-5, and the application must show it was completed within the two years before filing, evidenced by the original education certification (Form 101). SDCL 36-21C-8 does not impose it on someone already licensed in another state. (if applicable).
- 6License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($100). Biennial renewal fee, set by ARSD 20:74:02:09 and capped at $100 by SDCL 36-21C-6(3). A license or registration expires on 31 December of the year following issuance, and the renewal application and fee must reach the Commission by 5 p.m. on 30 November of the expiry year. Late renewal costs an extra $20 for each month or part of a month, so $20 in December rising to $140 in June, and nothing can be reinstated after 30 June of the following year. A lost certificate is replaced for $15..
- 7Continuing education. Complete continuing education. 24 hours of Commission-approved continuing education in each two-year renewal period, completed by 31 December of the year the license or registration expires. Hours cannot be counted twice, and an inspector who has not finished them may not perform home inspections and must surrender the credential and go inactive until they are done. Approved subjects include legal issues affecting home inspectors, building codes adopted by South Dakota regulators, standards of practice, report writing, environmental issues and wood-destroying insects, ethics, building components, fair housing and antitrust, and courses the state's plumbing or electrical commission approves for plumbers and electricians count. A course must run at least three hours. The Commission may exempt a nonresident licensee who qualifies under SDCL 36-21C-8 and meets all the home inspector requirements of their home state, and may grant exceptions or extensions for health, military service or other good cause..
- 8Insurance. Carry the required insurance (if applicable). South Dakota requires no insurance of a home inspector. Neither SDCL chapter 36-21C nor article 20:74 of the administrative rules mentions errors and omissions cover, general liability cover, a bond, net assets or a financial statement, and none is asked for on the application or at renewal. The errors and omissions policy the Real Estate Commission does enforce is imposed by SDCL 36-21A-122 on active brokers, broker associates, property managers, real estate auctioneers, residential rental agents and salespeople, and does not extend to home inspectors. Any cover you carry here is a commercial decision rather than a licensing condition, and your written inspection agreement and ordinary contract and negligence law set what you owe the client..
- 9Business license. Obtain a business license. A South Dakota sales tax license from the Department of Revenue. South Dakota taxes services as well as goods, so a business selling home inspections in the state needs the license, whether it is a sole proprietorship or a company: a physical presence in South Dakota triggers it outright, and a business with no physical presence is drawn in once sales into the state pass $100,000 or 200 separate transactions in the previous or current calendar year. There is no fee, and you apply at sd.gov/taxapp. Operating a taxable business without the license is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The separate contractor's excise tax license covers construction, building, installation, repair or remodeling work on real property, so it becomes your concern only if the same business takes on that work as well as inspecting. Rates are 4.5 percent state sales and use tax plus 1 to 2 percent municipal, and 2 percent excise on a prime contractor's construction receipts..
- 10Other. A firm application if you open your own home inspection business. The Commission issues the personal credential on an inactive footing and activates it when it hears either from you or from the responsible home inspector of the firm you are joining, so plan the firm paperwork alongside the personal application rather than after it. (if applicable).
Published fees on this path total $300, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.
What you'll need to buy or arrange
Exam preparation
Most boards contract PSI, Prov, or ICC for exams. Check which code edition the exam is written to before buying a prep course.
- Trade exam · if applicable
- Exam fee · $133 · if applicable
- Other · if applicable
Continuing education
Renewals usually need approved CE hours, often on the latest NEC. Reciprocal licensees are rarely exempt.
- Continuing education
Liability insurance
Some states require proof of general liability or workers' compensation coverage at licensing time.
- Insurance · if applicable
Business registration
If you plan to contract in your own name, budget for a business license or entity registration on top of the trade license.
- Business license
- Other · if applicable
How South Dakota licenses home inspectors
South Dakota home inspector · “Licensed Home Inspector”
Statewide license
Issued by South Dakota Real Estate Commission (Department of Labor and Regulation)
South Dakota licenses home inspectors statewide, and the agency that does it is not a contractor board, because the state has none: it is the South Dakota Real Estate Commission, part of the Department of Labor and Regulation. Under SDCL chapter 36-21C, no person may provide, or hold themselves out as able to provide, a home inspection for compensation unless registered or licensed by the Commission, and doing so without a credential is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The credential has two grades. An applicant becomes a Registered Home Inspector by completing a Commission-approved course of at least 40 hours and passing the home inspector examination; after working at the registered grade for at least a year and performing at least 100 home inspections for compensation, that person files an experience log and upgrades to Licensed Home Inspector. The Commission's own answer is that once licensed there is no distinction between the duties and responsibilities of a licensed home inspector and those of a registered home inspector, so the two grades differ in how they are earned rather than in what they allow, and neither is sponsored or supervised by anyone else. The law reaches one- to four-unit residential buildings and covers the heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems, structural components, foundation, roof, masonry structure, and exterior and interior components. It does not reach a code enforcement official, a state-regulated architect, professional engineer, electrical contractor or plumber, a licensed real estate broker or salesperson, a certified appraiser, an insurance adjuster or a licensed manufactured home dealer acting within their own scope. Licenses and registrations run on a two-year cycle that ends on 31 December, renew for $100 by 30 November, and depend on 24 hours of approved continuing education. South Dakota requires no insurance, bond or net assets of a home inspector.
Why Minnesota has nothing to transfer
Minnesota home inspector · “Truth-in-Sale of Housing Evaluator”
Licensed by cities and counties
Minnesota issues no statewide home inspector license, so there is no state credential to apply for, no state examination and nothing to transfer from another state, and a buyer's home inspection can be performed anywhere in Minnesota by anyone. Chapter 326B of the statutes carries every construction credential the Department of Labor and Industry issues — the state building code and its building officials and construction code inspectors, elevators, electrical, plumbing, water conditioning, high pressure piping, boilers, contractor registration, and the residential trades licenses for residential building contractors, remodelers, roofers and manufactured home installers — and no section of it creates a home inspector license; a 2006 bill that would have added one was not enacted. Where a credential does exist it is issued by a city, not by the state: Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Bloomington each require a pre-sale evaluation of the home before it can be marketed, and each will accept that evaluation only from an evaluator it has licensed itself. Saint Paul's license is the demanding one and it is the one place in Minnesota where the National Home Inspector Examination counts: an applicant must already hold a passed NHIE before being admitted to the city's own written test, then pass a practical evaluation of a test house, carry insurance and pay an annual license fee. What binds an inspector doing ordinary unlicensed work is general law: the Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act makes unlawful any fraud, unfair or unconscionable practice, false promise, misrepresentation or deceptive practice in connection with the sale of merchandise, which the statute defines to include services, and Minn. Stat. section 8.31, subdivision 3a lets an injured person sue for damages, costs, investigation costs, reasonable attorney's fees and equitable relief. Beyond that it is the written pre-inspection agreement and ordinary contract and negligence law that set the duty owed, because Minnesota has enacted no statutory standard of care for home inspectors and no statute governing the content or form of a private inspection report. Two adjacent credentials matter in practice. Radon is licensed: since January 1, 2019 the Minnesota Radon Licensing Act has required an annual license from the commissioner of health for anyone who tests for radon for compensation, as a measurement professional, and separately for mitigation professionals, mitigation companies and analysis laboratories, so an inspector cannot add a radon test to the job without one. And any repair, remodeling or roofing work that comes out of a report belongs to a licensed residential building contractor, remodeler or roofer under chapter 326B, or to the state's licensed electrical, plumbing, mechanical and high pressure piping trades.
How local licensing works in Minnesota
No Minnesota city licenses "home inspectors" as such, and no license of any kind is needed to perform a private buyer's home inspection anywhere in the state. What several Twin Cities municipalities license is the evaluator who performs the pre-sale housing evaluation their own ordinances make compulsory, and each license is good only in the city that issued it — there is no reciprocity between them and none of them substitutes for another. In Minneapolis the seller must schedule a Truth in Sale of Housing evaluation before the house is shown, must hire an evaluator licensed by the City, and must display the report at showings; the City licenses evaluators on a January-to-December year, requires a certificate of insurance to receive the license and 18 approved continuing education credits each year to keep it, holds evaluators to a published code of ethics, and can suspend or revoke a license for breaching it. Evaluations performed on an expired license or without current insurance are rejected and returned. The program and the evaluator's duties sit in Title 12 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances, chapter 248, alongside chapter 244 (maintenance code) and chapter 250 (condominium conversions). In Saint Paul the evaluation must be completed before the property is marketed, it covers single family homes, duplexes, condominiums and townhomes, and it may only be done by an evaluator licensed by the City. Saint Paul is the one Minnesota authority that uses the National Home Inspector Examination: an applicant must already have passed the NHIE before being admitted to the city's own process, which is a $200 application, a closed-book written test of roughly 100 questions with a 75 percent pass mark, and then a practical evaluation of a test house judged as though it were a real client's. Passing both parts only makes the applicant eligible; the license itself also requires proof of insurance and a $110 annual fee that is not pro-rated. The requirements sit in Saint Paul Legislative Code chapter 189, and failing to comply with that chapter is a misdemeanor. Bloomington runs the same idea under a different name: a Time-of-Sale housing inspection and evaluation report must be filed for every single and two-family dwelling, condominium, townhouse and mobile home offered for sale, and a seller may use a City inspector or an independent evaluator holding a City of Bloomington Time of Sale license. That license is issued by the City Clerk's Business Licensing office, requires a Minnesota or federal business tax identification number and proof of workers' compensation coverage or a stated exemption, and requires the building official to verify 18 continuing education credits every year before renewal, with suspension, revocation or a civil penalty for working without them. Other metropolitan cities operate comparable pre-sale evaluation programs, and some, such as Richfield, use their own staff inspectors rather than licensing private evaluators at all, so an inspector planning to work across the metro should check each city's own program before taking the work. Outside those programs no Minnesota city license is required to inspect a home.
Common questions
- Do I have to take the South Dakota home inspector exam if I'm licensed in Minnesota?
- No. The trade exam is waived on this path.
- What does it cost to get a South Dakota home inspector license from Minnesota?
- Published fees on this path total $300, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Minnesota work hours count in South Dakota?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward South Dakota's eligibility requirements.
- How long does the application take?
- The board's published or typical processing time is about 28 days.
- Does it work the other way, from South Dakota to Minnesota?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from South Dakota to Minnesota, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- National Home Inspector Examination - Exam Overview Packet · Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors · Other · verified September 17, 2026
- Administrative Rules of South Dakota, Chapter 20:74:02 - Home Inspectors: Licensing and Licenses · ARSD 20:74:02:01 to 20:74:02:12 · South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Admin Rule · verified September 17, 2026
- Administrative Rules of South Dakota, Chapter 20:74:04 - Home Inspectors: Continuing Education · ARSD 20:74:04:01, 20:74:04:07, 20:74:04:08 · South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Admin Rule · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission - Errors and Omissions Insurance · SDCL 36-21A-122; ARSD 20:69:15:06.01 · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission - Home Inspection Renewal Information · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission - Home Inspection Study Guide · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission - Application for License, Real Estate Home Inspector (form SDREC-HI APP) · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Form · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission - How to Become a Registered or Licensed Home Inspector · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Home Inspector Laws and Administrative Rules (Home Inspector License Law Book) · SDCL ch. 36-21C and ARSD art. 20:74 · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Real Estate Commission · Admin Rule · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Occupational Licensing Agencies - complete list of boards and commissions · South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Department of Revenue Tax Fact - License Requirements for Sales, Use and Contractor's Excise Tax · South Dakota Department of Revenue · Agency Page · verified September 17, 2026
- South Dakota Codified Laws, Chapter 36-21C - Home Inspectors · SDCL ch. 36-21C (secs. 36-21C-1 to 36-21C-14) · South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Statute · verified September 17, 2026
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.