Home inspectors can make or break a house sale, or save a buyer from a money pit. But a person who doesn’t know a box hedge from a box dormer could be calling all the shots. If you’ve got a business card, you’ve got a well-paying trade in Colorado.

Colorado is one of the only states that doesn’t register or certify those working as home inspectors. State Sen. Nancy Todd, a Democrat from Aurora, is trying to pass Senate Bill 38 to require home inspectors to get registered and certified with the state Department of Regulatory Affairs.

She thinks the bill could not only weed about bad inspectors but help reduce burglaries and assaults by criminals posing as home inspectors.

“If you allow an inspector into your home, you should know if they are actually certified and trustworthy,” Todd said in a statement.

Todd is a Democrat in a Republican-led Senate, and the GOP has vowed to reduce regulations, so getting this one through won’t be easy.

Senate Bill 38 passed the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee Tuesday, 3-2, with Republican Sen. Ray Scott of Grand Junction joining Democrats on the committee. The bill awaits a hearing by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Division of Professions and Occupations within the Department of Regulatory Agencies would oversee the program. Besides paying a registration fee the inspector would have to have a minimum liability insurance coverage of $50,000 for personal injury for one person and $100,000 to cover everyone in an accident, plus submit a minimum $10,000 surety bond.

They also would have to submit fingerprints to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for a criminal background check.

Fines are $100 to $500 per violation for first-time offenders and $1,000 to $2,000 for subsequent offenses. Half the fine money would go to DORA to run the registration program, and the rest to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, according to the bill.

Legislative analysts project it will bring in $171,525 in fees and fines its first full budget year starting in 2018, recede to $114,988 the next year.