Eleven Months, In Time.
Thirteen Months, Too Late.
2,000+ 5-Star Reviews
It is a full inspection of the house you already live in, carried out to the InterNACHI Standards of Practice — the same standard we inspect a resale home to. The difference is what you do with it afterwards: the report exists so you can hand your builder a written, photographed list while the warranty still obliges them to look at it.
A year of living in a house is also a year of it settling, drying out and being used. Plenty of what we find was not visible on the day you closed, because it had not happened yet.
Following the InterNACHI Standards of Practice:
Why month eleven
The whole point of the timing is to leave yourself room. Here is what the eleventh month is actually buying you.
Most builders’ workmanship warranty runs twelve months from closing. Check your own paperwork, because the wording varies — but whatever it says, the date it expires is fixed and it does not move because you were busy.
Inspecting is quick. Submitting the list, waiting for the builder to review it, and getting trades back out to the house is not. Booking at eleven months leaves a month for all of that. Booking in week 51 leaves none of it.
There is nothing wrong with booking at ten months. If you are already past twelve, call us anyway — an inspection still tells you what condition the house is in, it just stops being a warranty claim and starts being a repair list.
What the first year does
This is not a list of things your builder did wrong. It is a list of what a new house does in its first twelve months, which is exactly why the warranty period is a year long and not a week.
Drywall cracks at door and window corners, nail pops down a ceiling, doors that catch, trim that has opened at the mitres. A house moves in its first year and some of that movement is cosmetic, some of it is not.
Backfill around a new foundation settles. Grading that shed water away on handover day can end the year sloping back towards the house, and downspouts can discharge straight onto it.
A full Michigan winter and a full summer put the heating and cooling through their range. Rooms that never get warm, registers that were never balanced and condensate that does not drain properly show up under load, not at a walkthrough.
Missing attic insulation in the corners, penetrations that were never sealed, flashing that was left short, GFCI or AFCI protection missing where it is expected, caulking already gone. These are the items that were last on the list before closing.
A written report with photographs, delivered within 24 hours, with each item described plainly enough that somebody who was not there can find it and act on it. That matters more than it sounds: a warranty list that says “crack in upstairs bedroom” starts an argument, and one with a photograph and a location does not.
You submit it. We are not a party to your warranty and we do not negotiate with your builder on your behalf — what we give you is the documentation to do it with, and an inspector on the end of the phone if you or the builder want something in the report explained.
We also do not do repairs, and we have no trade arm that does. Nothing in the report is us finding work for ourselves, which is worth being able to say out loud when you hand the list over.
Why choose us
With more than 16,000 inspections completed and over 2,000 five-star reviews since 2009, we inspect across Southeast and Mid-Michigan seven days a week. Our inspectors are certified through InterNACHI, and we carry out none of the repair work we write up.
Credentials from the recognized bodies, kept current through continuing education.
Inspected to the InterNACHI Standards of Practice, which anyone can read and hold the work against.
No trade arm, so nothing on your warranty list is us quoting ourselves work.
Photo-rich and in your hands the next day, because your deadline is a date on a warranty.
Including weekends. A warranty month does not pause for your work schedule.
Trusted across Michigan
Trademark is incredibly thorough! The ONLY inspectors I would trust with my home! From setting the appointment to climbing into the attic and crawling under the house, they are incredibly talented. Please do yourself the best favor, and always use and recommend Trademark!!
Paige CookNovi, MIThe company is great. They take their time to address your concerns, answer all questions and make sure you are content. Ora was great to work with, thorough and addressed all questions and concerns. I will definitely request him whenever I need an inspector!
Zack OudeifMichiganMitch was great and thorough the our inspection. He provided explanations and suggestions throughout the service. Highly recommend!
Jaynie GMonroe, MI
Police, fire, rescue, military and educators — our way of saying thank you for your service. Enter code HERO at checkout.
Claim the Hero DiscountQualified and certified
Michigan does not license home inspectors, so the credential behind the report is worth checking. Each of these is issued by the organization named and verifiable with them directly, and kept current through continuing education.
The core credential from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. It commits the inspector to InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics, and to continuing education every year rather than a one-off exam.
The profession’s top-level board certification. It is earned through inspection experience and continuing education over time, not bought — which is why comparatively few inspectors in Michigan hold it.
National Home Inspector ExaminationThe independently written, psychometrically validated exam from the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors, used by most states that license home inspectors. Michigan licenses nobody and asks for no exam at all, so sitting it here is entirely voluntary — which is rather the point.
Certified through the Certified Commercial Property Inspectors Association, the standards body for commercial building inspections. Commercial work follows a different discipline to residential, and this is the credential that covers it.
The International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants sets the protocols for how mold is sampled, handled and reported. Following them is what makes a laboratory result defensible rather than just a number.
The same body certifies radon measurement separately, because the discipline is different: where the monitor sits, how long it runs and what counts as a disturbed test all decide whether the reading means anything.
Certification from the National Association of Mold Professionals, covering how mold is identified, sampled and documented — the difference between spotting a stain and understanding the moisture behind it.
Training in running a sewer line camera and, just as importantly, reading what it shows. Roots, bellies, breaks and blockages all look different on screen and are easy to misread without it.
Certified Residential ThermographerCertified by Monroe Infrared in thermal imaging. A thermal camera reveals what the eye cannot — moisture behind finishes, missing insulation and overheating electrical connections — but only if the person holding it is trained to interpret it.
Licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly commercially. That is what makes aerial roof and property imagery legal to carry out and legal to hand you — and it means a steep or unsafe roof can still be inspected properly.
Our service area
We inspect across fourteen Michigan counties — Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Genesee, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Lapeer, St Clair, Monroe, Lenawee, Jackson and Ingham — covering Metro Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Saginaw and the communities in between. Tap a county to see where we work.
Not sure if we cover your area?
Call 734-331-3269 or schedule your inspection now.
Common questions
The things new-construction owners ask us most.
A full home inspection of your new-construction house carried out near the end of its first year, so you can give your builder a written, photographed list of items while the warranty still covers them. It is also called a builder’s warranty inspection or a one-year warranty inspection.
Because the inspection is the fast part. You still have to submit the list, wait for the builder to review it and get trades back to the house. Booking at eleven months leaves roughly a month for all of that before the warranty date passes.
Same standard, different purpose. It is inspected to the InterNACHI Standards of Practice either way. What changes is that you now own the house, you have lived a full year in it, and the report is aimed at a warranty claim rather than a purchase decision.
A builder’s walkthrough is carried out by the party who would be doing the repairs. An independent inspection is not, and we have no trade arm, so nothing we write up is work we stand to be paid for.
Call us anyway on 734-331-3269. The inspection still tells you the condition of the house and what to plan for — it just becomes a maintenance list rather than a warranty claim. A home maintenance inspection is the same idea without a deadline attached.
That is between you and your builder, and it depends on what your warranty covers. What we can do is make the list difficult to dismiss: written, photographed, located, and measured against a published standard rather than an opinion.
No. We are not a party to your warranty. We document the condition of the house and we will explain any finding to you or to your builder, but the claim itself is yours to make.
Plan on a few hours at the house depending on its size, and you are welcome to walk it with the inspector. The written report follows within 24 hours.
We encourage it. Seeing a finding in place, with the inspector pointing at it, is worth a great deal more than reading about it later — and it means you can describe it confidently when you raise it with the builder.
Yes. Radon testing and mold testing are separate services with their own reports, commonly added alongside an inspection. Radon is worth considering in a new build — a house being new says nothing about the ground underneath it.
Completely. Municipal inspections check compliance with code on behalf of the jurisdiction, at stages during construction. Ours is carried out for you, on the finished house, against the InterNACHI Standards of Practice.
Book online any time, or call 734-331-3269 and tell us when you closed — we will work backwards from your warranty date. We inspect seven days a week including weekends.
Book the inspection while the warranty still means something. Seven days a week.
