Blissfield, Michigan
Looking for a Blissfield home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Blissfield, seven days a week. Home inspection reports come back in 24 hours.
Schedule your inspectionCall 734-331-3269
Services
For buyers, sellers, and homeowners keeping an eye on the place they already own. On new construction we also do pre-drywall inspections and 11-month builder’s warranty inspections. Our certified inspectors walk every major system in your Blissfield home and tell you plainly what they found — then put it in a photo-rich digital report within 24 hours.
Following the InterNACHI Standards of Practice:
Included free with every home buyer inspection— and none of them require us to sell your information.
SatisfactionIf you are unhappy with your inspector on the day of the inspection, before you have seen your report, tell us and we will make it right — or you owe us nothing.
30-Day WarrantyA free 30-day Guard home warranty trial, negotiated for you with no obligation. Activate it whenever you are ready.
$100 OffThe buyer’s protection guarantee: if the first home we inspect for you does not make it to the closing table, for any reason, we take $100 off any further home buyer inspection within 30 days of the original.
Optional services at an additional cost — not part of a standard inspection. Tap one to see what it covers.
A camera down the main sewer line, watching its condition from the inside — roots, breaks, bellies and blockages no visual inspection can find. More about sewer scope inspections
The wood-destroying organism report VA buyers are typically asked to provide, on the federal NPMA-33 form. Carried out during the same visit. More about Veterans WDO inspections
Up to five air samples sent to an accredited laboratory, added to the same appointment rather than booked as a second visit. More about mold inspection and testing
View a sample report
Offices, retail, multifamily and warehouses in Blissfield and across Lenawee County. Know what condition a building is in before you sign — or stay ahead of problems in the one you already own. Reports in 24 to 72 hours depending on size.
Following the CCPIA commercial standards:
Commonly added to a commercial inspection at additional cost.
Commercial laterals are longer, older and carry more. A camera is the only way to see the condition of the one you are buying. More about sewer scope inspections
Air samples to an accredited laboratory, which matters most in buildings that have sat empty or had a roof or plumbing leak. More about mold inspection and testing
View a sample report
Add either to a Blissfield home or commercial inspection, or book it on its own. We test and we never remediate, so there is nothing to sell you on the back of a result — the number you get is just the number.
Radon measured in house on a professional continuous monitor; mold samples to an accredited laboratory:
The other things worth testing while somebody is already there.
Carried out after remediation on the treated area and the areas next to it, to confirm what was found. More about mold inspection and testing
A damp basement can have several causes, and the buried sewer line is the one a visual inspection cannot check. A scope rules it in or out. More about sewer scope inspections
View a sample reportBlissfield housing stock
Blissfield has roughly 1,291 housing units and about 81% of them are single-family detached. Housing that went up mostly in one era has mostly one era’s problems — which is genuinely useful to know before you buy, because it tells you what to look at first.
Most of it went up in the years before 1940 — 623 homes, around 48% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $141,300.
None of this is a prediction about a particular house. It is where a Blissfield home inspector starts looking in a home of this age, and what we photograph and write up either way.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Blissfield was built
79% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 14 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Blissfield has the bluntest permit rule we have come across anywhere. The Village states that with two exceptions, all construction and renovation within the village limits requires a building permit — and the exceptions are painting, and replacement windows that do not change the frame size of the opening.
That is it. Everything else needs a permit.
For a buyer that is genuinely good news, because it means the paper trail on a property here should be more complete than in most communities. If something was altered and done properly, there should be a record of it; and where there plainly has been work with no record behind it, that tells you something too.
It matters here more than it would elsewhere because of the age of the housing. Of roughly 1,291 units, 623 — 48% — predate 1940, and 1,013 of them, about 78%, were built before 1960. Nearly half the village is a prewar house, and prewar houses accumulate alterations.
One caution before you go looking: blissfield.org belongs to an unrelated organization. The Village’s own site is blissfieldmichigan.gov, and the Village office is open Monday through Thursday.
Before you buy
Permits
The Village’s planning and development page sets out the rule and then the machinery behind it.
A building permit application requires site plans. Applications are completed in person at the Village office during business hours, which run Monday through Thursday from eight until six. Downloadable applications are published for building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work, alongside land division, variance, special land use, rezoning and subdivision applications.
Inspections are contracted out to four separate people — a building inspector, an electrical inspector, and one person covering plumbing and mechanical — each reachable directly, with a zoning administrator based at the Village office. On a project involving several trades, that means several separate arrangements rather than one call.
The Village also offers a pre-application meeting on request, which on an old house is the cheapest hour you will spend. If an inspection turns up something structural, or you are planning an addition on a prewar building, that conversation happens before anyone pays for drawings.
The window exemption is worth reading precisely. Replacement windows are exempt only so long as they do not change the frame size of the opening. Changing an opening — making a window smaller to fit a stock unit, or enlarging one — is a structural alteration, and on a prewar house it is exactly the kind of work that gets done badly and hidden behind trim. We look at window openings, not just window units, for that reason.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and does not replace one. What it does is tell you where to point the search: an addition, a finished basement, a converted porch, a replaced furnace, an altered opening.
Prewar housing
On a stock this old the inspection is largely an exercise in reading eighty-five years or more of accumulated alteration.
Electrical shows it first. The original service was sized for lighting and very little else. Nearly all have been upgraded, but upgrades range from a genuine rewire to a new panel with original distribution still behind it, and circuits added in stages by different hands are common. Mixed generations of wiring meeting in the same box, and junctions in places nobody can reach, belong to this story.
Plumbing follows the same pattern: supply lines replaced in part rather than in whole, leaving material transitions worth examining, and drain and vent layouts frequently original with newer fixtures attached to them.
Insulation, ventilation and heating were all retrofitted into buildings designed without them, sometimes with venting that has not kept pace with a newer appliance. Roofs on this stock are on their fourth or fifth covering. And foundations and basements have had a very long time to meet water, leaving a readable record in staining, efflorescence, previous patching and how the space is used.
None of that makes a prewar Blissfield house a poor buy. Many are better built than what replaced them, and in a village where almost every alteration needed a permit, the well-documented ones are genuinely reassuring. But the difference between a carefully kept house and a neglected one is not visible from the street.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and the latter is worth considering where a basement shows a history of moisture.
Water and sewer
The Village’s water and sewer page sets out a straightforward monthly cycle: meters read on or around the fifteenth, a postcard bill due on the twenty-fifth, with the due date moving to the following Monday where that falls on a weekend or holiday, and late fees assessed the day after.
For rental property there is a refundable renter’s deposit, released once the final bill has been processed and the balance reaches zero. That is a sensible arrangement and worth knowing about if you are buying a house to let — unpaid utility balances have a habit of attaching themselves to properties rather than to people, and a deposit is the simplest protection against it.
Residents can opt into emailed bills and a customer portal, and additional payments can be carried against the next bill.
We do not test water. Water testing goes through a certified laboratory, and questions about the supply go to the Village, which links state and federal drinking water resources from its own education page. What an inspection reports is the visible supply piping inside the building where accessible, the materials we can actually see, and any point where the material changes or a repair has been made — which on a stock where 78% predates 1960 is usually a story told in stages.
Public works
The Village’s public works department does more than most departments of its size: maintenance, repair, connection and service to the water and sewer infrastructure, water and sewer inspections, utility staking for water and sewer lines, sidewalk installation and repairs, and construction inspections for developments.
Its leaf collection schedule is a neat illustration of the village’s geography, split into four quadrants by the highway and the River Raisin, with a different day for each. Brush is collected on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, once a month through winter, and not at all in November.
The department flushes hydrants in the fall and the spring, which typically produces cloudy water for a short period afterwards, and sweeps curb-and-gutter streets weekly.
For a homeowner the practical point is where household water goes. On a prewar house the grading has usually settled toward the wall rather than away from it, downspouts have often been shortened or redirected over the decades, and any sump arrangement was added long after the building.
On an inspection we report the fall of the ground around the building, the condition of gutters and where downspouts terminate, where any sump discharge appears to go, and what the basement shows about water that has been there before. Where a discharge disappears into a buried pipe we say so rather than guessing at its destination.
The buried line
The sanitary line from the building to the main belongs to the owner. On one of the 623 prewar houses here that pipe may have been in the ground the better part of a century, under a lot with mature planting over it.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Blissfield laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
What a camera settles is the one thing no visual inspection and no permit file reaches: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. In a village where almost every alteration produced a permit, the buried lateral is one of the few parts of a property whose condition the paperwork genuinely cannot tell you.
A sewer camera inspection is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately, and on this housing stock it is among the most useful things you can buy before closing.
We also offer commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property. You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Blissfield.
Local information from Village of Blissfield — planning and development, permit requirements and inspectors · Village of Blissfield — water and sewer service, billing and deposits · Village of Blissfield — Department of Public Works. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Blissfield home inspector.
Family owned since 2009, more than 16,000 inspections completed and over 2,000 five-star reviews across Michigan. We also handle home buyer inspections, commercial building inspections, mold testing and radon testing.
We do not sell mold remediation or radon mitigation, so there is nothing to gain from a result that comes back bad. The number you get is just the number.
Radon, mold, sewer scope and wood-destroying organism inspections go on the same appointment as the home inspection rather than costing you a second morning.
Most people do, and it is the most useful hour of the whole purchase. Ask anything while we are standing in front of it.
InterNACHI and CCPIA certified, with four Certified Master Inspectors and National Home Inspector Examination passes on the team — none of which Michigan requires. The standards we inspect to are published and you can hold the work against them.
Including weekends, because inspection windows sit on closing dates and closing dates do not care what day it is.
Reviews
I recently hired Trademark for a full home inspection on a new purchase, including sewer scope and radon testing. It was a phenomenal experience from beginning to end. Our inspector, Mitch, did a fantastic job explaining all the findings, and the digital report with photos and videos was superb. Would definitely recommend without hesitation.
Salina HamiltonOak Park, MIWe had Mitch inspect our prospective house and he was amazing. He was thorough, patient to answer my questions and provide feedback on what areas he would recommend having a follow up expert and why. The office was responsive and I was able to book multiple services to be done in the same visit (inspection, radon test, sewer scope).
Chris PlaweckiOak Park, MIThis is one of the finest companies I have come across - that means serious customer service and professionalism. Justin was the inspector and he was very thorough yet very kind to answers all the questions that came in my mind during inspection. He took enough time, no rush, and a very detailed inspection was conducted. Extremely competitive pricing and timing from the company. 100% recommend to anyone looking for any kind of property inspection!!
Chirag R MiyaniMichiganWhat happens
Questions
Almost all of it. The Village states that with two exceptions, all construction and renovation within the village limits requires a building permit — the exceptions being painting, and replacement windows so long as they do not change the frame size of the window opening.
Only if the opening stays the same. Changing the frame size — making an opening smaller to fit a stock unit, or enlarging one — is a structural alteration and falls outside the exemption. We look at window openings rather than just the units, because on a prewar house that is exactly where altered work gets hidden behind trim.
Site plans must be submitted with a building permit application, and applications are completed in person at the Village office during business hours, Monday through Thursday. The Village also offers a pre-application meeting on request, which is worth taking up on anything substantial.
Contracted inspectors, each reachable directly — a building inspector, an electrical inspector, and one person covering plumbing and mechanical — with a zoning administrator based at the Village office. On a project involving several trades that means several separate arrangements.
Very old. About 623 of roughly 1,291 units — 48% — predate 1940, and 1,013 of them, around 78%, were built before 1960. Almost half the village is a prewar house.
Meters are read on or around the fifteenth, a postcard bill is due on the twenty-fifth — moving to the following Monday where that falls on a weekend or holiday — and late fees are assessed the day after. Rental accounts carry a refundable deposit, released once the final bill is processed and the balance reaches zero.
No. That domain belongs to an unrelated organization. The Village of Blissfield’s own site is blissfieldmichigan.gov, which is where its permits, ordinances and utility information are published.
On this housing stock, very much so. The lateral belongs to the owner, on a prewar house it may have been in the ground close to a century, and mature planting has had the same time to find it. In a village where almost every alteration produced a permit, the buried line is one of the few things the paperwork cannot tell you about. A camera inspection documents its actual condition and is added to the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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From the blog
October 22, 2017
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Your local Blissfield home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
