Carrollton, Michigan
Looking for a Carrollton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Carrollton, 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 Carrollton 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 Carrollton and across Saginaw 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 Carrollton 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 reportCarrollton housing stock
Carrollton has roughly 2,681 housing units and about 84% of them are single-family detached. Age is the most useful single fact about a house before anyone has seen it. It narrows down what is worth checking first, and it is why two places of much the same size can need quite different inspections.
If the town has a defining decade it is the 1950s, which accounts for 985 homes, around 37% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $74,900.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Carrollton home inspector checks these things early in a home of this age and then records what is genuinely there, which is often not what the era would suggest.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Carrollton was built
83% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 45 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Carrollton Township publishes an unusually clear list of what does and does not need a permit, and one line on it is worth a buyer’s attention: residential re-roofing requires a permit here, while siding on a house or garage does not.
That is a genuinely useful asymmetry. A roof is the single most common major replacement on a house, and in this township there should be a permit record behind one. If a property has visibly had a newer roof and no permit exists for it, that is a specific and answerable question rather than a vague worry.
The Township is also explicit about the floodplain. Properties in the 100-year floodplain must complete a substantial improvement calculation form as part of a permit application, and it points people to the county mapping tool to establish whether a parcel is affected.
That is a serious thing to know before you buy rather than after, because it governs how far a building can be improved before additional requirements apply. Establish whether a property is in the floodplain early, and take the detail up with the Township directly.
The housing here is almost entirely of one vintage and completely built out. About 1,566 of roughly 2,681 units were built between 1950 and 1969, and essentially nothing has been built since 2000 — sixteen units in the 2000s, and none at all since. Every house you can buy here is at least a quarter of a century old, and most are far older.
Before you buy
Permits
The building and zoning department sets out its requirements more plainly than most, which is a gift to anyone doing due diligence.
Building permits are required for new construction including pole barns, garages, decks and porches; for sheds larger than ten feet by twelve; for pools; for residential re-roofing; and, subject to confirming with the inspector, for replacement windows. Any building erected needs a site plan with the setbacks clearly marked. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits are required for new construction and for changes or upgrades to existing buildings.
Permits are not required for siding on a house or garage, or for storage buildings under 120 square feet.
Since December 2025 both residents and contractors have been able to apply for permits online, which makes a records request considerably less painful than it used to be.
The practical use of all this is in what it lets you ask. On a township of houses that are all at least twenty-five years old, work has certainly been done. Knowing which categories leave a record turns "has anything been done to this house?" into a set of specific questions with findable answers: the roof, the deck, the pole barn, the pool, the electrical upgrade.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and cannot tell you whether a permit was pulled. What it does is tell you what was actually done, which is what makes the records request worth making. We deliver a full written report with photographs, generally the same day, while you still have room to act on it.
The floodplain
The Township requires that properties within the 100-year floodplain complete a substantial improvement calculation form alongside a permit application, and directs residents to the county mapping tool to check whether a parcel falls inside it.
A substantial improvement calculation is, broadly, the mechanism by which the cost of proposed work is measured against the value of the building, to determine whether the work triggers additional floodplain requirements. We are naming the requirement rather than describing how it operates, because we have not read the Township’s form or the ordinance behind it, and the thresholds and consequences are exactly the kind of thing that should come from the Township rather than from us.
What we would say plainly is this: if you are buying a property in the floodplain here and you have any intention of renovating, extending or substantially repairing it, find out what that rule means for your plans before you commit. It can materially change what is possible and what it costs.
On the inspection itself, a floodplain property gets particular attention to the physical evidence. We look for staining and tide lines on foundation walls, efflorescence and mineral deposits, rust at the base of mechanical equipment and appliances, replaced lower wall finishes, and equipment that has been raised off the floor. Mechanical equipment sitting on blocks is usually a story about something that happened once.
We also report where downspouts terminate, where any sump pump discharges and whether it has a backup, and how the ground falls away from the building. We do not determine flood zones and we do not advise on insurance — those are separate questions for the Township, the mapping tool and your insurer.
Pools and safety
The Township states that all private swimming pools must have a fence around them at least four feet in height. For above-ground pools that are themselves four feet or more high, a lockable or removable ladder may be substituted.
That is a clear rule, and it is one of the few genuinely life-safety items that a buyer can check for themselves on a viewing. A pool that has been installed without a permit is also a pool whose barrier arrangements nobody has ever inspected.
On an inspection we report the visible condition and configuration of pool barriers, gates and latches, along with the electrical arrangements serving pool equipment, which is a common place to find work that was done informally. We note the condition of accessible pool equipment.
We do not perform a full pool inspection, pressure-test pool plumbing or evaluate the shell or liner in detail; a pool inspection is separate specialist work. But we will tell you clearly if a barrier arrangement does not appear to meet what the Township describes, because that is worth knowing before rather than after.
The same principle applies to decks and porches, which also require permits here. Ledger attachment, flashing, fasteners, guard heights and stair geometry are all things we look at specifically, and on structures built without a permit they are where problems concentrate.
The housing
Carrollton is unusual for how completely it is built out. Sixteen housing units were added in the 2000s, and none at all in the fifteen years since. There is no new stock here, and no prospect of any showing up on the market.
What that means practically is that every purchase is a purchase of an older building, and the useful question is never "is this house old?" but "which replacement cycle is each system in?" A house built in 1958 has had roughly seventy years for its roof, its heating, its water heater, its windows and its wiring to be replaced — possibly more than once each, possibly not at all, and usually a mixture.
Electrical is where that variation matters most. Nearly all of these houses have had some electrical upgrading, but a genuine rewire and a newer panel fitted in front of original distribution look similar from the outside and are very different to live with. We report what the panel actually contains, how the accessible wiring is arranged, and where work appears to have been added in stages.
Plumbing follows the same pattern: partial renewals leaving material transitions at the joins, which is where problems concentrate. Heating equipment is typically two or three generations from the original, and a newer appliance fitted into older venting is a common and specific thing we check.
Insulation and ventilation reflect mid-century standards, which usually means a real improvement is still available in the attic. And since the roof is the one thing that leaves a permit record here, its history is more knowable than most.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available for commercial property.
Code enforcement
Carrollton runs its code enforcement program through the police department, working alongside the building and zoning inspector. That is a different arrangement from most communities we work in, where it sits under building or community development.
The Township is clear about the intent: its stated goal is to obtain voluntary compliance, and it frames the property maintenance rules around neighborhood integrity, preventing decline in property values, reducing blight and visual clutter and improving the quality of life for residents. A code enforcement guide is published as a document and available in hard copy at the Township office, and the full code of ordinances is searchable online.
Its current published focus is noxious weeds and long grass, effective from May 2026. That is worth knowing if you are buying a property that has stood empty through a selling season, because an unoccupied house with an unmown lot is exactly the situation that attracts a notice.
None of this is what a home inspection assesses. We do not evaluate ordinance compliance. But we do report the condition of the things code enforcement tends to care about — exterior finishes, outbuildings, fencing, accessory structures and general site condition — and on a vacant property those observations are worth having.
The buried line
The Township publishes no water or sewer department page, so whether a particular address is on a public system or on a well and septic is a question for the Township directly. We are not going to guess at it.
What is true either way is that the line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. On a house from the 1950s or 1960s — which is most of them here — that pipe has been in the ground sixty or seventy years, under a lot whose trees have had exactly that long to mature.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Carrollton laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. On a township where nothing has been built in twenty-five years, there is no such thing as a new lateral, which makes this one of the most useful things you can add.
It goes on the same appointment rather than being booked separately. You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Carrollton.
Local information from Carrollton Township — building and zoning: what needs a permit, pool fencing and the floodplain substantial improvement form · Carrollton Township — code enforcement, run through the police department · Carrollton Township — permits and forms · Carrollton Township — code of ordinances. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Carrollton 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
A shout out to Noah for the inspection of our new house. He was very professional and thorough. He is also accessible after the fact — I have called him twice for clarification on our roofing issue and he has been so friendly and answered all of my questions.
Susan LawhonBridgeport, MII 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Yes. Residential re-roofing requires a permit here, while siding on a house or garage does not. That makes a roof replacement a checkable record — if a property visibly has a newer roof and no permit exists, that is a specific question worth asking.
New construction including pole barns, garages, decks and porches; sheds larger than ten by twelve feet; pools; and replacement windows subject to confirming with the inspector. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits are required for new work and for changes or upgrades to existing buildings.
Broadly, a way of measuring proposed work against the value of the building to determine whether additional floodplain requirements apply. The Township requires the form with permit applications for properties in the 100-year floodplain. We have not read the form, so take the thresholds and consequences up with the Township directly.
The Township directs people to the county GIS mapping tool. Do it early. If you intend to renovate, extend or substantially repair a floodplain property, that rule can materially change what is possible and what it costs.
All private swimming pools must have a fence around them at least four feet in height. For above-ground pools that are themselves four feet or more high, a lockable or removable ladder may be substituted.
Essentially none. Sixteen units were built in the 2000s and none since 2010. About 1,566 of roughly 2,681 units date from 1950 to 1969, so every purchase here is a purchase of an older building.
Working out which replacement cycle each system is in. Electrical especially — a genuine rewire and a newer panel fitted in front of original distribution look similar and are very different to live with. Then partial plumbing renewals, and heating equipment fitted into older venting.
Yes, more than in most places. In a township where nothing has been built in twenty-five years there is no such thing as a new lateral, and most have been under mature trees for sixty or seventy years. A camera inspection records the 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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