Clio, Michigan
Looking for a Clio home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Clio, 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 Clio 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 Clio and across Genesee 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 Clio 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 reportClio housing stock
Clio has roughly 1,195 housing units and about 54% 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 years before 1940, which accounts for 320 homes, around 27% of the housing stock. It is also less detached-house territory than most of the area at 54%, so condominiums, duplexes and small multi-family buildings are a bigger share of what we inspect here — and those bring their own questions about what is yours to maintain and what belongs to the association.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $102,800. Only 55% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, so a good share of what we inspect here is bought as a rental or sold with tenants in place — which changes what access on the day looks like.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Clio 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 Clio was built
85% of homes here run on utility gas.
Local knowledge
Clio is a small city that has handed most of its technical functions to other organizations, and working out who holds what is the first useful thing a buyer can do here.
Building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits are not issued by the City at all — it has contracted them to Vienna Township, the township that surrounds it. Rental inspections go to the Township as well. The City’s sanitary sewer collection system is operated and maintained by the Genesee County Drain Commissioner. And the City’s own public service department, which handles water and streets, consists of a superintendent and two full-time workers.
What the City does keep is zoning — and it keeps it first in the queue. A zoning permit application is required for a building, an addition, an accessory structure, a fence, a driveway, a curb cut or parking area, signs, a pool, a deck or a porch. The City states plainly that the application must be approved by the City before Vienna Township will issue a building permit.
So on any property here where something has been built or altered, there are two files to ask for and two organizations to ask — and the zoning file at the City is the one that should exist first.
The housing is old and static. Of roughly 1,195 units, 320 — 27% — predate 1940, with 196 from the 1970s and 175 from the 1960s, and nothing at all recorded as built in the last fifteen years. About 54% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
Permits
The City’s building page sets the arrangement out in a few lines, and it is worth reading before you plan anything.
The zoning permit is the City’s, it costs a modest fee payable to the City, and the list of what needs one is broad: constructing a building or an addition, an accessory structure, a fence, a driveway, a curb cut or parking area, a sign, a pool, a deck or a porch. The building permit, and the electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits, are issued by Vienna Township — and the Township will not issue one until the City has approved the zoning application.
For a buyer researching a property that split is the useful thing to know. A deck, a fence or a driveway should have generated a City zoning record even where the work was small. An addition or a re-piped bathroom should have generated a Township record as well. Finding nothing in one office proves nothing about the other.
The driveway and curb cut items are worth particular attention on older housing. Flatwork poured or replaced since the build changes how surface water moves around a foundation, and it is one of the commonest reasons water arrives at a basement wall on a house of this age. Where the work was permitted, there is a dated record of it.
Rental inspections also run through Vienna Township, and the City publishes a rental property inspection checklist alongside its zoning application. If you are buying a rental or a house you intend to let, that is another Township conversation rather than a City one.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and does not replace one. It reports the condition and apparent function of the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior — and tells you which of the two files is worth requesting.
Sewer and water
The City’s public service department explains that the City engaged the county drain commissioner’s water and waste services division to operate and maintain its sanitary sewer collection system, in the expectation of improved service and reduced future cost, and directs anyone with a sewer concern or problem to call the county directly.
The same department handles streets, water and sewer maintenance, street cleaning, drainage facilities, snow removal and building maintenance — with a superintendent and two full-time workers. For a water emergency outside office hours, the City’s instruction is to call 911, which passes the call on.
A small department is not a criticism; it is the reality of a city of this size, and the arrangements around it are sensible. But it does mean knowing the right number in advance is worth more here than in a city with a 24-hour utility line.
It also underlines something we say on every inspection: knowing where your main water shut-off is, and that it turns, is one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge in a house. We report the location and apparent condition of the main shut-off where it is accessible.
On the drainage side, the split of responsibility ends at the property line. The county maintains the collection system; the line from the building out to it is the owner’s, as is everything about how water moves across the lot before it gets there. We report the fall of the ground around the building, the condition of gutters and where downspouts terminate, and where any sump discharge appears to go.
Local rules
A few published local rules are worth carrying into ownership.
Burn permits are required, and the terms are narrower than most people expect: only dry firewood may be burned, brush and leaves may not, burning is confined to daytime and evening hours, and after receiving a permit you must telephone before burning. On a property with mature trees that rules out the obvious way of dealing with fall.
There is no parking on any city street in the small hours, which matters on a property with limited off-street parking — worth counting on a walkthrough alongside how the drive actually drains.
Water bills are due on the twenty-fifth of the month, moving to the next business day where that falls on a weekend or holiday. And unpaid summer and winter taxes are turned over to the county treasurer on the first of March, which is the sort of date that matters on a property being bought out of a difficult situation.
None of these are inspection matters. They are the ordinary friction of owning a particular house in a particular place, and they are cheaper to learn from a page than from a ticket.
The housing
With 320 units predating 1940 and nothing recorded as built in the last fifteen years, this is a settled city where almost every inspection is of a building that has been altered several times over.
On a prewar house the electrical 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. Coherence matters more than the date on the panel.
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. Insulation, ventilation and heating were all retrofitted into buildings designed without them.
On the 1960s and 1970s stock — 371 units between them — the pattern shifts toward second and third generation mechanical equipment, roofs on their third covering, windows replaced once, and attic insulation that usually leaves a worthwhile improvement available.
With about 46% of the housing something other than a detached house, attached and multi-unit property comes up regularly. On a condominium the association documents decide where your responsibility ends, and for a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, a commercial inspection to the CCPIA standard is usually the right scope.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to either kind of visit.
The buried line
The county operates the sanitary collection system. The line running from your building out to it belongs to you, and no visual inspection reaches inside it.
On one of the 320 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. On a 1960s or 1970s house it is fifty or sixty years old. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Clio 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. It is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately.
In a city where the sewer is run by one organization, the permits by another and the water by a third, it is worth being clear about the one part that is unambiguously yours — and about the fact that it can actually be looked inside before you own it.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, see the City’s building permits and forms page, or get in touch about a specific address in Clio.
Local information from City of Clio — building department, zoning permits and the Vienna Township contract · City of Clio — Department of Public Service and the county-operated sanitary sewer · City of Clio — building permits and forms. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Genesee County
Zone 2 is the middle EPA category — the predicted average indoor level across the county sits between 2 and 4 pCi/L.
We place a continuous monitor for 48 hours and read the result on site — no mail-in kit, no lab wait. How radon testing works · Genesee County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Clio 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
Outstanding precision and attention to detail! Helps being able to make a truly informed decision about a home! Also, they are very veteran-friendly! No complaints here!
Desmond SheppardFlint, MINoah Scott was very thorough and explaining things to us, especially in regard to a possible mold problem.
Claudette GranvilleFlint, 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Vienna Township. The City has contracted building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits to the township that surrounds it. The City itself issues the zoning permit, and states that the zoning application must be approved by the City before Vienna Township will issue a building permit.
The City lists constructing a building, a building addition, an accessory structure, a fence, a driveway, curb cut or parking area, signs, a pool, and a deck or porch. It carries a modest fee payable to the City, and it comes before the building permit rather than after.
To the Genesee County Drain Commissioner’s water and waste services division. The City engaged the county to operate and maintain its sanitary sewer collection system, and directs residents with sewer concerns or problems to call the county directly.
City Hall during office hours. After hours the City’s instruction is to call 911, which passes the call to its public service department — a superintendent and two full-time workers covering streets, water, sewer maintenance, drainage and snow removal.
Vienna Township, which handles rental inspections as well as building and trade permits for the City. The City publishes a rental property inspection checklist alongside its zoning permit application.
No. A burn permit is required, and the City states that only dry firewood may be burned — not brush and not leaves — within set daytime and evening hours, and that you must telephone before burning after receiving the permit.
Old and settled. About 320 of roughly 1,195 units — 27% — predate 1940, with 196 from the 1970s and 175 from the 1960s, and nothing at all recorded as built in the last fifteen years.
On this housing stock, yes. The county maintains the collection system, but the line from the building out to it is the owner’s — and on a prewar house it may have been in the ground close to a century under mature planting. A camera inspection documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, 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
February 18, 2025
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Your local Clio home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
