Dearborn, Michigan
Looking for a Dearborn home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Dearborn, 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 Dearborn 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 Dearborn and across Wayne 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 Dearborn 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 reportDearborn housing stock
Dearborn has roughly 38,724 housing units and about 76% 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 10,454 homes, around 27% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $189,400. There are around 238 manufactured and mobile homes in Dearborn. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 2,608 homes sit in two-to-four unit buildings, where a shared roof, a shared wall and sometimes a shared furnace mean the report has to be clear about where one unit stops.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Dearborn 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 Dearborn was built
82% of homes here run on utility gas, and 11 still heat with oil. If yours is one of them, the tank is the thing to ask about — where it is, and whether it was ever buried. Another 604 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Many Michigan communities leave inspections entirely to the buyer and seller. Dearborn is one of those that does not.
The City requires a residential pre-sale housing inspection by ordinance. The seller, or an agent acting for them, schedules it; the City inspects; the seller completes whatever the inspection requires; a Certificate of Occupancy is requested and issued before the closing date. The City sets the whole sequence out step by step.
That sits on top of a genuinely old housing stock. The median Dearborn home was built in 1952, and census figures put about 24% of the housing before 1940, 22% in the 1940s and 27% in the 1950s — roughly three quarters of the city built before 1960, across nearly 39,000 housing units.
Those two facts together are what make Dearborn different to inspect. There is a municipal process already running, and there is a lot of house behind it.
Before you buy
Two different inspections
This comes up on nearly every Dearborn transaction, so it is worth being precise rather than competitive about it.
In the City’s own words, its pre-sale inspections “are basic safety and property maintenance inspections to ensure compliance with minimum housing standards.” They are tied to the Certificate of Occupancy, which the City describes as certifying a building’s compliance with applicable building codes and ordinances and indicating it to be in a condition suitable for occupancy.
That is a regulatory standard, and it is the City’s to set. It is a defined checklist, checked against, on a short visit.
A Trademark Inspection Services home inspection is a different exercise entirely. It runs two and a half to four hours on site, and longer on larger or older houses — which in Dearborn means most of them. In that time we walk the roof covering and its flashings, the structure, the foundation, the grading and drainage, the attic and its ventilation and insulation, the electrical service and panel and a sample of the devices, the heating and cooling equipment and its age and remaining life, the water heater, the visible plumbing supply and waste, every accessible room, the windows and doors, and the built-in appliances — and we photograph what we find and write it up in plain language with how urgent it is.
Put simply: the City’s inspection asks whether the house meets a minimum standard. Ours asks what condition the house is actually in, what has been replaced and what has not, what is near the end of its life, and what you should know before you commit. A house can pass the first and still hold every one of the answers to the second.
None of that is a criticism of the City. Its inspection is doing the job it exists to do, and doing it well serves the whole city. It simply is not, and does not claim to be, the inspection a buyer needs before spending several hundred thousand dollars. That is what an independent home buyer inspection is for, and in Dearborn a buyer gets the benefit of both.
Water
Dearborn documents this itself, which is unusual and worth using carefully.
The City records significant flooding events in 2014, 2018 and 2021, and describes the 2021 flooding as the result of a 1,000-year rainfall event that caused extensive property damage and affected approximately two-thirds of Dearborn homes. In July 2026 the City announced more than $8.1 million in FEMA funding for residential flood and sewer-modernisation work, targeting east Dearborn between Chase Road and Greenfield Avenue.
Read that carefully, because it is easy to over-read. A 1,000-year rainfall is not ordinary weather, the mitigation project names one part of the city rather than all of it, and none of it says anything about whether a particular house has ever taken water.
What it does say is that basement conditions, exterior drainage and sump equipment are worth real attention on a Dearborn property, and that the property’s own sewer line is worth seeing inside. Whether a specific address sits in a designated flood hazard area is a separate question again — the City points owners to FEMA floodplain mapping for that, and it is property-specific.
Neighborhoods and permits
Dearborn’s residential renovation application names five areas where a permit may need “Approvals from Home Owner Association or Historical District Review”: the Dearborn Hills Civic Association, the West Lane Civic Association, the Golfcrest Country Club Civic Association, the Ford Homes Historic District and the Springwells Park Civic Association.
Ford Homes is the one the City itself labels a historic district, and alterations there can involve historical district review on top of the ordinary permit. If you are buying a house that has clearly been altered in any of these five areas, the approval history is worth understanding.
The City also lists neighborhood associations across Dearborn — among them River Bend and the Morley Area Residents Association along the Rouge corridor, Country Club Estates, Golfview Oaks, Snow Woods, and Concerned Residents for South Dearborn, whose area the City describes as Amazon/Schaefer/Michigan Avenue/Riverside, including Fordson Island. Dearborn is not one uniform place, and where a house sits changes its setting more than its inspection.
For permit history itself, the City has moved to BS&A, where building and home-improvement permits, licensing and inspections can be submitted, tracked and approved online. Useful context on a remodelled property — though a permit does not establish that work is in good condition today, and its absence does not establish that work was done badly.
Still building
Dearborn is overwhelmingly a city of existing houses, but it is not standing still. In April 2026 the City reported redevelopment projects intended to add more than 300 housing units across 21 acres and more, including sites near the Carhartt headquarters and in the Lonyo neighborhood.
That gives Dearborn a mix most established cities do not have: a large pre-1960 housing stock, a municipal pre-sale inspection process running over all of it, and newer infill arriving alongside. A new-build inspection and a 1948 house are different pieces of work, and both happen here.
Trademark Inspection Services covers both, and inspects commercial property in Dearborn as well — offices, retail, multi-tenant and industrial buildings — to the CCPIA standard, with the scope agreed before we start. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can go on the same appointment as the home inspection.
Local information from City of Dearborn — buying a house in Dearborn · City of Dearborn — federal grant for residential flood projects · City of Dearborn — report public works issues · City of Dearborn — permits and BS&A. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Wayne County
Zone 3 is the lowest of the three EPA categories — the predicted average indoor level across the county is below 2 pCi/L. So on the state’s map Dearborn sits well away from the worst of it, and we are not going to dress that up into something it is not. What a zone cannot tell you is anything about one house: 17% of tests actually run in Wayne County still came back at or above the EPA’s 4 pCi/L action level, which is about one in six. Zones are drawn around counties, not around addresses, which is why the only number that settles the question is the one from the house itself.
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 · Wayne County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones. Elevated-result share from the Michigan Indoor Radon Program.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Dearborn 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
Ora from Trademark did an incredible job with the inspection and sewer scope of the home I am in the process of buying. He was very thorough, explained everything to me from the start, and made it all super easy to understand which definitely helped to put me at ease a bit more. Highly recommend this company!
Mariah HartmanWestland, MIJim was prompt and thorough during the mold testing. Clearly gave us an explanation about mold and testing process he was going to conduct. Testing was followed by a written report. I would recommend everyone use a third party to test mold, independent from the company conducting remediation work. I would hire Trademark again and strongly recommend them.
Alberto PicconeNorthville, MICowboy “Jim” just did Mold Testing in my parents’ basement. He was Professional, explained the what, how and yet of everything to my Senior parents. Our results came back super quick. He even referred us to the resources on the Trademark website for me to use to fix the leaky basement. It’s 1 stop shopping with Trademark.
Becky JohnsonWayne, MIWhat happens
Questions
Yes. A residential pre-sale housing inspection is required by ordinance, and it is scheduled by the seller or an agent acting for them. The City’s published process runs: the seller has the City inspection, the seller completes the inspection requirements, a Certificate of Occupancy is requested before the closing date, the City issues it, and then the closing takes place.
Yes, and the difference is bigger than most buyers expect. Dearborn describes its pre-sale inspections as “basic safety and property maintenance inspections to ensure compliance with minimum housing standards” — a defined checklist, checked against, on a short visit. A Trademark Inspection Services home inspection runs two and a half to four hours, and longer on larger or older houses. In that time we evaluate the roof covering and flashings, structure, foundation, grading and drainage, attic, insulation and ventilation, electrical service and panel, heating and cooling equipment and its remaining life, water heater, visible plumbing, every accessible room, windows, doors and built-in appliances — photographed and written up with how urgent each finding is. The City asks whether the house meets a minimum standard. We tell you what condition it is actually in. A house can pass the first and still hold everything you would want to know from the second.
Two and a half to four hours on site for most homes, and longer for larger or older ones — which in Dearborn covers a good share of the housing, given roughly three quarters of it was built before 1960. You are welcome to be there, and walking the house with the inspector is worth more than reading about it afterwards. The report reaches you within 24 hours. That is a separate exercise from the City’s pre-sale inspection, which is a shorter visit against the City’s minimum housing standards and is arranged by the seller.
It is worth considering, and the City draws the line that explains why. Dearborn will dispatch a maintenance crew to determine whether a stoppage is in the City main or the private line, and if the main is clear it becomes the property owner’s responsibility to have the private line put right. That private line is exactly what a standard visual inspection cannot see inside. Running a camera down it documents roots, damage, displacement, bellies or blockages where they are present, rather than inferring them from the age of the house.
The City documents significant flooding events in 2014, 2018 and 2021, and describes the 2021 flooding as the result of a 1,000-year rainfall event that affected approximately two-thirds of Dearborn homes. It is currently carrying out FEMA-funded mitigation and sewer-modernisation work targeting east Dearborn between Chase Road and Greenfield Avenue. None of that establishes anything about an individual property. A home inspection documents visible evidence — grading, drainage, foundation moisture, sump equipment, signs of past water entry — and designated flood-hazard status is a separate question answered by FEMA floodplain mapping.
It can change what a renovation needs. Dearborn’s residential renovation application names five areas where a permit may require approvals from a home owner association or historical district review: the Dearborn Hills Civic Association, the West Lane Civic Association, the Golfcrest Country Club Civic Association, the Ford Homes Historic District and the Springwells Park Civic Association. Ford Homes is the one the City labels a historic district. It does not change how the house is inspected — it changes what approvals past and future work may have needed, which is useful context on an altered property.
Yes. The City has moved to BS&A, which handles building and home-improvement permits, business licensing, inspections and related processes, and says everything from building permits to garage sale applications can now be submitted, tracked and approved completely online. Permit history is useful context on a house that has clearly been altered, but it does not replace an inspection: a permit does not establish that the work is in good condition today, and no permit record does not by itself establish that it was done badly.
Yes. You can book a Dearborn home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Wayne County too.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Dearborn home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Dearborn are handled by the City of Dearborn, not by us.
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