Detroit, Michigan
Looking for a Detroit home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Detroit, 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 Detroit 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 Detroit 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 Detroit 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 reportDetroit housing stock
Detroit has roughly 323,368 housing units and about 65% of them are single-family detached. Homes built in a single stretch tend to wear out in the same places at the same time. That is why when somewhere was built is the first thing worth knowing about it.
The busiest stretch of building here was the years before 1940: 112,607 homes, about 35% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $66,700. Only 49% 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. There are around 1,430 manufactured and mobile homes in Detroit. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 29,095 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.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist a Detroit home inspector works through in a home of this age, and every item on it gets photographed and written up whichever way it turns out.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Detroit was built
84% of homes here run on utility gas, and 282 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 2,461 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Scale, and the fact that no single description covers it.
Detroit has around 323,000 housing units. Census figures put 35% of them before 1940, 21% in the 1940s and 22% in the 1950s — roughly 78% built before 1960, with a median build year of 1947. The City’s current Consolidated Plan says the same thing in words: Detroit grew rapidly between 1920 and 1960, and most structures inside the city were built during that growth.
But “old Detroit house” is not one thing. Within that stock sit designated historic districts, one- and two-family houses, multi-family buildings, houses substantially rehabilitated after years of vacancy, registered rentals under the City’s Certificate of Compliance system, and commercial property. Two houses of the same age a mile apart can have completely different histories behind them.
So the job here is not to tell you what a Detroit house is like. It is to establish what this particular property actually is — its age, what has been altered, what was replaced during any rehabilitation, how water is managed around it, and what condition the systems are in today.
Before you buy
The buried line
This is the most Detroit-specific fact on this page, and it comes straight from the water department.
DWSD states that “most sewer lines connect in the alley or former alley (those vacated to the property owners by the city), while only a few neighborhoods have the sewer line connect under the street in front of the house/structure.” In much of the rest of the region the lateral runs to the street. Here it often does not.
DWSD is equally clear about who owns the problem: “Property owners are responsible for the drains inside the house/structure, on the private property and the sewer line coming from the structure all the way to the connection at the city sewer collection pipe.” The department maintains the collection system; everything up to it is yours.
That is a long run of pipe, on your side of the line, that a standard visual inspection cannot see inside. Putting a camera down it documents what is actually there — roots, displacement, damage, bellies or blockages where present. What we will not do is guess at the material from the age of the house; a line in a 1925 Detroit home may be original or may have been replaced in sections since.
Water
Detroit publishes real data here, and the honest use of it is narrower than people assume.
DWSD runs a Basement Backup Protection Program targeting 11 neighborhoods chosen, in the department’s words, “based on clusters of historic basement backups and flooding reported to” DWSD. Phase 1 went to Victoria Park and Aviation Sub, which DWSD describes as the hardest-hit areas during the June 25–26, 2021 rain event, with a history of backups during rainstorms over the previous decade.
That is documented history for identified neighborhoods. It is not a statement about Detroit generally, and it says nothing about whether a particular house has ever taken water — including a house inside one of those neighborhoods.
DWSD’s own advice to owners is practical and worth repeating: disconnect downspouts from the sewer system, and where necessary install a backwater valve and/or sump pump. Those are exactly the sorts of things we look at. During an inspection we evaluate accessible grading, gutters and downspouts, foundation conditions, basement or crawlspace, and sump equipment where it is present, and we document what is visibly there.
Rehabilitation
Detroit has done something no other city in the region has done at this scale, and it changes what a buyer may be looking at.
In December 2025 the City reported that Detroit Land Bank inventory had fallen from roughly 47,000 abandoned Land Bank-owned houses in 2014 to 942, with approximately 27,000 houses demolished and around 19,000 formerly abandoned houses sold for rehabilitation.
Those are citywide program figures, and they establish a context rather than a history for any address. Nothing about them says a particular renovated house was ever Land Bank-owned or vacant, and this page does not suggest otherwise. What they do mean is that in Detroit, more than most places, a well-presented older house may have been through a substantial rehabilitation — and the useful question becomes what that work actually covered.
Permit history helps answer it. BSEED requires permits for applicable renovation and construction, with separate trade permits for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work, and publishes a home renovation guide. A permit does not establish that work is in good condition today, and its absence does not establish that work was done badly — but on a substantially rehabilitated house it is worth knowing what was pulled.
What this inspection is, and is not
Detroit runs more property-related processes than most cities, and it is worth being precise about which is which, because they are easy to conflate.
The rental Certificate of Compliance is a municipal requirement for registered rentals, awarded after a 15-point property-condition inspection — carried out by a company assigned by zip code for one- and two-unit properties, or through BSEED for three units and up. Detroit’s rental compliance process also involves lead inspection and risk assessment, and lead clearance, for applicable pre-1978 properties. And DWSD has documented programs to identify and replace lead service lines across the city.
A Trademark Inspection Services home inspection is none of those things. It does not satisfy the rental Certificate of Compliance, it is not a lead risk assessment or a lead clearance, and it does not establish whether a particular property has a lead service line — that is a question for current DWSD records, not for the age of the house.
What our inspection does is tell a buyer the condition of the property in front of them: the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, photographed and written up with how urgent each finding is. Commercial buildings are inspected to the CCPIA standard, and radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to the same visit.
Local information from DWSD — water and sewer maintenance · DWSD — Basement Backup and Flood Protection · City of Detroit — rental Certificate of Compliance · City of Detroit — historic district information. 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 Detroit is not where the state’s worst readings turn up, and we would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise. 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. A zone is an average taken across a whole county, and no house is an average.
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 Detroit 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
Because so much of the city is old, and old means altered. Census figures put about 35% of Detroit’s housing before 1940 and roughly 78% before 1960, with a median build year of 1947, and the City’s current Consolidated Plan says Detroit grew rapidly between 1920 and 1960 with most structures built during that period. A house that old has had decades for wiring, plumbing, heating, roofing and windows to be repaired, replaced or left alone in some combination. The inspection establishes what is actually installed today.
Usually out the back, which surprises people. DWSD says most Detroit sewer lines connect in the alley or former alley behind the property, and that only a few neighborhoods have the line connect under the street in front. DWSD also states that property owners are responsible for the line from the structure all the way to the connection at the city sewer collection pipe. That is a substantial run of privately owned pipe.
It is worth considering, and the ownership line is the reason. DWSD puts the whole run from the structure to the city connection on the property owner, and in Detroit that run often goes out to an alley behind the house. A standard visual home inspection cannot see inside it. A sewer camera inspection documents roots, damage, displacement, bellies or blockages where present. The age of the house does not reliably indicate what material is buried or what condition it is in.
Some identified neighborhoods do, and DWSD documents which. Its Basement Backup Protection Program targets 11 neighborhoods chosen “based on clusters of historic basement backups and flooding reported to” the department, and Phase 1 went to Victoria Park and Aviation Sub as the hardest-hit areas in the June 25–26, 2021 rain event. That is documented history for those areas — it does not establish a citywide condition, and it does not establish anything about an individual house, including one inside those neighborhoods.
Yes. Detroit rental properties must be registered and obtain a Certificate of Compliance, which the City says is issued after passing a 15-point property condition inspection. One- and two-unit properties are inspected by a company assigned by the property’s zip code; three units and above are scheduled through BSEED. Applicable pre-1978 properties also involve lead inspection and risk assessment and lead clearance. A home inspection is a separate thing entirely and does not satisfy any of those requirements.
That the renovation is the thing to understand. Detroit has seen rehabilitation at a scale no neighboring city has — the City reported Land Bank inventory falling from about 47,000 houses in 2014 to 942, with roughly 19,000 formerly abandoned houses sold for rehabilitation. Those are citywide program figures and say nothing about any particular address. On a renovated house the useful questions are what the work actually covered, what was left original behind the new finishes, and what permits were pulled. An inspection answers the first two by looking at what is there.
Yes. You can book a Detroit home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Wayne County too.
A home inspection report reaches you within 24 hours. Commercial buildings are 24 to 72 hours depending on size, a radon result comes at the end of the 48-hour test, and mold samples come back from the lab in one to three business days.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Detroit home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Detroit are handled by Detroit, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
Your local Detroit home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
