Brighton, Michigan
Looking for a Brighton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Brighton, 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 Brighton 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 Brighton and across Livingston 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 Brighton 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 reportBrighton housing stock
Brighton has roughly 3,874 housing units and about 42% of them are single-family detached. The year a house went up decides more about what an inspection turns up than almost anything else about it, which is why it is where we start rather than where we finish.
More of it dates from the 1990s than from any other decade — 844 homes, roughly 22% of the town. It is also less detached-house territory than most of the area at 42%, 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 $282,000.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Brighton home inspector starts in a home of this age — and whatever we actually find, it goes in the report with photographs.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Brighton was built
84% of homes here run on utility gas, and 12 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 18 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
In the City of Brighton the permit history of a house is kept in two different offices, and knowing that before you start searching saves a great deal of confusion.
The City issues permits for the shell and the site: new structures, additions, decks and patios, fences, pools, sheds, demolition, driveways and sidewalks, siding, windows and doorwalls, retaining walls, a basement finish, and roofing of any kind. Livingston County issues the permits for mechanical, plumbing and electrical work, and the City directs code questions to the County as well.
So if you look only at City records you will see the roof, the siding, the deck and the finished basement, and you will miss every furnace, water heater, re-pipe and panel change the property has ever had. Both trails are worth pulling, and they answer different questions.
There is a second thing worth establishing early: whether the property is actually in the city. Brighton’s water plant serves customers in portions of neighboring Brighton, Genoa and Hamburg Townships under intergovernmental agreements, so a house can be on City water and still sit outside the city limits — where the City’s permit list and rental ordinance do not apply.
The housing here is not especially old by Michigan standards. Of roughly 3,874 units, 844 date from the 1990s, 828 from the 1980s and 719 from the 1970s, with 284 predating 1940. But only about 42% is single-family detached, which is the lowest share of any community we cover at this size.
Before you buy
Two permit trails
The City’s building and permits page publishes both lists, and the City list is longer than most. Roofing of any kind needs a permit here. So do siding, windows and doorwalls, a basement finish, a shed, a fence, a pool, a deck, a driveway and a retaining wall where the building code governs it.
That is genuinely useful when you are buying, because it means the alterations most visible on a walkthrough are the ones most likely to have left a City record. A re-roof with a permit behind it gives you a date, and a date is the single most useful number for judging what is left of a covering’s service life.
The mechanical, plumbing and electrical trail sits with the County instead, which is where the expensive systems live. A furnace changed out, a water heater replaced, a service upgraded, a bathroom re-plumbed — those records are not in the City file, and their absence from it means nothing.
The City also states, without hedging, that there is a penalty for working without a permit and that it is enforced, with fixed fines for residential, commercial and sign work. Unlike some municipalities it does not describe a retroactive obligation stretching back indefinitely, but a buyer inheriting undocumented work still inherits the question of whether it was done properly.
The codes the City lists as enforced are the 2015 Michigan building, residential, mechanical, plumbing, energy, fire and rehabilitation codes, the 2015 International Fuel Gas Code and the 2014 National Electrical Code. A buyer’s inspection is not a code compliance inspection and we do not issue code citations — we report the condition and apparent function of what is there, and flag work that looks as though it was done outside the normal process.
Rentals
Since July 2013 the City’s ordinance has required registration and inspection of residential rental units, and the definition is broad. Single family residences, duplexes, apartments and rooming houses may all contain units that count, and what makes a unit a rental is simply that remuneration of any kind is paid for it.
Registered units are inspected once every third year, against a checklist the City built from the International Property Maintenance Code. Failing to register is a civil infraction with a fine of up to $500 per unregistered unit plus costs, and the City staffs a dedicated rental inspector and code enforcement position.
That matters more here than the ordinance text suggests, because only about 42% of Brighton’s housing is single-family detached. The majority of the units in this city are apartments, attached housing or something divided, and a substantial share of them are let.
If you are buying a rental, or buying a house you intend to let, the registration status and inspection year are worth asking about directly — the City tells owners their inspection year once the registration is filed, so an established rental should know where it sits in the cycle.
The IPMC basis is also useful context for an ordinary buyer. It is a maintenance standard rather than a construction one: it concerns itself with the condition of what exists, which is a great deal closer to what a home inspection looks at than the building code is.
Water
The City’s Utilities Department runs its own supply rather than buying finished water, and the plant is an iron removal plant — the water is drawn from three wells and treated for iron, then filtered, chlorinated, fluoridated, and dosed with phosphate for corrosion reduction.
Two of those steps are worth knowing about as a homeowner. Iron removal exists because the raw groundwater carries iron, which is the sort of thing that shows itself in fixtures and appliances if it gets through. Phosphate for corrosion reduction is a standard measure to keep the water from pulling metal out of the pipes it travels through — the plumbing inside the house included.
The distribution side has an interesting feature: four booster stations, two of which the City says boost pressure for small areas of higher elevation, and one that serves a named pressure district. In other words, water pressure is not uniform across this city, and it is managed deliberately in places.
On an inspection we run fixtures and report on functional flow and drainage — whether the supply keeps up when more than one thing is running, and how the drains behave under that load. Where a house sits on the elevation map is not something we can look up, but weak or unusual pressure is something we can describe accurately in the report.
The system behind it is about 68.5 miles of water main, three storage facilities holding a combined 1.62 million gallons, 815 hydrants and roughly 1,805 valves, serving over 3,600 billing accounts.
Sewer
Brighton publishes an instruction we have not seen stated so plainly anywhere else in this project: if you have a sanitary sewer backup or a sewer gas smell in your home or business, call the City before calling a plumber. Its emergency line runs 24 hours.
That is sound advice and it is worth passing on to anyone moving here. A backup can originate in the City main as easily as in the house, and establishing which end the problem is at before a plumber starts work can save both money and an unnecessary excavation.
The system it protects is about 46 miles of gravity sanitary main plus nine miles of force main and 13 pump stations, running to a tertiary treatment plant. Force mains are pressurized rather than gravity-fed, which is a reminder that not every part of the network behaves the same way.
For a buyer the practical point stays the same wherever the mains run: the line from the building to the connection is the owner’s. On the 284 units here that predate 1940 that pipe is very old. On the much larger 1970s and 1980s stock it has still been in the ground for forty or fifty years under whatever has grown over it since. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Brighton laterals are generally made of.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside that line — roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. It is added to the same visit rather than booked separately.
What we do here
With well over half the housing in the City something other than a detached house, a fair proportion of the work here is on attached and multi-unit property. That changes the questions rather than the standards.
On a condominium or an attached unit the boundary between what you own and what the association maintains decides who pays for what, and it is not always where a buyer assumes. Roofs, siding, windows, decks and common drainage are the usual points of confusion. We inspect and report on the accessible components of the unit and its building, and the association documents settle the rest — reading them before closing is genuinely worth the evening it takes.
On a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, our commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard and cover multifamily, retail, office and warehouse property. That is a different scope and a different report from a residential inspection, and for a property that will be registered and inspected by the City on a three-year cycle it is usually the right choice.
On a detached house, a standard buyer’s inspection covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to either kind of visit.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch to talk about a specific address — including whether it is inside the city limits, which around here is not always obvious.
Local information from City of Brighton — building and permits, and the split with Livingston County · City of Brighton — residential rental registration ordinance and inspection cycle · City of Brighton — Utilities Department, water treatment and sewer system. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Livingston 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 · Livingston County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Brighton 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
In two places. The City of Brighton holds permits for structures, additions, decks, fences, pools, sheds, roofing of any kind, siding, windows and doorwalls, driveways, retaining walls, basement finishes and demolition. Livingston County holds mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits. Searching only the City file will leave out every furnace, water heater and panel change the property has had.
Yes. The City lists roofing of any kind among the work requiring a permit, along with siding and windows. That is useful when buying, because a permitted re-roof leaves a dated record, and the date is the best guide to how much service life a covering has left.
Not necessarily. The City states that its water plant also serves customers in portions of neighboring Brighton, Genoa and Hamburg Townships under intergovernmental agreements. The City’s permit list and rental ordinance follow the city limits, not the water main, so it is worth confirming which government your address actually sits in.
Once every third year. The City’s ordinance requires residential rental units to be registered, tells the owner their inspection year once the registration is filed, and inspects against a checklist built from the International Property Maintenance Code. Failing to register is a civil infraction with a fine of up to $500 per unit plus costs.
The definition is broad: a distinct individual living quarters intended for occupancy by someone other than the owner and the owner’s family, for which remuneration of any kind is paid. The City notes that single family residences, duplexes, apartments and rooming houses may all contain units that qualify.
The City asks residents to call it first, before calling a plumber, on a line that runs 24 hours. A backup can start in the City main as easily as in the house, and finding out which end the problem is at before work begins can save an unnecessary excavation.
Because the City draws its own supply from wells rather than buying finished water, and the plant is an iron removal plant. Treatment also includes filtration, chlorination, fluoridation, and phosphate for corrosion reduction, which is a standard measure to limit what the water pulls out of the pipes it passes through.
Yes, and in this city it comes up often, since only about 42% of the housing is single-family detached. We inspect the accessible components of the unit and its building; the association documents decide where your responsibility ends and the association’s begins, which is worth reading before closing. For a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, a commercial inspection to the CCPIA standard is usually the right scope.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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From the blog
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October 22, 2017
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