Linden, Michigan
Looking for a Linden home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Linden, 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 Linden 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 Linden 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 Linden 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 reportLinden housing stock
Linden has roughly 1,543 housing units and about 83% 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 2000s than from any other decade — 393 homes, roughly 25% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $221,700. 94% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Linden 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 Linden was built
89% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 25 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Linden is the one community we cover that uses the phrase outright: the City requires a point-of-sale housing inspection, and it must be completed before a property is sold.
The City describes it as a comprehensive housing inspection requirement, intended to protect the health and welfare of residents while giving an opportunity to resolve potential safety issues. It carries a modest fee, payable before or at the inspection, and it is scheduled through City offices prior to closing.
We should be straight about one thing: the City links a page describing what its inspection covers, but that link currently points to its construction inspection sheet rather than a resale checklist. So we do not know what the point-of-sale inspection examines, and we are not going to guess. City offices are the place to ask, and asking early matters because the inspection sits between an accepted offer and a closing date.
What we can say is what our own inspection is for, and it is a different thing. The City’s inspection serves the City and its criteria. A buyer’s inspection is engaged by you, reported to you, and covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior in detail so you can decide how to proceed. On a property here you will generally want both.
The housing is mostly recent: of roughly 1,543 units, 759 — about half — were built in the 1990s and 2000s, with 268 from the 1970s and 200 predating 1940. Around 83% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
Short term rentals
Linden’s short term rental ordinance took effect in March 2023, and it is the most carefully structured we have come across. If you are buying here with any thought of letting a property short term, read it before you make an offer.
The ordinance draws a line between two kinds of arrangement. A personal unit short term rental needs no license: that means a dwelling assessed at a full principal residence exemption, rented for no more than fourteen days in a calendar year when the owner is away — or without limit when the owner is present and living on the premises.
Anything else is a business unit short term rental, and those do need a license. They are only permitted in areas shown on the City’s map, must be at least 250 feet from any other business unit short term rental, and — the provision that matters most — the ordinance caps the total number in the entire City at twenty.
A license runs for a calendar year, costs an annual fee, must be renewed before its anniversary, and is required separately for each unit where an owner has more than one. Before a license is issued, the City building official inspects the property for compliance with the ordinance and with applicable zoning, building, health and safety codes. Violations are municipal civil infractions.
So the practical question for a buyer is not just whether a property could be let short term, but whether a license is even available — the cap, the map and the separation rule can each rule out an address on their own. That is a zoning administrator question, and the answer is free.
The City also publishes good neighbor guidelines alongside the ordinance, which is a fair signal of how it expects licensed properties to be run.
Permits
The City issues building permits itself; electrical, mechanical and plumbing applications are separate and go to the State licensing department. So a property’s permit history sits in two places, and finding nothing at City offices tells you nothing about the trades.
Its inspection sheet sets out a sequence worth understanding, because it explains what was and was not seen while a house was being built. A minimum of five inspections is required on most structures: foundation before concrete goes into piers, trenches and formwork; backfill after the footings, walls, waterproofing and drain tile are installed; rough after the roof, framing, fire stopping, bracing and the trade roughs and before insulation; insulation before finish work; and final on completion before occupancy.
The backfill inspection is the interesting one. It is the only occasion on which anybody independent sees the foundation waterproofing and the drain tile, because everything after that is buried. On a house where a basement takes water, whether that inspection happened is a genuinely useful thing to know.
The City requires 24 hours notice, puts the responsibility for calling on the permit holder — specifically before construction is covered — and leaves a tag at each inspection saying whether it was approved.
Code enforcement is complaint-driven, and the City notes that a complainant’s details are protected under state freedom of information law. Complaint-driven means an absence of enforcement history on a property tells you nobody complained, not that anybody examined it.
One scheduling note: the city planner and zoning administrator keeps published office hours of a single morning a week. Anything needing a zoning answer — a short term rental question, a setback, a historic district query — is worth starting early.
Historic district
Linden runs a historic district commission and issues certificates of appropriateness for work within its district. Whether a particular address falls inside it is a question for the City, and worth settling before you plan any exterior work.
The general shape of these ordinances is consistent: repairing what is there in the same material and form is usually ordinary maintenance, while replacing it with something different is a change that gets reviewed. That distinction matters most for the components an inspection most often flags on an older house — windows, siding, porches, roofing material and doors.
On one of the 200 units here that predate 1940, that changes what happens after the report rather than what goes in it. If the windows are failing, the route to fixing them inside a historic district is narrower and slower than it would be two streets away, and knowing that before you write an offer is worth a good deal.
We report the condition of what is actually there: the state of sashes and frames rather than just glazing, whether siding has rot behind paint, whether a porch is settling or simply weathered, and the condition of the roof structure under the covering. Those are exactly the facts you need in order to judge whether repair is still viable.
We do not assess compliance with design guidelines or advise on what a commission would approve. That is the City’s process, and the commission publishes its agendas and minutes.
The housing
With 759 units built in the 1990s and 2000s, most inspections here concentrate on the first round of turnover rather than the third.
Original roofs from that period are at or past the end of their expected life, or have already been replaced. Furnaces, water heaters and air conditioning from the build are being replaced now, with variable care and occasionally with venting that has not kept pace with a newer appliance. Window seals, caulking and exterior finishes are showing wear. Grading has settled since the build, which is usually the first thing a wet basement points back to.
Decks deserve a proper look rather than a glance on housing of that period — the ledger connection to the house, the flashing behind it, and the condition of hangers and fasteners, which on modern treated lumber can corrode faster than the boards they hold.
On the 268 houses from the 1970s the pattern shifts to second and third generation equipment, and insulation that usually leaves a worthwhile improvement available in the attic. On one of the 200 prewar houses the questions change again entirely, toward accumulated alteration across eighty-five years or more.
Curiously, the whole of the 1940s accounts for only about a dozen units here, so there is very little immediate postwar housing to speak of.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property.
The buried line
The City publishes a separate permit for a building sewer connection, which is a reminder that the line running out of a house is a distinct piece of work with its own paperwork — and that it belongs to the property owner.
On a 1990s or 2000s house that pipe is twenty-five or thirty years old, and the risks are early-life ones: settlement after backfill, damage during construction or landscaping, and poorly bedded pipe that has developed a belly. Those surface a decade or two later as a drain running slow for no obvious reason.
On one of the prewar houses the familiar issues apply instead: roots, cracks and displaced joints under a lot that has had eighty-five years to mature. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Linden laterals are generally made of.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside the line either way, and is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately. On a property facing a municipal point-of-sale inspection as well as a private one, it is worth having the fullest possible picture before either happens.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, see the City’s building and code enforcement page, or get in touch about a specific address in Linden.
Local information from City of Linden — building and code enforcement, and the point-of-sale housing inspection requirement · City of Linden — short term rental ordinance, licensing and the citywide cap · City of Linden — construction inspection sequence and notice requirements. 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 Linden 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
Yes. The City states that it has a comprehensive housing inspection requirement which must be completed before the sale of a property, and asks sellers to contact City offices to schedule a point-of-sale housing inspection prior to closing. A modest fee applies, payable before or at the inspection.
We do not know, and we would rather say so than guess. The City links a page describing its inspection items, but that link currently points to its construction inspection sequence rather than a resale checklist. City offices are the place to ask for the criteria — and worth asking early, since the inspection sits between an accepted offer and a closing date.
No, and neither replaces the other. The City’s inspection serves the City and its own criteria. A buyer’s inspection is engaged by you and reported to you, covering the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior so you can decide how to proceed.
It depends. A personal unit short term rental needs no license — a home with a full principal residence exemption, let for no more than fourteen days a year when the owner is away, or without limit when the owner is present. Anything else is a business unit rental, which needs a license, must sit in a mapped area at least 250 feet from another, and competes for a citywide cap of twenty.
An annual fee, a license valid for the calendar year and renewed before its anniversary, a separate license for each unit where an owner has more than one, and an inspection by the City building official beforehand to confirm compliance with the ordinance and with zoning, building, health and safety codes. Violations are municipal civil infractions.
In two places. The City issues building permits; electrical, mechanical and plumbing applications are separate and go to the state licensing department. Finding nothing in the City file tells you nothing about the trades.
Because it is the only point at which anybody independent sees the foundation waterproofing and the drain tile — the City requires it after the footings, walls, waterproofing and drain tile are installed and before backfill. Everything after that is buried, so on a house where a basement takes water it is a useful thing to know happened.
Usually. On a 1990s or 2000s house the risks are early-life ones — settlement after backfill, construction or landscaping damage, poorly bedded pipe — and they surface as a slow drain a decade or two later. On a prewar house it is roots, cracks and displaced joints. A camera inspection documents 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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