Mason, Michigan
Looking for a Mason home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Mason, 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 Mason 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 Mason and across Ingham 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 Mason 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 reportMason housing stock
Mason has roughly 3,742 housing units and about 55% 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 — 930 homes, roughly 25% of the town. It is also less detached-house territory than most of the area at 55%, 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 $183,900. There are around 270 manufactured and mobile homes in Mason. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Mason 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 Mason was built
82% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 31 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Mason splits the permit history of a house across three separate agencies, which is one more than anywhere else we cover, and knowing that before you start searching saves a wasted afternoon.
The City issues building permits. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are issued and administered by the State of Michigan through its Bureau of Construction Codes — not by the City and not by the county. And soil erosion permits or waivers come from the Ingham County Drain Commission, with a copy required alongside the City building permit application.
So the roof, the addition and the deck are at city hall; the furnace, the water heater, the service upgrade and the re-pipe are in a state system; and anything involving moving soil has a county document behind it. All three matter, and the absence of records in one place proves nothing about the others.
The City also states something most municipalities leave unsaid: if the necessary permits are not obtained, the property owner — not the contractor — is cited for the violation, even when a contractor did the work. It goes further and invites residents to call the office if a contractor’s guidance conflicts with the City’s. That is unusually direct, and it is worth taking seriously when you inherit somebody else’s undocumented work.
The housing here has two peaks and a dip between them. Of roughly 3,742 units, 749 predate 1940 and 930 were built in the 2000s, with much less in the decades between. About 55% is single-family detached. In practice you are usually looking either at a historic county-seat house or at one barely twenty years old, and those are two completely different inspections.
Before you buy
Permits
The City’s permit page is unusually clear about where each kind of work goes, and about who carries the consequences when it does not go anywhere at all.
Building permits are the City’s. Roof and siding applications are handled online, while the rest come in by mail, at the customer service desk or through the drop box. The codes in force are the 2015 Michigan Residential Code for houses and the 2021 Michigan building, rehabilitation and energy codes, and there is a Building Code Board of Appeals that hears disputes over interpretation and can approve alternate materials or construction methods.
Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits go to the State of Michigan. That is the detail most likely to trip up a buyer doing their own research, because the systems that cost the most to put right are precisely the ones whose records are not at city hall.
Soil erosion is the third trail. The Drain Commission issues a permit or a waiver, and the City requires a copy with the building permit application. The City notes that this is generally triggered when soil is being moved, and that deck and fence postholes are exempt — a helpfully specific line.
The City also points to the state asbestos program for demolition work and to lead-safe work practice requirements. On a stock where 749 units predate 1940, both are live considerations for anyone planning renovation, and both are reasons to know what you are buying before you start opening things up.
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 it tells you plainly where work looks as though it was done outside the normal process, which is exactly where a permit search should then go looking.
Water
Mason publishes a water service line inventory with a map you can search by address. Very few communities we cover have one available to the public, and if you are buying here it is worth ten minutes before you write an offer.
It exists because Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule requires communities to locate and prioritize eligible pipes for replacement, and the City is coordinating replacements with water main and road projects where it can.
Read it for what it is. The City calls the map a living document, updated at least twice a year as more is learned, describes the information as being to the best of its knowledge, and disclaims any warranty as to accuracy or completeness. It also states that three inspection points are needed to make a complete determination of a service line, and that residents who have received a letter asking for an in-home inspection can arrange one at any time.
In other words, a color on a map is a starting point rather than an answer, and the City itself says so. That is honest, and it is the right way to treat it.
The mains behind it have their own history. The City has supplied municipal water for more than a century, and states that the original distribution system was cast iron pipe, of which roughly half remains in service today, with upgrades since the early 1970s made in ductile iron. That concerns the City’s pipes in the street rather than anything on your side of the meter, but it tells you the age of the system a house is connected to.
We do not test water and we do not determine service line materials. What an inspection can do is report the visible supply piping inside the building where it is accessible, describe the materials we can actually see, and note where a change of material or a repair has been made. Water testing itself goes through the county health department or a certified laboratory.
Two kinds of house
The gap in the middle of Mason’s housing history means the inspection you need depends almost entirely on which side of it a property sits.
On one of the 749 units predating 1940, the questions are about accumulation. Electrical systems that have been extended repeatedly by different hands. Plumbing that has been renewed in stages, leaving a mix of materials joined at points worth examining. Insulation and ventilation retrofitted into a building designed without either. Foundations and basements that have had eighty-five years or more of water to contend with. Heating added, replaced and sometimes vented into chimneys never intended for it. Roofs on their fourth or fifth covering.
On one of the 930 units from the 2000s, the questions are about the first round of turnover. The original roof is now at or near the end of its expected life. Furnaces, water heaters and air conditioning from the build are being replaced, and the quality of those replacements varies. Grading has settled. Windows and exterior finishes are at the stage where deferred maintenance starts to show. Build quality is the other half — work done quickly in a busy building period is not always work done carefully.
The scope does not change between them. What changes is where the hours go, and being clear about that before the appointment makes for a much more useful report.
With roughly 45% of the housing something other than a detached house, attached and multi-unit property comes up regularly too. On a condominium the association documents decide where your responsibility ends, and reading them before closing is worth the evening. For a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, a commercial inspection to the CCPIA standard is usually the right scope.
Soil and water
The Drain Commission’s involvement in the permit process is a reminder that in this part of Michigan surface water is a regulated matter rather than a private one. Moving soil on a lot generally needs a permit or a waiver, and the City wants that document before it will issue a building permit.
On the ground, the things that decide whether a basement stays dry are unglamorous and largely visible. Whether the grade falls away from the wall or back toward it. Whether the downspouts carry water clear of the foundation or drop it beside it. Whether a patio, driveway or addition poured since the build pitches the wrong way. Whether there is a sump, where it discharges, and whether that discharge is somewhere sensible.
On a prewar house, seasonal water in a basement is common enough that the interesting question is not whether it has ever happened but whether anything has been done about it and whether that work held. Staining, efflorescence, previous patching, replaced flooring and how the space is used all tell you something.
We report the drainage as we find it on the day and describe what the building shows about water that has been there before. We do not predict what a particular storm will do, because nobody honestly can.
Mold inspection and testing can be added where there is visible growth or a history of moisture, and radon testing can be added to any visit.
The buried line
The drain line from the building to the main belongs to the property owner, and in Mason its age varies as sharply as the housing does.
On one of the prewar houses that pipe may have been in the ground since before the Second World War, under a lot with mature trees that have had the entire time to find it. On a 2000s house it is twenty-odd years old, which sounds safe until you remember that settlement, construction damage and poorly bedded pipe are early-life problems rather than late-life ones.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Mason 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 the 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 appointment rather than booked separately, and it is one of the few things that answers a question the rest of an inspection genuinely cannot.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Mason.
Local information from City of Mason — water service line inventory and address-searchable map · City of Mason — building permit information, agencies and owner responsibility · City of Mason — water treatment and the age of the distribution system. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Ingham 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 · Ingham County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Mason 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 three places. The City holds building permits. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are issued and administered by the State of Michigan through its Bureau of Construction Codes. Soil erosion permits and waivers come from the Ingham County Drain Commission. The absence of records in one of those places tells you nothing about the other two.
Yours. The City states that as the property owner you are ultimately responsible for obtaining the necessary permits and inspections even if you hire a contractor, and that if they are not obtained the property owner, not the contractor, will be cited. The City also invites residents to call if a contractor’s guidance conflicts with its own.
Yes. The City publishes a water service line inventory map searchable by address, created under Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule. Treat it as a starting point: the City calls it a living document updated at least twice a year, describes it as being to the best of its knowledge, and disclaims warranty as to accuracy or completeness.
Because determining a service line completely takes more than a look at the street. The City states that three inspection points are needed for a complete determination, and that residents who have received a letter requesting an in-home inspection can contact customer service at any time to schedule one or to ask questions.
The City has supplied municipal water for over a century. It states that the original distribution system was cast iron pipe, of which approximately half remains in service today, and that upgrades since the early 1970s have been made with ductile iron. That describes the mains in the street rather than anything on a homeowner’s side of the meter.
No to both. We report the visible supply piping inside the building where it is accessible and describe the materials we can actually see, including any point where the material changes or a repair has been made. Water testing goes through the county health department or a certified laboratory, and the service line determination is the City’s process.
Generally not for the postholes themselves. The City notes that Drain Commission permits or waivers are usually required when soil is being moved, and that deck and fence postholes are exempt. Where one is required, a copy has to be submitted with the City building permit application.
Often, yes. On a 2000s house the lateral is only twenty-odd years old, but settlement, construction damage and poorly bedded pipe are early-life problems rather than late-life ones. On a prewar house the case is obvious. Either way 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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Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Mason home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Mason are handled by the City of Mason, not by us.
From the blog
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Your local Mason home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
