Memphis, Michigan
Looking for a Memphis home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Memphis, 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 Memphis 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 Memphis and across St Clair 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 Memphis 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 reportMemphis housing stock
Memphis has roughly 549 housing units and about 70% 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: 168 homes, about 31% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $169,300.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist a Memphis 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 Memphis was built
84% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 13 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Memphis publishes something most small cities leave you to find out for yourself: the whole set of forms by which a homeowner can reduce, defer or correct a property tax bill.
Its assessor’s page carries the principal residence exemption affidavit and the forms to rescind or conditionally rescind it, an application for summer tax deferment, a poverty exemption application, an affidavit for the disabled veterans exemption, and the property transfer affidavit. That is an unusually complete shelf for a city of around 549 homes.
The principal residence exemption is the one that matters to almost every buyer. Michigan taxes a property differently depending on whether it is the owner’s principal residence, and the affidavit is what puts a property on the lower of those two rates. It is a form, not a favor, but it has to be filed — and it is exactly the sort of paperwork that gets forgotten in the month after a move.
The city is also strict about when it stops taking money. Summer taxes are due at the end of August and winter taxes by 14 February, and the city states it cannot accept tax payments on or after 1 March, after which any outstanding balance has to be settled with the county.
On the housing, this is an older city: about 168 of roughly 549 units predate 1940 and another 119 date from the 1950s, with almost nothing from the 1940s and nothing recorded as built since 2009. Around 30% of the stock is not a detached house.
Before you buy
Tax paperwork
The city’s forms and ordinances page is worth bookmarking before you complete a purchase here, because several of the documents on it are things a new owner is expected to file rather than things the city does for you.
The principal residence exemption affidavit is the headline. Alongside it sit the forms to rescind that exemption and to conditionally rescind it — the latter being what you need if you have bought a new home before selling the old one, and it is a form people routinely miss.
There is also an application for summer tax deferment, a poverty exemption application, and the state affidavit for the disabled veterans exemption. We have not read any of these and we are not going to tell you who qualifies or on what terms — that is a conversation for the assessor, and the eligibility rules are not ours to paraphrase.
What we will say is that the forms exist, that the city publishes them together, and that the assessor is the person to ask. A surprising number of owners pay more than they need to simply because nobody told them a form existed.
The property transfer affidavit is on the same page. It is a Michigan requirement on the new owner rather than a Memphis rule, and the assessor uses it to make sure the property is assessed correctly after a sale.
None of this is inspection business. We flag it because it is free to get right in advance and expensive to leave, and because it is the sort of local knowledge a buyer moving into a small city rarely has.
Utilities and dates
Memphis bills water, sewer, trash and recycling together on a quarterly cycle, and it publishes the schedule plainly: each quarter is invoiced on the first day of the following month and due at the end of that month.
So the bill covering January to March arrives on 1 April and is due by the thirtieth, and the same pattern repeats through the year. If you are used to monthly utility billing, four larger bills a year is a different budgeting rhythm and worth knowing about before you move.
Trash is collected every Thursday, moving to Friday in weeks with a major holiday. Burn dates for yard waste are printed on utility bills and posted on the city website when they apply, and the city notes there is no open yard waste burning during the summer.
Burn permits are issued through the Memphis fire department, which also covers surrounding townships — Riley and Richmond townships and part of Wales township. A city fire department serving three neighboring townships is a substantial commitment for a place this size.
For a buyer the practical point about the burn rules is that they change with the season and are announced on a bill you may not yet be receiving. Check the city news page before lighting anything in your first year.
Permits
The city publishes building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permit applications, an ordinances and fees document, a building permit application fee sheet and a zoning map. It also publishes a swimming pool and hot tub ordinance and a rental inspection application, so if you are buying a property with a pool or intending to let, those are conversations to have with the city rather than assumptions to make.
The document that stands out is a performance bond. Not many small cities put one on the permit shelf, and it suggests certain work carries a financial guarantee requirement. We have not read it and cannot tell you what triggers it, so ask the building department before you plan anything substantial — a bond requirement discovered halfway through a project is an unwelcome surprise.
Ask for the permit history on the specific address at the same time. On a city where nearly a third of the housing predates 1940, eighty years of alterations have accumulated, and the gap between what was permitted and what is physically present is a gap the buyer inherits.
A home inspection is not a code inspection or a permit search, and we do not present it as one. What we do is establish what is physically there and in what condition, and flag work that looks as though it was done without the benefit of a permit — which gives you something specific to ask about.
A buyer’s inspection is the usual starting point, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available where a building is commercial or mixed use.
The housing
With around 168 units predating 1940 and 119 from the 1950s, most Memphis houses are between seventy and a hundred years old, and the 1940s are almost entirely absent — a gap that shows up in a lot of small Michigan towns.
On the older stock the inspection reads accumulated change. Electrical rebuilt in stages by different hands, with mixed wiring types meeting in the same box, ungrounded receptacles, undersized or overfilled panels and overfused circuits. Original service capacity is frequently the practical limit on what a modern household wants to run.
Plumbing tends to have been renewed in part rather than in whole, so material transitions where old meets new are where problems concentrate. Original galvanized supply, where it survives, corrodes from the inside and shows as reduced flow and discolored water long before anything leaks.
Roof coverings will be several generations deep. Heating equipment is typically several replacements from the original, and how well each was fitted and vented matters more than how new the current one looks.
Foundations from before 1940 are usually stone or early block, and their condition depends far more on how water has been managed around the building than on how they were built. So we record where the downspouts terminate, where any sump pump discharges and whether there is a backup, and how the ground falls away from the building.
About 30% of the stock is not a detached house, which in a small city usually means converted upper floors and small multi-unit buildings in the older core. Tell us what the building actually is when you book and we will scope the visit and any access properly. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit.
The buried line
The line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. Under a pre-1940 house it is often the oldest untouched component on the whole property.
We will not name a material from a build year. Nothing published establishes what Memphis lines 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 in there: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. In an old platted city with mature street trees, roots are the common finding, and they give no warning until the day the drains back up.
Because the city bills sewer as part of a single quarterly utility charge, there is no separate signal on a bill that would tell you something is wrong with the line. The first indication is usually the backup itself, which is precisely the argument for looking before you buy rather than after.
A camera inspection is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately, and we deliver a full written report with photographs, generally the same day. You can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Memphis.
Local information from City of Memphis — forms and ordinances, including assessor exemption forms · City of Memphis — frequently asked questions, billing and tax dates · City of Memphis — departments · City of Memphis — contact the city. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Memphis 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
The city publishes the principal residence exemption affidavit and the forms to rescind or conditionally rescind it, a summer tax deferment application, a poverty exemption application, the disabled veterans exemption affidavit and the property transfer affidavit.
Michigan taxes a property differently depending on whether it is the owner’s principal residence, and the affidavit is what puts it on the lower of the two rates. It has to be filed rather than applied automatically.
No, and we will not guess. We have not read the forms and the eligibility rules are not ours to paraphrase. The assessor is the person to ask, and the city publishes the applications.
Summer taxes at the end of August and winter taxes by 14 February. The city states it cannot accept tax payments on or after 1 March, after which any balance must be settled with the county.
Quarterly, with water, sewer, trash and recycling on one bill. Each quarter is invoiced on the first of the following month and due at the end of that month.
Only on permitted dates, which are printed on utility bills and posted on the city website when they apply. The city states there is no open yard waste burning during the summer, and permits come through the fire department.
We do not know, and we would rather say so. The city publishes one among its permit documents but we have not read it. Ask the building department what work triggers it before planning anything substantial.
On a city where most houses are seventy to a hundred years old, yes. The drain line is often the oldest untouched component on the property, and with sewer billed inside a combined quarterly charge there is no early warning on a bill. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Your local Memphis home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
