Mount Morris, Michigan
Looking for a Mount Morris home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Mount Morris, 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 Mount Morris 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 Mount Morris 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 Mount Morris 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 reportMount Morris housing stock
Mount Morris has roughly 1,396 housing units and about 75% 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 1950s than from any other decade — 331 homes, roughly 24% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $78,000.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Mount Morris 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 Mount Morris was built
90% of homes here run on utility gas.
Local knowledge
One line on the City’s public works page matters more to a buyer here than anything about the buildings: an unpaid water and sewer bill run up by a tenant can become a lien on the owner’s property.
The City runs a program to prevent exactly that. A renter submits a deposit and a copy of the lease, and renter and owner together complete a water affidavit. The City states plainly that the program protects the homeowner from a lien arising from a renter’s unpaid bills, and that the deposit is applied to the final bill when the tenant moves out.
A lien attaches to the property rather than to the person who ran up the bill, which makes this a closing question on any property that has been let — and a program worth using from day one if you are buying to rent.
The second thing to know is what the housing is. Of roughly 1,396 units, 1,070 — 77% — were built before 1960, with 331 in the 1950s and 297 in the 1940s. Only about 64 units have been added in the last thirty-five years. This is one of the oldest and least changed housing stocks we cover.
And a point of order: Mount Morris the city and Mount Morris Township are separate governments, administered independently and with their own building departments. A postal address does not settle which one a property sits in, and starting a records search in the wrong office wastes an afternoon.
Before you buy
Water accounts
The City’s public works page sets out its water and sewer arrangements in more practical detail than most, and two parts of it deserve attention before you own a property here.
The first is the rental water program described above. It exists because unpaid utility balances can become a charge on the property itself, and the City offers a structured way for an owner to avoid inheriting a tenant’s debt. If you are buying a house that has been rented, ask whether an affidavit and deposit were in place and whether the account is clear.
The second is the shut-off timetable. Bills go out around the tenth with a due date of the twenty-fifth. An account thirty days past due gets a past due notice, and shut-offs begin the day after the date on that notice, with a non-payment fee added.
Then the line worth writing down: water will not be restored after half past four on a Thursday. City Hall keeps a four-day week and closes on Fridays. So a shut-off late in the week is a weekend without water, and that is a genuinely unpleasant way for a new owner to discover a billing problem that came with the house.
Meters are read monthly around the twenty-fifth, and the City asks that the area around a meter be kept clear so it can be worked on — along with keeping meter reading devices, hydrants and sidewalks clear of snow, and not plowing driveway snow into the road.
Leaks
The City publishes a short piece of homeowner guidance that is worth repeating because it is genuinely useful and costs nothing.
A running toilet, it notes, can use up to two gallons a minute — as much as seven thousand gallons in a month. That is a large bill arriving for a fault most people never notice, because a slow leak past a flapper is silent.
Its two tests are simple. For a toilet, put dark food coloring in the tank, do not flush, and wait. If color appears in the bowl, the toilet is leaking. For the house as a whole, turn everything off and look at the water meter: if it is still advancing, water is going somewhere.
On an inspection we operate the fixtures and report what we find — running toilets, dripping supply fittings, evidence of past leaks at accessible plumbing, and how drains behave under load. We do not pressure test a system or locate concealed leaks, and we say so plainly. But the meter test is something a buyer can run at a final walkthrough, and on a house that has stood empty it is well worth doing.
On housing where more than three quarters was built before 1960, plumbing has usually been replaced in stages rather than all at once, leaving material transitions worth examining closely. We report the visible supply piping where it is accessible and every point where the material changes or a repair has been made. We do not test water — that goes through a certified laboratory — and the City publishes its water quality reports and a lead water survey page for questions about the supply itself.
Rentals
Mount Morris runs a separate rental division, and its stated purposes are unusually candid.
The first is simply tracking: knowing which properties are rentals and what condition they are in. The second is emergency contact — making sure the police and fire departments can reach an owner when they need to. The third is ensuring safe and comfortable living conditions for tenants.
A building department clerk keeps the register and contacts owners or management companies to keep properties in compliance with the rental ordinance. Once an application and payment are processed, the file goes to the rental inspector, and all scheduling runs through the inspector rather than the clerk.
For a buyer, the practical questions are the ordinary ones: whether a property is registered, where it sits in the inspection cycle, and whether any outstanding items are attached to it. Those are cheap to ask and awkward to discover late.
For a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, our commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard and cover multifamily, office, retail and warehouse property. On a single rented house, a standard inspection is the right scope.
Permits and enforcement
The building department issues permits and rental dwelling permits, and contracts all of its inspectors through a single individual. Applications go through City Hall rather than direct to the inspector.
It also does something worth noting: alongside permits, the department issues invoices for weeds, snow removal and other miscellaneous matters. In other words, where an owner does not deal with something, the City may do it and bill for it. On a vacant or neglected property that is a category of charge worth asking about before closing.
Code enforcement sits under the police department, and its stated remit is clean, safe and attractive properties. Like most such systems it runs on complaints, which means an absence of enforcement history on a property tells you nobody complained — not that anybody examined it.
City Hall keeps a four-day week with a late Monday and a daily half-hour closure at midday, so records requests and permit questions are worth starting early rather than fitting into a Friday.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and does not replace one. What it does is tell you which parts of a property to ask about — a finished basement, a converted porch, an added bathroom, a replaced furnace — so the search you make is targeted.
Prewar and postwar
With 273 units predating 1940, 297 from the 1940s and 331 from the 1950s, the inspection here has a very consistent shape.
Electrical first. A house wired before 1960 was wired for a fraction of today’s demand. Most have had a service upgrade, but upgrades range from a genuine rewire to a new panel with original distribution still behind it, and circuits added in stages by different hands are common. Coherence matters more than the date on the panel.
Plumbing follows the same pattern, and on a stock this age the material transitions are the story. Roofs are on their third or fourth covering. Windows have generally been replaced once, sometimes with more attention to the unit than to what happens at the opening. Heating equipment has turned over two or three times, and venting arrangements do not always keep pace with a newer appliance.
Insulation and ventilation reflect the standards of the day, which usually means a worthwhile improvement is available in the attic.
And water. Sixty-five to ninety years of freeze and thaw leave a readable record in a foundation and a basement, and the ordinary causes are usually the ones that matter: grading that has settled toward the wall, downspouts discharging at the foundation, and sump arrangements added long after the building. We report the drainage as we find it and describe what the building actually shows about water that has been there before.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and the latter is worth considering where a basement shows a history of moisture.
The buried line
The drain line from the building to the main belongs to the owner. On a Mount Morris house it has typically been in the ground between sixty-five and ninety years, under a lot that has had exactly that long to grow trees over it.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Mount Morris laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
What a camera settles is what nothing else reaches: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. On a housing stock this old and this settled it is among the most useful things you can buy before closing.
A sewer camera inspection is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Mount Morris.
Local information from City of Mount Morris — public works, water accounts, the rental water affidavit and shut-off policy · City of Mount Morris — rental division · City of Mount Morris — building department and permits. 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 Mount Morris 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
It can. The City states that its rental water program — a deposit, a copy of the lease and a water affidavit completed by renter and owner — protects the homeowner from a lien on their property due to unpaid water and sewer bills by renters. A lien attaches to the property, so it is worth confirming any balance before closing.
Bills go out around the tenth with a due date of the twenty-fifth. An account thirty days past due receives a past due notice, and shut-offs begin the day after the date on that notice, with a non-payment fee added. Water is not restored after half past four on a Thursday, and City Hall is closed on Fridays.
The City publishes two tests. For a toilet, put dark food coloring in the tank, do not flush, and see whether color reaches the bowl. For the house, turn all water off and watch the meter — if it advances, something is leaking. It notes a running toilet can use as much as seven thousand gallons in a month.
Old and settled. About 1,070 of roughly 1,396 units — 77% — were built before 1960, with 331 in the 1950s and 297 in the 1940s, and only around 64 units added in the last thirty-five years.
No. They are separate governments, administered independently, each with its own building department. A postal address does not settle which one a property sits in, so confirm before requesting permit history or relying on any local rule.
The City runs a rental division that keeps a register of rental properties, contacts owners and management companies to keep them in compliance with the rental ordinance, and schedules inspections through a rental inspector. If you are buying a rental, its registration status and place in the cycle are worth asking about.
No. Water testing goes through a certified laboratory, and questions about the supply go to the City, which publishes water quality reports and a lead water survey page. We report the visible supply piping inside the building where accessible and every point where the material changes or a repair has been made.
On this housing stock, yes. The lateral belongs to the owner and has typically been in the ground between sixty-five and ninety years, under a lot with mature trees over it. A camera inspection documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same visit rather than booked separately.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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