Owosso, Michigan
Looking for an Owosso home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Owosso, 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 Owosso 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 Owosso and across Shiawassee 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 an Owosso 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 reportOwosso housing stock
Owosso has roughly 6,978 housing units and about 71% 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: 2,409 homes, about 35% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $113,700. There are around 165 manufactured and mobile homes in Owosso. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 1,027 homes sit in two-to-four unit buildings, where a shared roof, a shared wall and sometimes a shared furnace mean the report has to be clear about where one unit stops.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist an Owosso 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 Owosso was built
83% of homes here run on utility gas, and 20 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 72 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Owosso is an old housing market with a small building department, and both facts shape what buying here involves.
Of about 6,978 units, roughly 2,409 — some 35% — predate 1940, with another 1,001 from the 1940s and 950 from the 1950s. About 60% of the city was built before 1960, and fewer than 350 units have gone up since 2000. Around 71% is single-family detached.
On the department side, plumbing and mechanical inspections happen on Friday mornings between 9 and noon. That is one three-hour window a week for two trades, and appointments are required for all inspection services. Electrical runs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; building inspections run through the week.
That is not a criticism — it is a small city being honest about its capacity, and publishing the windows is more useful than leaving people to find out. But if your plan for a property involves a furnace, a water heater or any plumbing work in the first weeks after closing, the schedule needs to be in the plan.
Before you buy
The code the City actually enforces
A great many cities adopt the International Property Maintenance Code and then amend it locally. Very few publish what they changed, which means the standard a property is actually held to is not knowable from the outside.
Owosso publishes both. Its code enforcement pages link the IPMC and, separately, the City’s IPMC amendments, alongside the Code of Ordinances. If you are buying an older property here and want to know what a code enforcement officer is measuring against, it is all there.
The complaint process is published too, and it is unusually careful about a point most cities gloss over. The online form asks, where a violation is not visible from the street, where it can be seen from — and then asks whether the City has permission to use the complainant’s property to view it. Complaints can be made anonymously.
What code enforcement does not do is tell a buyer about condition. That is a buyer’s inspection: the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, reported as found, with what is failing, what is near the end of its service life and what to plan for. On a house that predates 1940 — one in three here — that report is the document that shapes your first few years.
Permits and timing
The Building Department issues building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits and provides the inspections for all of them. The Building Official carries out plan reviews and building inspections, assisted by licensed electrical, mechanical and plumbing inspectors.
The schedule is the part to plan around. Appointments are required for every inspection. Building inspections run Monday to Friday between 9 and 5. Electrical inspections happen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9 and 4. Plumbing and mechanical inspections happen on Friday mornings between 9 and noon. Out-of-hours scheduling requests go to voice messaging.
On a house where the furnace, the water heater and some plumbing all need attention — a common enough position on sixty- and eighty-year-old stock — that single Friday window is the constraint the whole job schedules around.
The City also publishes an unusually complete set of forms: residential and commercial building permit applications, electrical, plumbing and mechanical applications, fence and above-ground swimming pool applications, home occupation and zoning compliance forms, lot split and land combination applications, and a bed and breakfast application with historic criteria attached.
And a jurisdictional note the City makes itself: residents living outside the city limits must go to Shiawassee County’s building and trades department for permit and inspection information. On the edge of town that is worth confirming before you rely on anything.
Rentals and empty houses
Owosso runs two registration programs and publishes the ordinance, an FAQ and a form for each — which is more transparency than most cities offer.
Rental registration and inspection covers properties that are rented. Vacant property registration covers properties that are not occupied. Both matter to a buyer: the first because the obligation transfers with income property, the second because a house that has been standing empty may already carry one.
We did not open the ordinances, the FAQs or the guidelines, so we are not going to state a cycle length, a fee or a threshold for either. The Building Department is the place to confirm all of it, and to find out where a specific property currently stands.
What we can say is that an empty house inspects differently from a lived-in one. Dry traps, idle heating, plumbing that has been through a winter without heat, a roof nobody has been under and water entry nobody has noticed all show up in ways that reward a careful look — and on a city where a third of the housing is prewar, an empty prewar house deserves more of that attention than most.
On the utility side, Owosso runs its own water filtration plant and wastewater treatment plant, with separate water distribution and sanitary sewer collections departments. A home inspection does not test water, and we would rather say so plainly — what we report is the accessible plumbing as found, along with grading, gutters and downspouts and their discharge points, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, floor drains and any sump equipment.
The buried line
On a city where a third of the housing predates 1940, the buried lateral running from the house to the sewer main is frequently the oldest thing changing hands.
Eighty or a hundred years is long enough for roots to find a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, and for repairs to have been made and forgotten by everyone involved. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Owosso laterals are generally made of, and guessing from an era is how people buy the wrong repair.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside — roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not — and it is added to the same visit rather than booked separately.
Alongside it, commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, and radon testing or mold inspection and testing can be added to a residential or commercial visit.
Local information from City of Owosso — Building Department, inspection schedule and forms · City of Owosso — Code Enforcement, IPMC and local amendments · City of Owosso — Water Filtration Plant. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Owosso 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
Friday mornings between 9 and noon — a single three-hour window a week shared by both trades, by appointment. Electrical inspections run Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9 and 4, and building inspections Monday to Friday between 9 and 5. Appointments are required for all inspection services, with voice messaging available outside business hours.
Only if you are planning work. On an older house where the furnace, the water heater and some plumbing all need attention, that single Friday window becomes the constraint the whole job schedules around. It is worth knowing before you commit to a timeline rather than after.
The International Property Maintenance Code, as amended locally — and unusually, the City publishes both. Its code enforcement pages link the IPMC itself and, separately, the City’s own IPMC amendments, alongside the Code of Ordinances. Most cities that amend the code never publish what they changed, which leaves the enforced standard unknowable from outside.
Yes. The City publishes a rental registration and inspection ordinance with an FAQ, a registration form and guidelines. We did not open those documents, so we are not going to state a cycle, fee or threshold — the Building Department is the place to confirm all of it, and to find out where a specific property currently stands.
It may carry an obligation. Owosso publishes a vacant property registration ordinance, FAQ and form, so a property that has been standing empty is worth checking on with the City before closing. Separately, an empty house inspects differently from a lived-in one — dry traps, idle heating, plumbing that has been through a winter unheated, and water entry nobody has noticed all reward a careful look.
Old, and the stock has barely changed. Of about 6,978 housing units, roughly 2,409 — some 35% — predate 1940, with 1,001 from the 1940s and 950 from the 1950s. About 60% was built before 1960 and fewer than 350 units have gone up since 2000. Around 71% is single-family detached.
Not the City’s part of it. Owosso states that residents living outside the city limits must contact Shiawassee County’s building and trades department for permit and inspection information. On the edge of town, confirm which side of the line an address falls on before relying on anything you have read about either.
On housing this age, seriously. The buried lateral running from the house to the sewer main is the one component no visual inspection reaches, and on a prewar house — a third of the city — it has been in the ground eighty years or more. We will not guess a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Owosso laterals are generally made of. Putting a camera down the line documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same appointment.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Claim the Hero DiscountNeed an Owosso home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Owosso are handled by the City of Owosso, not by us.
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