Pontiac, Michigan
Looking for a Pontiac home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Pontiac, 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 Pontiac 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 Pontiac and across Oakland 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 Pontiac 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 reportPontiac housing stock
Pontiac has roughly 28,147 housing units and about 60% 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: 6,138 homes, about 22% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $100,100. Only 42% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, so a good share of what we inspect here is bought as a rental or sold with tenants in place — which changes what access on the day looks like. There are around 517 manufactured and mobile homes in Pontiac. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 2,751 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 a Pontiac 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 Pontiac was built
83% of homes here run on utility gas, and 29 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 402 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Age, and an unusual amount of it. Pontiac has the largest share of genuinely prewar housing of any large community in this region we have looked at closely.
Of roughly 28,147 housing units, about 22% were built before 1940. Another 10% date from the 1940s and 18% from the 1950s, with a median build year of 1960 and around 60% single-family detached. For comparison, prewar housing accounts for 3% of Farmington Hills and 1% of Shelby Township. This is a different building stock, and it asks different questions.
A house of eighty-five or a hundred years old has had time for everything to be replaced — roof, heating, wiring, plumbing, windows — possibly more than once, possibly not at all, and quite often in some combination that no single date explains. We will not reason from the build year to what is installed, because on housing this old that reasoning is simply unreliable.
What Pontiac does have, and it is worth knowing before you buy, is an unusually deep set of municipal records and rehabilitation programs. Both are covered below.
Before you buy
Records
Pontiac makes property research more straightforward than most, and on prewar housing that is worth using properly.
The Building Safety Division publishes property information online through the City’s records portal, where the search types include permit lookups, inspections, violations and certificates. That gives you a view of what has been permitted and inspected on an address over time.
Two practical points. First, anything not held online requires a Document Retrieval Application with a fee, and the City asks for three to five business days to process it — so if you want older records, start early rather than in the last few days of an inspection period. Second, since June 2024 permits and plan reviews must be paid for up front when applying, which matters if a seller has work under way or you are planning your own immediately after closing.
The usual caution applies to whatever you find: a permit does not establish that work is in good condition today, and nothing on file does not establish that work was done badly. Records tell you what was declared. An inspection tells you what is actually there now, which on a house of this age is the question that matters.
We found no residential point-of-sale inspection requirement in Pontiac. The City does run a Property Rental Registration and Inspection ordinance, and the Building Safety Division is responsible for making sure all rental properties in the city are properly registered and up to code — but a house changing hands is not inspected by the City on your behalf. Confirm for a specific address with the Building Safety Division.
After the report
This is the part worth knowing before you commission work rather than after, because several of these programs are applied for in advance.
The City’s Housing Vitality Division lists a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone program, established under state law to support the development and rehabilitation of residential housing, with applications filed and reviewed by the City and also reviewed at state level. Alongside it the City lists a home repair program, Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds, and a down payment assistance program. It also publishes a 2025 Housing Study and Needs Assessment.
Read that list next to an inspection report and the connection is obvious. On housing where a fifth of the stock predates 1940, an inspection will often identify substantial items — a roof at the end of its life, a heating system due for replacement, electrical or plumbing that has been extended over decades. Knowing what assistance or tax treatment may apply before you start is worth a call to the City.
We are not the authority on eligibility for any of these, and we will not tell you what you qualify for. What an inspection gives you is the thing those applications need: a clear, photographed account of what condition the property is actually in, with an indication of how urgent each item is.
Pontiac also has a Historic District Commission, so on some properties alterations carry an additional review. Worth establishing early whether a house you are considering falls under it, because it affects what you can change and how.
The buried line
On a housing stock this old the sewer lateral is one of the least knowable and most consequential things about a property.
It runs underground from the house to the public system and no visual inspection can see inside it. On a house built before 1940 that line has had eight decades or more for roots to reach a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, for repairs to have been made and for sections to have been replaced without any record surviving.
We will not name a material from a build year. There is no authoritative source establishing what Pontiac laterals are generally made of, and on housing spanning this many decades a date would be a poor guide even if one existed. What we will do is look. 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. It is added to the same visit.
Water outside the house
Water management is where older houses most often show their age, and it is entirely observable, which makes it worth doing carefully.
During an inspection we look at accessible grading around the building, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, and sump equipment where it is present — documented as we find it rather than as it was originally built. On a house that has been through several owners and several rounds of landscaping, the way water moves around it now can be quite different from the way it was designed to.
Alongside the standard inspection, 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 rather than booked as a second appointment.
Local information from City of Pontiac — Building Safety Division · City of Pontiac — Housing Vitality Division · City of Pontiac — property rentals. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Oakland County
Zone 2 is the middle EPA category — the predicted average indoor level across the county sits between 2 and 4 pCi/L. What a zone cannot tell you is anything about one house: 29% of tests actually run in Oakland County still came back at or above the EPA’s 4 pCi/L action level. A zone is an average taken across a whole county, and no house is an average.
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 · Oakland County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones. Elevated-result share from the Michigan Indoor Radon Program.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Pontiac 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, MIExcellent sums up the entire experience, from the initial call to set up the appointment with staff that was informative and helpful, up until the actual inspection that was very professional and thorough with any and all questions I had answered. I would highly recommend Trademark to anyone who needs inspection services. Thanks again Curt, my inspector, for an excellent job.
Johnny Thomas JrSouthfield, MIWhat happens
Questions
Older than most of the region. About 22% of the roughly 28,147 housing units were built before 1940 — the largest prewar share of any large community we have looked at closely here — with another 10% from the 1940s and 18% from the 1950s, a median build year of 1960 and around 60% single-family detached. For comparison, prewar housing is about 3% of Farmington Hills and 1% of Shelby Township. On housing that old, what has been replaced over the decades matters far more than the original construction date.
Yes, and it is worth doing. The City publishes property information online where the search types include permit lookups, inspections, violations and certificates. If a document is not available online you will need a Document Retrieval Application with the appropriate fee, and the City asks three to five business days to process the request — so begin early rather than in the closing days of an inspection period. Treat what you find as context: a permit does not prove the work is sound today, and its absence does not prove it was done badly.
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement. The City does operate a Property Rental Registration and Inspection ordinance, and the Building Safety Division is responsible for making sure all rental properties are properly registered and up to code, so that matters if you are buying a rental or buying from a landlord. There is also a Property Sales page on the City website, which is easy to misread — it is the City accepting offers on its own vacant lots, not a resale inspection process. Confirm for a specific address with the Building Safety Division.
The City lists several programs through its Housing Vitality Division, including a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone program established under state law to support development and rehabilitation of residential housing, a home repair program, Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds, and a down payment assistance program. It also publishes a 2025 Housing Study and Needs Assessment. We are not the authority on eligibility and will not tell you what you qualify for — but since several of these are applied for in advance, it is worth asking the City before commissioning substantial work.
On housing this old it is worth serious consideration. The private lateral is buried and no visual inspection can see inside it, and a house built before 1940 has had eight decades or more for roots to reach a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, or for repairs and partial replacements to have happened without a surviving record. We would not guess a material from a build year and no authoritative source establishes what Pontiac laterals are generally made of. Putting a camera down the line answers the condition question directly and is added to the same appointment.
It is worth knowing one recent change. Since June 2024 the City requires permits and plan reviews to be paid for up front at the time of application, rather than later in the process. That matters in two situations: where a seller has work part-completed and an open permit, and where you are planning your own work immediately after closing. The Building Safety Division handles permit applications, which are submitted online.
Yes. You can book a Pontiac home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Oakland County too.
A home inspection report reaches you within 24 hours. Commercial buildings are 24 to 72 hours depending on size, a radon result comes at the end of the 48-hour test, and mold samples come back from the lab in one to three business days.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
Police, fire, rescue, military and educators — our way of saying thank you for your service. Enter code HERO at checkout.
Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Pontiac home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Pontiac are handled by Pontiac, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
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Your local Pontiac home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
