Sterling Heights, Michigan
Looking for a Sterling Heights home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Sterling Heights, 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights and across Macomb 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 Sterling Heights 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 reportSterling Heights housing stock
Sterling Heights has roughly 52,791 housing units and about 66% of them are single-family detached. Age is the most useful single fact about a house before anyone has seen it. It narrows down what is worth checking first, and it is why two places of much the same size can need quite different inspections.
If the town has a defining decade it is the 1970s, which accounts for 15,152 homes, around 29% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $243,400. There are around 1,565 manufactured and mobile homes in Sterling Heights. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 2,233 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.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Sterling Heights home inspector checks these things early in a home of this age and then records what is genuinely there, which is often not what the era would suggest.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Sterling Heights was built
90% of homes here run on utility gas, and 24 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 640 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Sterling Heights shares a border with Warren and gets mentioned in the same breath, but the two were built on completely different schedules — and that changes what an inspection is looking for.
Warren went up in a rush and largely stopped. Sterling Heights kept building for four decades: about 21% of its roughly 52,791 housing units date from the 1960s, 29% from the 1970s, 16% from the 1980s, 13% from the 1990s and 10% from the 2000s. The median build year is 1977. The City’s own 2024 housing study puts the core of it at 52.1% of units built between 1960 and 1979.
That spread is the practical difference. In a one-decade town you can reason a little from the build year, because your neighbor’s house is the same age. Here a 1968 ranch, a 1985 colonial and a 2004 condominium sit within a few miles of each other, and they are three different sets of systems, materials and service lives.
The City is candid about what that means for the older half. Its housing study notes that some of these houses may be nearing time of critical repairs, and that as the housing stock ages the infrastructure built fifty or more years ago is aging with it. That is not alarming, it is just the arithmetic of a 1970s house in 2026 — and it is what an inspection is for.
Before you buy
What you are actually buying
This is the detail that most changes what an inspection covers, and it is one buyers routinely get wrong about Sterling Heights.
The City’s 2024 housing study breaks the stock down like this: single-family detached and single-family attached together account for 76.3% of housing units; buildings with five or more units account for 16.7%; and just 3.8% are two-to-four unit dwellings. Census figures put detached houses alone at about 66%, so the gap between those two numbers is attached single-family — condominiums and townhouses — and it is substantial.
A condominium inspection is a different job from a detached-house inspection. The systems inside the unit are yours; the roof, the exterior envelope, the common structure and often the mechanicals serving several units belong to the association. What matters is knowing which is which before you commit, so that a finding lands with whoever is actually responsible for it.
For a detached house, a home buyer inspection runs the full envelope and every major system: roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, photographed and written up with how urgent each finding is. Tell us which kind of property you are buying when you book and we will scope it properly.
Records and help
Sterling Heights runs something most municipalities do not, and it is worth knowing about after you buy as much as before.
The Ask an Inspector Program lets residents book an appointment with a City building inspector to talk through a project — a deck, a shed, a fence, a pool, or any other home improvement. The inspector will discuss the scope, review zoning requirements, clarify building requirements and point you to the staff who start the application. It is for Sterling Heights residents, and it is free advice from the people who will eventually inspect the work.
That is a useful complement to what we do rather than a substitute for it. The City tells you what a project will require going forward; an inspection tells you the condition of what is already there. On a house from the 1970s those are different questions, and you generally want both answers.
Permit history is worth a look too, with the caution that always applies: a permit is not evidence that work is in good condition today, and nothing on file is not evidence that work was done badly.
The buried line
The private sewer lateral runs underground from the house to the public system, and no visual inspection can see inside it.
Two things we will not claim about it. We will not name a material from a build year — there is no authoritative source establishing what Sterling Heights laterals are generally made of, and in a city whose housing spans four decades the construction year would be a weak guide even if one existed. And we will not tell you where the City’s responsibility for the line ends and yours begins, because we could not find current City language defining it. The Water & Sewer Division is the place to confirm that for a specific address.
What the City does say about its sanitary system is worth knowing: emergency flooding conditions are responded to around the clock, and known sanitary sewer and lift station problem areas are checked for surcharging and proper operation during heavy rainfall. Read that as active management of a system the City understands well — not as a statement that any particular house takes water.
Condition, though, is answerable directly. A sewer camera inspection records what is actually in 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 visit rather than booked separately.
Water
Most cities in this region can only offer to help you find out. Sterling Heights has already done the work.
The City’s Water & Sewer Division publishes a Complete Distribution System Materials Inventory covering service-line materials on both public and private property, compiled — in the City’s words — “using tapping records as well as physical verification”. Its conclusion: “No lead service lines have been identified in the Sterling Heights water distribution system.”
Worth reading precisely. That says none have been identified, which is a strong and specific statement about a completed inventory — not a guarantee about a particular address, and not something a home inspection determines. The City also maintains a Water System Advisory Council, set up under state rules, to keep public awareness of lead in drinking water going and to advise on private service line replacement. If you want the position for one property, the Water & Sewer Division holds the inventory.
Whichever era of Sterling Heights house you end up in, the other services fit the same appointment: commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, and radon testing or mold inspection and testing added to a residential or commercial visit.
Local information from City of Sterling Heights — 2024 Housing Study · City of Sterling Heights — Water & Sewer Division · City of Sterling Heights — Ask an Inspector Program · City of Sterling Heights — Permits and Inspections. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Macomb County
Zone 3 is the lowest of the three EPA categories — the predicted average indoor level across the county is below 2 pCi/L. So on the state’s map Sterling Heights sits well away from the worst of it, and we are not going to dress that up into something it is not.
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 · Macomb County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Sterling Heights 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
Mitch did our inspection for the sale of our home and he was professional, efficient and friendly. The report was sent to me and my agent in a timely fashion and I appreciated how quickly the appointment was made and everything was finished! Would recommend to others.
Kendra AllenRoseville, 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, 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Spread across four decades, which is unusual for this region. The median build year is 1977. Roughly 21% of about 52,791 housing units date from the 1960s, 29% from the 1970s, 16% from the 1980s, 13% from the 1990s and 10% from the 2000s. The City’s 2024 housing study puts 52.1% of units in the 1960 to 1979 window and notes that some of those houses may be nearing time of critical repairs. The practical consequence is that you cannot reason much from the neighborhood — the house in front of you needs assessing on its own terms.
They were built on different schedules. Warren’s housing peaks hard in the 1960s and then largely stops, so most of that city is one era. Sterling Heights kept building through the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, with a median build year of 1977 against Warren’s 1965. Sterling Heights also has considerably more attached housing — its housing study puts detached and attached single-family together at 76.3% of units, with 16.7% in buildings of five or more. So a Sterling Heights buyer is more likely to be looking at a condominium, and more likely to be looking at a newer house, than a Warren buyer.
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement. The City’s certificate of occupancy is a business-licensing document — its own guidance is framed around obtaining a C of O for a business license, issued once inspections are approved and the building meets code. Confirm the position for a specific address with the Building Department, but do not plan on a municipal inspection looking at the house on your behalf. Where no city inspection happens at sale, the inspection you commission is the one working for you.
The boundary of what you own. Sterling Heights has a lot of attached housing — the City’s housing study counts detached and attached single-family together at 76.3% of units and buildings of five or more at 16.7%, with only 3.8% two-to-four unit dwellings. In a condominium the systems inside the unit are generally yours while the roof, exterior envelope, common structure and shared mechanicals sit with the association. An inspection still covers what serves your unit and what is accessible, but knowing which side of the line a finding falls on is the difference between your problem and the association’s. Tell us the property type when booking so it is scoped correctly.
It is worth considering, particularly on the older half of the city. The private lateral is buried and a standard visual inspection cannot see inside it, and the build year settles nothing — we would not guess a material from a date, and we are not aware of any source establishing what Sterling Heights laterals are generally made of. A line under a house from the late 1960s has had decades to be disturbed by roots or ground movement, or to have been partly replaced. Putting a camera down the line shows its accessible interior directly and is added to the same appointment.
The City’s position here is better than most. Its Complete Distribution System Materials Inventory covers service-line materials on both public and private property and was compiled using tapping records as well as physical verification; the City states that no lead service lines have been identified in the Sterling Heights water distribution system. Read that carefully — it says none have been identified across a completed inventory, which is strong, but it is not a guarantee about one specific address, and a home inspection does not determine service-line material. The Water & Sewer Division holds the inventory if you want the answer for a particular property.
Yes. You can book a Sterling Heights home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Macomb 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 Sterling Heights home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Sterling Heights are handled by Sterling Heights, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
February 24, 2026
May 18, 2024
November 11, 2020
Your local Sterling Heights home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
