Goodland Township, Michigan
Looking for a Goodland Township home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Goodland Township, 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 Goodland Township 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 Goodland Township and across Lapeer 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 Goodland Township 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 reportGoodland Township housing stock
Goodland Township has roughly 666 housing units and about 95% 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 1990s than from any other decade — 225 homes, roughly 34% of the town. At 95% single-family it is almost entirely detached houses, so the inspection is nearly always of a whole building rather than one unit inside one.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $259,900. 87% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Goodland Township 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 Goodland Township was built
39% of homes here run on utility gas, and 14 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 240 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Goodland Township regulates a set of things most rural townships leave alone, and the list of its ordinances is worth reading before you buy here even if you never open one of them.
Alongside the usual zoning, building and junk yard ordinances, the township maintains separate ordinances on electrical compliance, on roof pitch, on geothermal drainage and on septage waste, plus earth material removal with three amendments and a cost recovery ordinance sitting beside its fire protection one.
We want to be straight about what we know here: we have read the ordinance index, not the ordinances. We can tell you what subjects are regulated. We cannot tell you what any particular rule requires — not the minimum roof pitch, not what triggers an electrical compliance affidavit, not what the geothermal drainage rule says. Those texts have to be read at the township.
But knowing the subject list is itself useful, because every one of those four touches something we look at on an inspection, and because a township that has written a rule about roof pitch is a township where a roof alteration is not a free-form exercise.
The housing is mostly modern by rural standards: about 225 of roughly 666 units date from the 1990s and another 100 from the 2000s, with around 123 predating 1940 and very little from the middle decades. At 95% detached, outbuildings come with the territory.
Before you buy
The ordinances
The township’s ordinance index is the most informative page on the site, and four entries stand out for anyone buying a building.
The electrical compliance ordinance is the first, and the township backs it with an application and affidavit form of its own. Most communities we cover simply defer to the state code through a trade permit; a separate compliance instrument suggests the township takes a view of its own about electrical work. If you are buying a property where wiring has been altered, that is a specific thing to ask about.
The roof pitch requirement is the second, and it is unusual enough that we have not seen it anywhere else on this site. Pitch affects how a roof sheds water and snow, how it can be covered, and what an outbuilding may look like. If your plans involve a new garage, a pole barn or a roof alteration, read that ordinance before you draw anything.
The geothermal drainage ordinance is the third. Ground-source heating and cooling is increasingly common on rural property, and a township that has written a drainage rule about it has clearly encountered the question. If a property has a ground-source system installed, ask whether it was permitted under that ordinance.
The septage waste ordinance is the fourth, and on a township that is 95% detached rural housing it points squarely at private waste systems.
There is also an earth material removal ordinance carrying three separate amendments, and a pond permit among the township’s forms. Digging on a property here is regulated more closely than you might expect.
Roofs
We cannot tell you what the township requires, but we can tell you what we look at, and on this housing stock the roof is often the largest single item in a report.
With around 225 units from the 1990s, a great many roofs here are on their original covering or approaching the end of a first replacement. We record the covering type and its apparent condition, the state of flashings at walls, chimneys and penetrations, and the condition of valleys, which is where covering failures usually begin.
We look at the roof from the ground and, where it is safe and reasonable to do so, from closer. Where we cannot get onto or safely near a roof we say so plainly in the report rather than implying we assessed it.
Ventilation and insulation in the roof space matter as much as the covering. Inadequate ventilation shortens the life of a covering from beneath and shows up as condensation, staining and in bad cases mold on the underside of the sheathing. We look in the roof space where access allows.
On outbuildings — and at 95% detached housing there are usually some — the roof is often the least maintained part of the property. Pole barns, detached garages and workshops get inspected as part of the property here, not as an afterthought, and they frequently carry their own electrical supply as well.
If your plans involve altering a roof or adding a building, take the pitch ordinance and the inspection report to the township together. Commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available where a building is commercial.
Permits
The township’s forms page shows how the workload is split. Planning and zoning matters are handled locally — site plan review, special land use, variance and rezoning applications, parcel combination and division, and a private driveway or private road application.
Electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits, though, go to the Construction Code Authority rather than to the township, so a project can involve two different offices and two different timescales.
The private driveway and private road application is worth noting if you are buying anything served by a shared or unadopted access. On rural land those arrangements are common, and the question of who maintains an access and on what terms is one buyers frequently do not ask until it snows.
There is also an ordinance violation complaint form, which tells you complaints are handled through a formal route. If you are buying a property with an unresolved issue, ask the township whether any file is open on the address.
A home inspection is not a permit search or a code inspection, and we do not present it as one. What it does is establish what is physically present and in what condition, and flag work that looks as though it was done without the benefit of a permit — which on a township with this many specific ordinances is a useful thing to have in writing. A buyer’s inspection is the usual starting point.
Taxes
The treasurer’s page sets out something worth diarising: tax collection hours are Wednesdays only, from nine until four, with a drop box on the pillar outside for anything else.
The township publishes its deadline dates precisely, including opening longer on the final day to pay summer taxes without interest and then closing on the Wednesday immediately after. If you plan to pay in person, check the published dates rather than assuming the usual Wednesday applies.
The genuinely helpful detail, and one not every municipality offers, is that both the township and the county treasurer accept partial payments. For anyone managing a large bill across a difficult month, that is a real option rather than a technicality.
The township also publishes the usual set of exemption and deferment applications and is notably encouraging about the poverty exemption, pointing out that it costs nothing to apply and inviting people to apply and find out. There are hardship deferral applications aimed at residents on fixed incomes as well.
One yearly receipt is mailed out showing both summer and winter payments, so keep it — there is not a second one.
None of this is inspection business. We mention it because a one-day-a-week collection window is the kind of local mechanic a new owner discovers the hard way.
Water and waste
The township publishes no water department and no sewer department. What it does publish is a septage waste ordinance, which on a township that is 95% detached rural housing points clearly enough at private systems.
Even so, we are not going to assert that a particular address is on a well and a septic system. That is a question with a definite written answer, and it should be obtained for the parcel rather than inferred from the neighborhood.
Take well and septic questions to the county health department. A septic evaluation is specialist work carried out by or through them, and it answers questions no visual inspection can — whether a drainfield is failing, and the true condition of the tank. On rural property it needs arranging early because it runs to its own timetable. A water test on a private well belongs in the same conversation.
What we inspect is the building and everything from the house side of the system inward: the accessible supply and drain lines, the venting we can see, how fixtures behave when the system is loaded, and the visible condition of any pump, pressure tank and treatment equipment.
Surface water matters more on a septic property than most buyers expect. A drainfield working in ground that is also taking every downspout and a sump discharge is being asked to do two jobs at once. We record where the downspouts terminate, where any sump discharges, whether there is a backup arrangement, and how the ground falls away from the building.
The buried line
Whatever a property here drains to, the line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it.
On a 1990s house that pipe is thirty to thirty-five years old — young enough that people assume it is fine and old enough that it often is not. Under one of the 123 houses predating 1940, considerably older. We will not name a material from a build year, because nothing published establishes what lines here are generally made of.
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. On a septic property it documents the building drain out to the tank — the owner’s pipe, and the part a septic evaluation does not examine.
That gap is the whole point on rural property. A septic evaluation looks at the tank and the field. The run between the house and the tank is nobody’s job by default, and on a lot with mature trees it is exactly where roots go.
On the 1990s and 2000s stock there is a second reason to look: a line laid during that build can carry construction debris or a settled section from the day it went in, and nothing about the house above it will tell you.
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. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to the same visit. You can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Goodland Township.
Local information from Goodland Township — ordinance index · Goodland Township — township forms, permits and applications · Goodland Township — taxes and assessments · Goodland Township — township website. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Goodland Township 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 township’s ordinance index lists a roof pitch requirement amendment. We have read the index rather than the ordinance, so we cannot tell you what pitch it requires — read the text at the township before planning roof or outbuilding work.
A separate township instrument with its own application and affidavit form, alongside the usual trade permits. We have not read it and cannot tell you what triggers it, but it is worth asking about on any property where wiring has been altered.
The township publishes a pond permit among its forms, and it also maintains an earth material removal ordinance with three amendments. Ask before you dig.
The township directs electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits to the Construction Code Authority, while handling zoning and planning matters itself. A project can therefore involve two offices.
Tax collection hours are Wednesdays only, nine until four, with a drop box outside. The township publishes its deadline dates and sometimes opens longer on the last day to pay without interest, so check rather than assume.
The township states that both it and the county treasurer accept partial payments, which is not something every municipality offers.
We will not assume. The township publishes no water or sewer department, and while private systems are likely on rural land, that is no substitute for confirming it for the parcel with the county health department.
Yes, as part of the property. They often have their own electrical supply and their own roof and structural questions, and on a township with a roof pitch ordinance they are worth looking at carefully.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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