Hanover, Michigan
Looking for a Hanover home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Hanover, 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 Hanover 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 Hanover and across Jackson 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 Hanover 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 reportHanover housing stock
Hanover has roughly 167 housing units and about 79% 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: 75 homes, about 45% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $136,100.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist a Hanover 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 Hanover was built
81% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 3 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
One thing to settle before anything else: we could not find a website for the Village of Hanover itself. What we did find is Hanover Township, which publishes a great deal and which is where our research led. Before you rely on any of what follows, confirm with the township which body actually covers the specific parcel you are looking at, because a village and the township around it are separate governments.
With that said, the township’s building department publishes something almost nobody does: a turnaround commitment. Permits, it states, will be issued within 72 hours of receiving a completed application and the fees. Both conditions matter — the clock starts when the file is complete and paid, not when it arrives.
And then, in the same breath, a constraint that changes how you have to use it: building permits will only be issued on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The office itself is open Monday to Thursday, mornings and afternoons with a break at midday, and closed on Friday.
Those two facts pull against each other in a way worth planning around. Seventy-two hours is genuinely fast. But the issuing days are only three, so a file completed late in the week does not behave like one completed on a Monday. If work is on a timetable, submit early in the week and submit complete.
A home inspection is not a code inspection or a permit search and we do not present it as one. What we establish is what is physically there and what condition it is in.
Before you buy
Permits
The building department page publishes its fees, itemized, which is rarer than it should be. As the township sets them out, and dated from April 2024: inspection fees for all permits are $85 per inspection, made up of a $70 inspection fee and a $15 administrative fee. Site inspection and zoning compliance fees are also $85. Fee schedules move, so confirm the current figures, but the shape of the thing is published and that is what lets you budget.
The application list is worth reading before you assume anything is too small to need paperwork. There are separate forms for a site inspection, for adding to, altering, repairing or building an accessory structure, for demolition, for a new home, for electrical, mechanical and plumbing — and one specifically for a roof or re-roof. Commercial structures are handled by telephone.
That roof form is the one most likely to matter to somebody buying an older house here, and it is where this page and our report meet. When an inspection finds a roof covering near the end of its service life, replacing it in this township is not simply a matter of booking a contractor. It has its own application, and the same three-day issuing rhythm applies to it.
The township also states that a site inspection is required for any new structures, additions, or any other project that covers ground area. That last phrase is broad on purpose: a shed, a slab, a patio extension. It is the kind of clause people assume does not apply to them.
What a buyer’s inspection gives you is the list that makes all of this concrete: what condition the roof is actually in, what has already been added to the property, and which work looks like something somebody meant to have inspected.
The records
One line on the township’s front page deserves more attention than it will get. Electronic documents on the site, it states, are provided for convenient information only and do not replace the official version. If there are inconsistencies between the original document kept on record and the version held on the website, the original is the one that counts.
That is an honest and unusually explicit thing to publish, and it is worth taking seriously precisely because a downloaded PDF looks authoritative. The documents on the site may well be complete and current. The point is that the copy is not the record, and if something turns on the exact wording of an ordinance or a permit condition, the paper original held by the township is what governs.
For a buyer that translates into one habit: for anything you are actually relying on — a permitted use, a setback, whether an existing structure was approved — get the answer from the township rather than from a file on your laptop. It costs one phone call, and the township is open four days a week.
The township describes itself as a smaller rural farming community with the goal of sustainable growth, and its website is recent. That combination usually means the people answering the phone know the properties, which is worth more to a buyer than a polished document library.
The housing
Hanover has roughly 167 housing units, about 79% of them single-family detached, with a median build year of 1946. That means most of the stock is post-war, and about a fifth of it is something other than a standalone house — so we establish which situation a property is in before anything else.
On housing of that age the electrical system is typically the accumulated work of several decades: mixed wiring types arriving in the same enclosure, ungrounded receptacles, panels added to more than once, and an original service capacity never intended for a modern household. Plumbing is usually renewed in part rather than in whole, which concentrates the interesting questions at the transitions between materials.
Heating equipment will be several replacements from the original. Roof coverings will be on a third generation, and what was done at the flashings and penetrations each time matters more than the age of the shingles — which, given that a re-roof here needs its own permit, is worth knowing precisely rather than approximately.
Foundations from that era are typically block, and their condition depends far more on how water has been managed around the building than on how they were built. In a rural farming township, outbuildings come with the territory and get inspected as part of the property rather than glanced at — they frequently carry their own electrical supply and their own structural questions.
We found no water or sewer department pages, so we are not going to tell you what a property here is served by — confirm it in writing, and take well and septic questions to the county health department early, because a septic evaluation runs to its own timetable. The line out from the building is the owner’s either way and no visual inspection reaches inside it; a sewer camera inspection goes on the same appointment. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available for commercial property, and you can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, see the township officials, or get in touch about a specific address in Hanover.
Local information from Hanover Township — building department, permits and fees · Hanover Township — township website and document notice · Hanover Township — township officials · Hanover Township — notices. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Hanover 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
Justin Frey was my Inspector. He was very nice, very professional, and made sure I had all my questions answered. If I had a business, I definitely would hire him!
Tonya HConcord, 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
We could not find one. Our research reached Hanover Township, which publishes a good deal. Confirm with the township which body covers a specific parcel before relying on anything, because a village and its township are separate governments.
The township states permits will be issued within 72 hours of receiving a completed application and the fees. Both conditions matter — the clock starts when the file is complete and paid.
Yes. The township states building permits will only be issued on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The office is open Monday to Thursday and closed on Friday.
As the township published them, dated April 2024: $85 per inspection, made up of a $70 inspection fee and a $15 administrative fee. Site inspection and zoning compliance fees are also $85. Confirm the current figures, since fee schedules move.
The township publishes a dedicated roof and re-roof permit application, so treat a re-roof as permitted work here and build the three-day issuing rhythm into your timetable.
The township states a site inspection is required for any new structures, additions, or any other project that covers ground area — which is broad enough to catch a shed, a slab or a patio.
For information, yes; as the last word, no. The township states electronic documents are for convenient information only, and that where the website version and the original on record disagree, the original governs.
The median build year is 1946 across roughly 167 housing units, about 79% of them single-family detached. Most of the stock is post-war, and about a fifth is something other than a standalone house.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
Your local Hanover home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
