Lake Angelus, Michigan
Looking for a Lake Angelus home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Lake Angelus, 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 Lake Angelus 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 Lake Angelus 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 Lake Angelus 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 reportLake Angelus housing stock
Lake Angelus has roughly 149 housing units and about 100% 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 years before 1940 than from any other decade — 37 homes, roughly 25% of the town. At 100% 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 $1,213,200. 99% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Lake Angelus 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 Lake Angelus was built
89% of homes here run on utility gas.
Local knowledge
Lake Angelus is a city of roughly 149 homes wrapped around a lake of the same name, and every one of those homes is single-family detached. It has been governing what happens around the water for a very long time — the city’s own history notes that by the 1920s residents had already agreed on restrictions covering themselves and the use of the lands and waters of the lake, decades before it became a village in 1930 and a city in 1984.
That history has a very practical consequence today, and it is the single most important thing for a buyer here to understand. The city publishes a four-tier ladder setting out what you may do to a property, and each tier needs a different level of permission.
At the bottom are everyday activities needing no city approval: trimming vegetation so long as the plant stays viable, gardening at least twenty-five feet back from the water, putting in a seasonal dock under seventy-five feet. Above that, administrative approval covers fences and gates, tree removal within fifty feet of the lake, soil stabilization and erosion control, and new driveways, sidewalks and paving.
The third tier is where most buyers get caught. Site plan approval by the Planning Commission is required for buildings, retaining walls and fire pits — and for moving soil or grading on any residential property. Not near the lake. Any residential property.
The top tier goes to City Council, and it covers work within fifty feet of the water: building or rebuilding structures, any change to ground surface features, storm water management, new or replacement routes down to the waterfront, and building or rebuilding a seawall.
Before you buy
Drainage
This is worth spelling out, because it is the one place where what we write in a report meets the Lake Angelus rules head on.
The most frequent drainage recommendation in home inspection anywhere is some version of "improve the grading so surface water falls away from the foundation". Soil settles against a house over decades, beds get built up, and eventually the ground slopes back toward the wall instead of away from it. In most communities the fix is an afternoon with a shovel and some topsoil.
Here, moving soil or grading on a residential property is listed as needing site plan approval from the Planning Commission — and if the work sits within fifty feet of the lake, moving soil, changing ground surface features and storm water management all go to City Council. The city’s stated reasoning is on the same page: what happens within fifty feet of the lake is likely to affect the whole community, particularly when all the changes are considered together.
So the practical advice for a buyer is not "do not buy a house with a drainage problem". It is: find out about it before you close, and understand that fixing it is a process with a meeting in it rather than a Saturday. The Planning Commission meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month, which sets the pace.
What we do is report the physical facts precisely, because that is what the conversation needs: how the ground actually falls away from each elevation, where the downspouts terminate, whether there is a sump and where it discharges to, where surface water collects and where it leaves the property. On a lake lot, where it leaves the property is a question with a neighbor at the end of it.
Permits
The building and zoning function is contracted out to McKenna, a private planning consultancy, on a published telephone number. That is worth knowing before you start, because a buyer who rings the city expecting a building department will not reach the people who answer permit questions. The same number is how you get onto the Planning Commission agenda.
Inspections can be scheduled Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm, and the city publishes its permit applications and a code enforcement complaint form alongside the ladder itself.
Trees deserve a separate mention. Removal of trees within fifty feet of the lake sits in the administrative approval tier, and the city asks residents to review its woodlands management guidance before cutting anything. We have not read that guidance and are not going to summarize it — but if a property you are considering has trees you were planning to take down, read it before you make that part of your offer.
The pattern across all of it is consistent and it is not accidental. On a lake this size, the cumulative effect of individually reasonable changes is the thing the rules are aimed at. Knowing that going in makes the difference between a purchase that works and one that runs into a committee.
A buyer’s inspection is what turns that into a specific list. We cannot tell you what will be approved. We can tell you exactly what condition the property is in, what would need doing, and therefore what you would be asking permission for.
The housing
The median Lake Angelus home was built in 1959, and all of roughly 149 units are single-family detached. An inspection here is always of a whole building, and given the setting, the land around it is a substantial part of the job.
On housing of that period the electrical service capacity is usually the first constraint — a house wired for a 1959 household was not wired for the way a modern one draws power — and the panel is where the history is readable: added to more than once, mixed breaker types, circuits extended into later work. Aluminum branch wiring becomes a live question toward the end of that era and we report it where we find it.
Plumbing has usually been renewed in part rather than in whole, so the transitions between materials are where problems concentrate. Heating and water heating equipment will be several replacements deep. Roof coverings will be on a second or third generation, and the flashings and penetrations matter more than the covering.
Foundations of the period are typically poured concrete or block. On sloping lakeside lots their condition tracks water management closely, which brings the drainage questions above back round again — retaining walls, which need Planning Commission approval to build or rebuild, are often part of that picture and we report on their condition carefully.
Detached houses on generous lots mean outbuildings, boathouses and garages that are part of the property and get inspected as such. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available for commercial property.
The buried line
The city publishes a building department, a treasurer and assessor, a clerk, and its charter and ordinances. What we did not find is a water department page or a sewer department page — so we are not going to tell you what a property here is served by. On a lakeside city of 149 homes it would be easy to assume and easy to be wrong about a specific address.
Get it in writing for the parcel, because the two arrangements lead to different pre-purchase work. If it is on a septic system, the evaluation is specialist work arranged through the county health department and it answers questions no visual inspection can: whether a drainfield is failing, and the true condition of the tank. It runs to its own timetable and needs booking early. A water test on a private well belongs in the same conversation.
Either way, the line running out from the building belongs to the owner and no visual inspection reaches inside it. On a median 1959 house that pipe is around sixty-five years old unless somebody has replaced it, and we will not name a material from a build year — a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
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 wooded lakeside lots with mature trees, roots at an old joint are the commonest finding of all — and repairing a line here would mean moving soil, which brings the approval ladder into it. That is a good reason to know what is in the pipe before you own it rather than after.
It goes on the same appointment rather than a second visit, and we deliver a full written report with photographs, generally the same day. You can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, see the city charter and ordinances, or get in touch about a specific address in Lake Angelus.
Local information from City of Lake Angelus — building department and the approval tiers · City of Lake Angelus — charter and ordinances · City of Lake Angelus — welcome and city history · City of Lake Angelus — contact the city. 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. The zone describes a county. The only result that describes your basement is the one measured in it.
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 Lake Angelus 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
The city lists moving soil or grading on any residential property as needing site plan approval from the Planning Commission, and within fifty feet of the lake it escalates to City Council. Confirm your specific project with the building department before assuming otherwise.
The city’s stated rule of thumb that what happens within fifty feet of Lake Angelus is likely to affect the whole community, especially when all the changes are considered together. Work inside that band sits in the highest approval tier.
The city lists cutting or trimming vegetation so long as the plant stays viable, flower or vegetable gardening at least twenty-five feet from the lake, and installing a seasonal dock less than seventy-five feet long.
Fences and entrance gates, removal of trees within fifty feet of the lake, planting along property lines and near the lakeshore, soil stabilization and erosion controls, new driveways, sidewalks and paving, and landscape lighting and irrigation.
The building and zoning function is contracted to McKenna, a private planning consultancy, on a number published on the city’s building department page. That is also how you get onto the Planning Commission agenda.
The fourth Tuesday of the month. If a project needs site plan approval, that cadence is your timetable, so build it into any purchase that depends on the work.
We will not assume. We found no water or sewer department page on the city site, so confirm it in writing for the specific parcel. Septic evaluations go through the county health department and need booking early.
Particularly here. On a median 1959 house the line is around sixty-five years old, and repairing one would mean moving soil, which brings the approval ladder into play. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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