Oakland Township, Michigan
Looking for an Oakland Township home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Oakland 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 Oakland 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 Oakland Township 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 an Oakland 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 reportOakland Township housing stock
Oakland Township has roughly 7,248 housing units and about 88% 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 1990s: 1,765 homes, about 24% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $528,900. 96% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area. There are around 220 manufactured and mobile homes in Oakland Township. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist an Oakland Township 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 Oakland Township was built
90% of homes here run on utility gas, and 21 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 135 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Start with the thing the envelope hides: Oakland Township properties carry Rochester mailing addresses. Township Hall itself is on Collins Road with a Rochester postcode.
The City of Rochester is a different government with different rules. It runs a three-day inspection week with portal-only requests, handles rental registration through its Fire Department, and operates a Certificate of Occupancy program for businesses. None of that applies to an Oakland Township property. If you have been reading about Rochester because the address says Rochester, you have been reading about somewhere else.
The second thing is water, and the Township is blunt about it: water services are not managed by Oakland Township, and all water service inquiries go to the County Water Commissioner’s office. The Township’s own material refers to southeast and southwest water system districts, which tells you service is district-based rather than township-wide.
So the first question on any property here is what it is actually connected to — county water or a private well, public sewer or a septic system. It is not something you can tell by looking at the house, and it changes the inspection, the maintenance and the budget.
The housing is new and overwhelmingly detached: of about 7,248 units, roughly 62% were built in 1990 or later, with 1,765 from the 1990s, 1,660 from the 2000s and 1,076 from the 2010s. Around 88% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
Which government applies
It is worth setting this out once, clearly, because the postal address genuinely misleads people here.
Oakland Charter Township is the local government. Its Building Department runs its own inspection line and retains separate building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical inspectors, alongside a Construction Board of Appeals and a Zoning Board of Appeals. Township Hall runs Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm. The Township also has a Historical District Commission with its own office.
The City of Rochester, whose name appears on the mail, is a separate municipality with separate ordinances, a separate building department and a materially different housing stock — about half of Rochester’s housing is attached, against roughly 12% here. Nothing published by one governs the other.
And water is a third layer again: the Township states plainly that water services are not managed by it and that all water service inquiries should go to the County Water Commissioner’s office directly.
Three bodies, three sets of answers. Getting that straight at the start of a transaction saves a week of being redirected, and it is the reason this page opens with it rather than with the building.
Wells, septic and water districts
On a large-lot township like this one, the connection question is the one that changes everything downstream.
The Township’s published material refers to southeast and southwest water system districts, and to a survey of residents within them. Districts imply boundaries, and boundaries imply that properties outside them are served another way. We are not going to put a number on how much of the township is on county water and how much on private wells, because the Township does not publish one and a survey mailing is not a service census. What we will say is that the question is real here and it has to be answered property by property.
The practical consequence is straightforward. On county water and public sewer, the inspection is the ordinary one. On a private well and septic system you are taking on equipment and a field that need their own attention, their own maintenance and their own testing — and that testing is not something a home inspection provides. We do not take water samples and we do not analyze them, and septic evaluation is a separate discipline with its own credentials. Oakland County’s Environmental Health Unit is where on-site sewage disposal systems are permitted and inspected.
What a buyer’s inspection covers is the building: the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, with what is failing, what is near the end of its service life and what to plan for. Where treatment equipment is installed — softeners, filters, iron removal — we record what is there and its condition, because on well water that equipment is common and it wears out.
Newer housing on larger lots
With 62% of the housing built since 1990, the typical inspection here is newer than almost anywhere else we work — and newer is not the same as simpler.
A house from 1996 is thirty years old. Its original roof covering, furnace, air conditioning condenser and water heater have all reached or passed the end of their expected service lives, and because they went in together they come due together. That is a very different financial shape from an older house where replacements have been staggered across decades.
A house from 2012 raises different questions. Grading that settled after backfill and now falls back toward the foundation is the commonest source of water in newer basements. Flashing where roof geometry gets complicated, attic ventilation, deck ledger attachment, and how a finished lower level was framed, insulated and ventilated all come up regularly. Egress from below-grade sleeping rooms is worth checking on any finished basement.
On larger lots there is a further consideration that does not arise in a subdivision: how the ground moves water across the whole property, not just at the foundation. Long driveways, outbuildings, culverts and swales are all part of that picture, and we record what is accessible and visible.
The Township publishes its forms, applications and permits online, which is worth ten minutes before an offer — with the usual caution that a permit on file does not establish good condition today, and nothing on file does not establish bad work.
The buried line
On a property connected to public sewer, the buried lateral running from the building to the main is the one component nothing visual reaches.
Newer housing gets a pass on this that it has not earned. A house built in 1996 has a lateral that has been in the ground thirty years, and the trees planted when the subdivision went in are fully mature now. On newer construction there is a second consideration: heavy equipment, deep excavation and backfill are hard on buried pipe, and an installation defect does not announce itself for years. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what laterals 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 — and it is added to the same visit rather than booked separately. On a property with a septic system the question is different and belongs to a county evaluation rather than to us.
Alongside it, 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.
Local information from Oakland Charter Township — water services and county water districts · Oakland Charter Township — Building Department · Oakland Charter Township — forms, applications and permits. 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 Oakland 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, 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
Not necessarily, and it matters. Oakland Township properties carry Rochester mailing addresses — Township Hall itself does. Oakland Charter Township is a separate government with its own building department and ordinances, and City of Rochester rules do not apply here. The City runs a three-day inspection week, handles rental registration through its Fire Department and operates a business Certificate of Occupancy program; none of that governs a township property. Confirm which jurisdiction an address is actually in.
The County Water Commissioner. The Township states directly that water services are not managed by Oakland Township and that all inquiries related to water service should go to that office. The Township’s material refers to southeast and southwest water system districts, so service is organized by district rather than covering the whole township.
That is the first thing to establish and the house will not tell you. The Township does not publish a split between county water and private wells, and we are not going to invent one from a survey mailing. Ask the County Water Commissioner about water service for the specific address, and Oakland County’s Environmental Health Unit about on-site sewage disposal — it is the body that permits and inspects septic systems.
No to both. We do not take water samples and we do not analyze them, and septic evaluation is a separate discipline with its own credentials. What a buyer’s inspection covers is the building — roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior — plus any treatment equipment installed, which on well water is common and does wear out.
New. Of about 7,248 housing units, roughly 62% were built in 1990 or later, with 1,765 from the 1990s, 1,660 from the 2000s and 1,076 from the 2010s. Around 88% is single-family detached. Only Lyon Township has a higher share of housing built since 2010 among the communities we cover.
Yes, and for specific reasons. A 1996 house is thirty years old: the original roof covering, furnace, air conditioning condenser and water heater have all reached or passed their expected service lives, and because they went in together they come due together. Newer construction has its own recurring items too — settled grading after backfill, flashing at complicated roof geometry, attic ventilation, deck ledger attachment, and how a finished lower level was framed and ventilated.
The water story extends beyond the foundation. On a large lot, how the ground moves water across the whole property matters — long driveways, outbuildings, culverts and swales are all part of the picture, alongside the usual grading at the foundation, gutters and downspouts, the basement or crawlspace, floor drains and any sump equipment. We record what is accessible and visible and say plainly what is not.
If the property is on public sewer, yes. A house built in 1996 has a lateral that has been in the ground thirty years with fully mature trees around it, and newer subdivisions carry the additional risk that heavy equipment and backfill damage buried pipe in ways that take years to show. We will not guess a material from a build year. Putting a camera down the line documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same appointment.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Permits, assessing and property records for Oakland Township are handled by Oakland Township, Michigan, not by us.
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Your local Oakland Township home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
