Onsted, Michigan
Looking for an Onsted home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Onsted, 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 Onsted 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 Onsted and across Lenawee 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 Onsted 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 reportOnsted housing stock
Onsted has roughly 447 housing units and about 71% 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 years before 1940, which accounts for 107 homes, around 24% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $156,000.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. An Onsted 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 Onsted was built
77% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 4 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Onsted does something we have not seen anywhere else in the communities we cover: it opens its water treatment plant to residents and invites them in to ask questions.
The village has run open evenings at the plant, describing them as a chance to learn exactly what is required to deliver safe water to hundreds of Onsted homes and businesses, to see the operation first hand and to ask whatever you have been wondering about. If that appeals, ask the village office when the next one is.
It is a small thing that says something larger. A village willing to show people how its water system works is a village where asking questions is likely to get you an answer — which is exactly the posture a buyer wants from a municipality.
There is also an active water system project under way. The village publishes a page about it, with a press release, project information and its 2025 water quality report. We could not retrieve those documents, so we are naming them rather than describing them — but if you are buying here, read them and ask the office whether the project touches the specific address.
The housing is evenly spread: about 107 of roughly 447 units predate 1940, and then the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s each contributed somewhere in the fifties or sixties. There is no single dominant era, so we arrive without assumptions.
Before you buy
Water
The village’s water project page states that it is committed to maintaining and improving its water system, and it collects the relevant documents in one place: a press release about the water system project, project information, and the 2025 water quality report.
We could not open those documents, so we will not tell you what the project involves, what it costs, when it happens or what it will change. What we will say is that they are worth reading before you buy, and that the village office is the place to ask the one question that matters to you: does any of this affect this address?
Roadworks, changes to a connection, and anything that shows up on a bill are all reasonable things to ask about. We are not suggesting any of them apply — only that asking costs nothing.
And here is the point that the open evenings make so neatly. The village can show you its treatment plant, its mains and its process, and it is willing to. What nobody can show you is the pipe running from the street into the house you are buying. That length belongs to the owner, it is invisible, and no amount of municipal transparency covers it.
On an inspection we cover everything from the house side 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 softener, pressure tank or treatment equipment. We run fixtures under load rather than testing a single tap.
The village also flushes hydrants as routine maintenance and posts notices when it does, noting that residents may see temporarily lower pressure.
The buried line
The line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. Under one of the 107 houses here predating 1940 it is often the oldest untouched component on the whole property.
We will not name a material from a build year. Nothing published establishes what Onsted lines are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually in there: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. In an old village with mature trees, roots are the common finding and they give no warning until the day the drains back up.
On the 1990s and 2000s stock — around 131 units between them — the reason is different. A line laid during a build of that period can carry construction debris or a settled section from the day it went in, and nothing about a house that age would lead anyone to check.
It is the one part of a purchase where a genuine unknown becomes a known for a fixed and modest amount of effort on the day. A camera inspection is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately.
The housing
Onsted is one of the places where the town does not tell you much about the house. Roughly a quarter of the stock predates 1940, and the rest is distributed fairly evenly from the 1950s through the 2000s with no decade dominating.
On the pre-1940 houses the inspection reads eighty or more years of accumulated change. Electrical rebuilt in stages by different hands, with mixed wiring types meeting in the same box, ungrounded receptacles, undersized or overfilled panels and overfused circuits. Plumbing renewed in part rather than in whole, so material transitions at the joins are where trouble concentrates. Several generations of roof covering.
Foundations from that era are usually stone or early block, and their condition depends far more on how water has been managed around the building than on how they were originally built.
On the 1970s and 1980s stock, aluminum branch wiring is a live question at the earlier end and we report it wherever we find it. Original service capacity is often the practical limit on modern electrical loads, and roofs, furnaces and water heaters will be two or three replacements deep.
On the 1990s and 2000s houses the questions flip to first-replacement timing: original roof coverings reaching the end of their service life, water heaters on their second, failed double-glazing seals showing as clouding between the panes, and decks whose ledger connections, flashing, fasteners and post bases need genuinely examining rather than glancing at.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and a buyer’s inspection is the usual starting point.
The village
Fire cover here comes from the Cambridge Township Fire Department, which keeps a station in the village. Its firefighter and rescue association has installed a weather system at that station, connected to a public network, so residents can see real-time temperature, wind speed and direction, and lightning activity including how far away it is — with alerts available through an app.
That is an unusually good piece of community infrastructure for a village this size, and worth knowing about if you are moving somewhere with open country around it. The village also points residents to the county emergency alert system.
The public works department handles the day-to-day, and the village publishes a zoning and ordinance book along with master plan documents, forms, and pages for new residents and village services.
What we could not find is any building department page or named inspector, so we cannot tell you who issues permits here or who carries out the inspections. We are not going to guess — make that a call to the village office before you plan any work, and ask for the permit history on the specific address while you are on the line.
On a village where a quarter of the housing predates 1940, that history is worth having. Eighty years of alterations accumulate, and the gap between what was permitted and what is physically present is a gap the buyer inherits.
A home inspection is not a permit search or a code inspection. What it does is establish what is physically there and in what condition, so the questions you take to the village are specific ones. Commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available where a building is commercial.
Drainage
The village sits in the Irish Hills, which is rolling country with a lot of lakes nearby, and on any lot with a slope the way water moves across it matters more than on flat ground.
We record where the downspouts terminate and whether they carry water clear of the walls or drop it at the foundation, where any sump pump discharges and whether there is a backup arrangement, and how the ground falls away from the building on every elevation. On a sloping site we pay particular attention to the uphill side, because that is where water arrives rather than leaves.
Inside, we look for what past water has left behind: staining and tide lines on foundation walls, efflorescence and mineral deposits, replaced lower wall finishes, and corrosion at the base of mechanical equipment. Equipment raised up on blocks is nearly always a story about something that happened once, and it is always worth asking the seller about directly.
A finished lower level deserves a careful look rather than a quick one, because finishing is very often what conceals the evidence of what water has done before.
On a pre-1940 house the original drainage arrangement has usually been altered more than once; on the 2000s stock, grading that was correct at handover has had two decades of landscaping and settlement since. You can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Onsted.
Local information from Village of Onsted — water project information and documents · Village of Onsted — Department of Public Works · Village of Onsted — about the village · Village of Onsted — zoning and ordinance book. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Onsted 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
Yes — the village has run open evenings at its water treatment plant, inviting residents to see the operation and ask questions. Ask the village office when the next one is scheduled.
The village publishes a water project page with a press release, project information and its 2025 water quality report. We could not open those documents, so ask the office whether the project affects the specific address you are buying.
We do not know — we could not retrieve it. It is published on the village water project page, so read it there rather than relying on us.
We could not establish it. There is no building department page and no named inspector on the village site. Ask the village office before planning work — we would rather tell you that than guess.
The Cambridge Township Fire Department, which keeps a station in the village. Its firefighter and rescue association has installed a public weather station there reporting temperature, wind and lightning activity.
There is no typical house. About 107 of roughly 447 units predate 1940 and the rest is spread fairly evenly from the 1950s through the 2000s, with no decade dominating.
The village flushes hydrants as routine maintenance and posts notices when it does, noting that residents may experience temporarily lower pressure while a crew is working.
On the older stock the line is often the oldest untouched component on the property; on the 1990s and 2000s stock it can hold construction debris from the original build. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
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 an Onsted home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Onsted are handled by Onsted, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
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Your local Onsted home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
