Saginaw Township, Michigan
Looking for a Saginaw Township home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Saginaw 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 Saginaw 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 Saginaw Township and across Saginaw 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 Saginaw 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 reportSaginaw Township housing stock
Saginaw Township has roughly 20,340 housing units and about 61% 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 1970s than from any other decade — 5,604 homes, roughly 28% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $161,500. There are around 593 manufactured and mobile homes in Saginaw Township. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 1,022 homes sit in two-to-four unit buildings, where a shared roof, a shared wall and sometimes a shared furnace mean the report has to be clear about where one unit stops.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Saginaw 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 Saginaw Township was built
79% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 208 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
First, the thing that trips people up before anything else: Saginaw Township is not the City of Saginaw. They are separate governments with separate departments, and the housing is not remotely alike — about 38% of the City predates 1940, against roughly 3% of the Township. A rule, fee or program that applies on one side of that line very often does not apply on the other.
The Township’s stock is postwar and suburban: of about 20,340 units, 5,604 were built in the 1970s, 3,263 in the 1960s and 3,151 in the 1950s, with another 4,500 across the 1980s and 1990s. Around 61% is single-family detached.
Two things here are genuinely worth knowing before you make an offer. One is a piece of paperwork the Township sells that answers questions almost nobody thinks to ask. The other is the Tittabawassee River.
Before you buy
The $50 question
Most townships will answer a zoning question if you ring up. Saginaw Township will put it in writing, and the list of questions it offers to answer is unusually useful for a buyer.
Its Community Development Department will draft a zoning verification letter in response to a written request. The questions it lists include what a property is zoned, whether a particular use is allowed in that district, when site plan approval was obtained, whether there are any current active zoning enforcement actions on the property — and this one, which is worth the fee by itself: if the building on the property were to be destroyed, such as by a fire, could it be rebuilt in its current location?
That last question matters on any older or unusually sited property. A building that predates the current ordinance may be legally non-conforming, and what you may rebuild after a total loss is not always what is standing there now. Insurance is a separate conversation again. Very few buyers ask it, and almost none ask it in writing.
The Township publishes the cost: $50.00 per single-family residential parcel, and $250 per commercial, multi-family, industrial or institutional parcel and for subdivision or site condominium projects. Requests go in writing to the Community Development Department with payment.
None of that describes the condition of the building, which is where a buyer’s inspection comes in — the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and accessible interior, with what is failing, what is near the end of its service life, and what to plan for.
The river
The Township maintains a substantial floodplain information page, which is more than most municipalities do, and it is worth reading if you are looking anywhere near the water.
It states that the primary flood hazard areas are within the 100-year floodplain or Special Flood Hazard Area, and that in Saginaw Township those areas are generally near the Tittabawassee River. It notes that a few roads and low-lying areas in the Township are quickly covered by water during yearly flooding events, and that a National Weather Service warning is typically issued 24 hours before the Tittabawassee reaches official flood stage — with river gauge data published by NOAA.
That is the Township describing roads and low-lying ground, and we are going to leave it exactly there rather than turning it into a claim about houses. Whether a particular property sits in a mapped flood hazard area is a question for the flood maps and your insurer. A home inspection does not determine flood zone status and we would not suggest otherwise.
What an inspection does cover is how the building handles the water that reaches it: accessible grading and whether the ground sheds water away from the foundation, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, floor drains and any sump equipment, plus staining, efflorescence and evidence of past repairs. On a property near the river, that record is worth having whatever the maps say.
How the Township works
Saginaw Township publishes the principles its code enforcement operates on, and they are notably un-bureaucratic.
Among the six it lists, the Code Enforcement Division says it will wherever possible work to achieve compliance without the need for formal enforcement proceedings, and that it would rather inform all involved parties than process a large number of complaints quickly with little or no personal contact. What it regulates is the familiar list: unsafe buildings, junk and abandoned vehicles, accumulations of objectionable material, and yards that are not maintained.
That is exterior and nuisance work. It is not somebody checking the furnace, the electrical panel or the roof structure on a buyer’s behalf, and on a township where the largest single decade is the 1970s that gap is where the money is. A house from 1975 is now fifty years old — the roof covering, furnace, air conditioning condenser and water heater have each been replaced at least once, or are overdue, and which of those is true is exactly what we are there to establish.
We do not name components from a build year. We report what is installed, its condition, what is at or past the end of its service life, and what could not be seen.
The buried line
Neither a zoning letter nor a code inspection nor a walkthrough sees inside the buried lateral running from the house to the public sewer main.
On a house from the 1970s that pipe has been in the ground fifty years or more — enough time for roots to find a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, or for a repair to have been made that nobody now remembers. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Saginaw Township laterals 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.
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 Saginaw Charter Township — Community Development and zoning verification letters · Saginaw Charter Township — floodplain information · Saginaw Charter Township — Code Enforcement. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Saginaw 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
A shout out to Noah for the inspection of our new house. He was very professional and thorough. He is also accessible after the fact — I have called him twice for clarification on our roofing issue and he has been so friendly and answered all of my questions.
Susan LawhonBridgeport, 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
No, and the difference is bigger than the name suggests. They are separate governments with separate departments, and the housing stock is not comparable — about 38% of the City predates 1940, against roughly 3% of the Township, whose largest decade is the 1970s. Rules, fees and programs do not carry across. Confirm which one an address falls in before relying on anything you have read about either.
It is a written answer from the Township’s Community Development Department to specific zoning questions about a property. The questions it offers to answer include the zoning, whether a use is allowed, when site plan approval was obtained, whether there are current active zoning enforcement actions on the property, and whether the building could be rebuilt in its current location if it were destroyed by fire. The Township publishes the cost as $50 per single-family residential parcel and $250 for commercial, multi-family, industrial or institutional parcels.
Because a building that predates the current zoning ordinance may be legally non-conforming — sited closer to a boundary, or larger, or used in a way the ordinance would not permit today. After a total loss, what you are allowed to rebuild is not automatically what was there. Insurance is a separate conversation on top of that. It is a question worth asking in writing before you buy, and the Township will answer it in writing.
The Township publishes a floodplain page and is specific about it. It says the primary flood hazard areas are within the 100-year floodplain or Special Flood Hazard Area and that these are generally near the Tittabawassee River, and that a few roads and low-lying areas in the Township are quickly covered by water during yearly flooding events. That is roads and low-lying ground, which is where we are going to leave it. Whether a particular property is in a mapped hazard area is a question for the flood maps and your insurer, not for a home inspection.
No. Flood zone status comes from the flood insurance rate maps and from your insurer, and we would not suggest otherwise. What an inspection covers is how the building handles the water that reaches it: accessible grading, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, floor drains, any sump equipment, and evidence of past water entry. Near the Tittabawassee that record is worth having whatever the maps say.
Postwar, with a clear 1970s center of gravity. Of about 20,340 housing units, 5,604 were built in the 1970s, 3,263 in the 1960s and 3,151 in the 1950s, with 2,222 from the 1980s and 2,279 from the 1990s. Around 61% is single-family detached. A house from the mid-1970s is now fifty years old, which puts the original roof covering, furnace, air conditioning condenser and water heater at or past their expected service lives.
Zoning and nuisance work — unsafe buildings, junk and abandoned vehicles, accumulations of objectionable material, and yards that are not maintained. The Township publishes the principles it operates on, including working wherever possible to achieve compliance without formal enforcement proceedings, and preferring to inform the parties involved over processing complaints quickly with little personal contact. What it does not do is examine the furnace, the electrical panel or the roof structure for a buyer.
It is worth considering. The buried lateral running from the house to the public main is the one component no visual inspection reaches, and on a 1970s house it has been in the ground fifty years or more. We will not guess a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what laterals here are generally made of. 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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From the blog
October 22, 2017
February 1, 2023
Your local Saginaw Township home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
