Home inspections in Lake Orion, from Bellevue Island to Gingellville
We inspect the Lake Orion area from our Grand Blanc and Southfield offices: the Village of Lake Orion and all of Orion Township, including Gingellville, Lake Orion Heights, Indianwood and the Orion Lakes manufactured-home community. The lake is an all-sports lake made by damming Paint Creek in the 1830s, with canals dredged to add frontage and year-round homes on Bellevue and Park islands. The village is cottages that became year-round homes; the township is mostly subdivisions from the 1980s on, with older lake and rural homes still on wells and septic, so the add-ons that matter most here are the seawall inspection, a mold inspection for crawlspaces and finished basements, the radon test, and the well and septic package with the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) or VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) water test.
Every inspection is done by a certified inspector and the digital report is in your inbox the same day. Thermal imaging of the heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems and of any area showing signs of water intrusion is included in every home inspection, along with a drone view of the roof when the weather allows and a sump pump test. We test; we never repair or remediate, so nothing in the report is a sales pitch. A home inspection starts at $425; the final price depends on the size and age of the home, which is why the instant quote asks for the address.
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of homes in the Village of Lake Orion were built before 1980 and 42% before 1950: the resort cottages on the lake, the canals and the islands that became year-round homes (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). Lead paint and asbestos were still in use; we test for both.
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of homes across the village and Orion Township were built in 2000 or later, 24% in the township. New does not mean defect-free; blue tape and 11th month inspections catch what the builder missed.
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of Lake Orion radon tests came back above the EPA fix-it level of 4 pCi/L (83 of 683 in ZIPs 48359, 48360 and 48362 on EGLE's map), the same as Oakland County's 12%. Test anyway; the only way to know is to test.
What buyers run into in Lake Orion
Resort cottages that became year-round homes
The median home in the Village of Lake Orion was built in 1959 and 75% of its homes went up before 1980, 42% before 1950; Orion Township's median is 1989 (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). More than 300 cottages lined the lakefront after the railroad arrived in 1872, and those cottages on the shore, the canals and the islands are today's year-round houses. Lead paint was legal until 1978 and asbestos was still common in flooring, siding, insulation and ceiling texture into the 1980s, so anything of that age gets a lead test (from $100) and, if you plan to pull up floors or siding, asbestos sampling (from $300, with or without a home inspection): flooring installers, including Home Depot's, will not pull up pre-1980 vinyl or linoleum without an asbestos test (Home Depot's own installation guidance says so), so we sample flooring, siding and insulation and send it to an accredited lab. We recommend a sewer scope (from $150) on any home built before 1980, any home that has been a rental, and any lot with mature trees near the sewer line, because roots are what break clay and cast iron pipe.
Lake Huron water and a six-day boil-water advisory
The village and the township are both on Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) water from Lake Huron; the village buys it from the township through three metered connections. When a 42-inch GLWA transmission main leaked on May 8, 2026 and broke on May 10, the whole township and the village went under a boil-water advisory until May 16. The township has just over 5,000 water customers against more than 16,000 homes, so a large share of it is on private wells, and we found no published lead service line inventory for the village, so we check the visible service line and fixtures in any pre-1988 house. One PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) site is on the state's list here, the LymTal International plant on South Lapeer Road, with a plume moving northeast toward Lower Trout Lake and the Orion Lakes community. The Oakland County Health Division recommends testing a private well for bacteria and nitrate every year and for arsenic every few years, so a private well here gets our water test (from $175), which covers arsenic along with coliform bacteria, nitrates, nitrites and lead.
Radon
Michigan EGLE (the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) says about 1 in 4 homes in Michigan tests above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L. Lake Orion sits at the county average: 12% of the 683 tests in ZIPs 48359, 48360 and 48362 on EGLE's map came back above that level (83 of 683), the same 12% as Oakland County as a whole. A 48-hour radon test starts at $200 when added to a home inspection and runs during the inspection.
Seawalls, the winter drawdown, wetlands and trees
The village lowers the lake about a foot every winter and does a deeper drawdown every five years for dock and seawall repairs, so a cold-season inspection sees the most seawall. Any seawall, riprap, dredging or fill at or below the ordinary high-water mark needs an EGLE Part 301 permit, village lakefront lots carry a 25-foot waterfront setback, the township's wetland ordinance covers docks and bulkheads, and earth changes within 500 feet of a lake and regulated tree removals need township permits, so we look for shoreline and yard work done without any of that. A seawall inspection is $150 when added to the home inspection. Converted cottages often sit on crawlspaces. Where a crawlspace or the underbelly of a manufactured home is too tight or too wet to enter we send in our crawlspace robot (an Uplink Robotics inspection crawler; the maker says only 22 have been sold in Michigan, and three of them are ours) so it gets photographed instead of skipped. Our mold inspection (from $275) is done by an IAC2-certified inspector: thermal imaging and moisture meters to find the source, spore-trap air samples and surface samples, and accredited lab results that name the species. The EPA's rule of thumb is that anything that stays wet longer than 24 to 48 hours will usually grow mold, and a finished basement hides exactly that.
Services and starting prices in Lake Orion
Prices are starting points. Add-on services (radon, well and septic, water, mold, sewer scope, termite, lead, pool and spa) are priced as shown when added to a home inspection; booked on their own they are quoted separately. Asbestos sampling starts at $300 with or without a home inspection. Thermal imaging of the heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical and water-intrusion areas is part of every home inspection; the energy-efficiency scan of windows, doors and insulation is the add-on. The final price depends on the size and age of the home, and the instant quote gives you a firm number before you book. Commercial building inspections are quoted by the building.
- Home inspection, starting at $425
- Radon testing, starting at $200 when added to a home inspection
- Well and septic inspection package, starting at $500 (well alone from $275, septic alone from $300) when added to a home inspection
- Water testing, starting at $175 when added to a home inspection
- Sewer scope, starting at $150 when added to a home inspection
- Mold testing, starting at $275 when added to a home inspection
- Termite (WDI) inspection, starting at $200 when added to a home inspection
- Energy‒efficiency thermal scan, starting at $125
- Lead testing, starting at $100 when added to a home inspection
- Pool and spa inspection, starting at $125 when added to a home inspection
- Pre‒listing inspection, starting at $425
- New build blue tape inspection, starting at $525
- Investor property verification, starting at $250
- Soil testing, starting at $250
- Asbestos testing, starting at $300
Areas we cover around Lake Orion
The Village of Lake Orion and Orion Township, including Gingellville, Lake Orion Heights, Indianwood, Bellevue and Park islands, the canals, the Lake Voorheis, Long Lake, Square Lake, Elkhorn Lake, Judah Lake and Tommys Lake neighborhoods, and the Orion Lakes manufactured-home community. Next door: Oxford, Auburn Hills, Pontiac, Oakland Township, Rochester Hills and Clarkston.
This page is part of our Oakland County coverage; the county page has the county-wide radon numbers, the township well and septic rules and every town we work in. All 18 counties are on the Areas We Serve page.
Questions from Lake Orion buyers
Do you serve the Lake Orion area?
The house is on the lake. What do you check that a regular inspection would not?
Does Oakland County require a well and septic inspection when I buy?
I want to rent the house out, or list it as a vacation rental. What applies?
Can I be there for the inspection?
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