Home inspections in Ortonville, from Bald Eagle Lake to Groveland Corners
We inspect the Ortonville area from our Grand Blanc and Southfield offices: the Village of Ortonville on M-15, Brandon Township around it, and Groveland Township to the west. Kearsley Creek, dammed for the village's gristmill in 1848, is still a state-managed cold-water trout stream, and the lakes are Bald Eagle Lake, Lake Louise, Perry Lake and Cedar Lake in Brandon. Outside the village there is no water main or sanitary sewer anywhere in either township, so every house is on its own well and septic system, and about one home in ten is a manufactured home, so the add-ons that matter most here are the well and septic package with the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) or VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) water test, the radon test (17% of local tests come back high), a mold inspection (from $275) for walkout and sump-pump basements, and pole barns and outbuildings quoted with the home.
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.
0%
of Ortonville radon tests came back above the EPA fix-it level of 4 pCi/L (29 of 172 in ZIP 48462 on EGLE's map), against 12% for Oakland County. Test anyway; the only way to know is to test.
0%
of Brandon Township's homes are manufactured homes, and 11.8% of Groveland Township's (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). Piers, tie-downs and the underbelly get checked, with the crawlspace robot where an inspector cannot fit.
0%
of homes in Ortonville, Brandon Township and Groveland Township were built before 1980, when lead paint and asbestos flooring, siding and insulation were still in use, and in the village it is 67% (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). We test for both.
What buyers run into in Ortonville
An 1848 mill village, two building booms and manufactured homes
The median home in the Village of Ortonville was built in 1972 and 67% of its homes went up before 1980; Brandon Township's median is 1984 and Groveland Township's 1985, with nearly half of Groveland's housing dating from its 1970s and 1990s building booms (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). 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. Manufactured homes are 10.2% of Brandon's housing and 11.8% of Groveland's, and their piers, tie-downs, skirting and underbelly get checked on every inspection. 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.
Every house on its own well, and a county arsenic map
Brandon Township's master plan puts it plainly: every property is served by private wells and septic tanks, and there are no water mains, sanitary mains or storm sewers in the township. Groveland Township says the same, and the mobile home parks run their own community systems. The Village of Ortonville has its own public works department, but its well, treatment and service-line records were not available to us, so give us the address and we will tell you what applies. The village still posts a 1999 county map of where arsenic, nitrate and chloride have been found in Brandon Township groundwater and says it is still relevant. 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. Ortonville runs above its county: 17% of the 172 tests in ZIP 48462 on EGLE's map came back above that level (29 of 172), against 12% for Oakland County as a whole. A 48-hour radon test starts at $200 when added to a home inspection and runs during the inspection.
Septic on every lot, wet ground and no time-of-sale rule
With no sewer anywhere in the townships, the septic system is the most expensive thing a buyer here can miss: Brandon has more than 3,000 acres of mapped wetland and lakes ringed by septic lots with high water tables, Groveland has FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) floodplain east of M-15, and with no storm sewers in Brandon the grading and the sump pump do all the work. Oakland County has no county-wide time-of-sale rule for wells and septic; the county Health Division permits new and replacement systems and offers voluntary water testing, which is the county's program and not ours, and Ortonville has no point-of-sale inspection that we know of, so the buyer's inspection is the only look the well and the septic system get before closing. The well and septic package starts at $500 when added to a home inspection, or the well alone from $275 and the septic alone from $300. An older house also gets a sewer scope (from $150) of the drain line from the house to the tank, because roots break clay pipe either way. VA loans require a water test on any private well and FHA lenders ask for one in most cases. We pull the sample, send it to a certified lab and deliver the results in the format the lender wants, usually in 2 to 7 business days. The water test starts at $175 and covers coliform bacteria, nitrates, nitrites, lead, arsenic and more.
Services and starting prices in Ortonville
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 Ortonville
The Village of Ortonville, Brandon Township and Groveland Township, including Oakwood, Perry Lake Heights, Brandon Gardens, Austin Corners, Groveland Corners, the Bald Eagle Lake, Lake Louise, Perry Lake, Cedar Lake, Long Lake, Bridge Lake and Stewart Lake neighborhoods, and the Groveland Manor and Springrove manufactured-home communities on Dixie Highway. Next door: Goodrich and Atlas Township, Oxford, Clarkston, Davisburg, Holly, and Metamora and Hadley.
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 Ortonville buyers
Do you serve the Ortonville area?
Does Oakland County require a well and septic inspection when I buy in Ortonville?
The house is on Bald Eagle Lake. What do you look at?
What is different about a rural acreage home in Brandon or Groveland?
Can I be there for the inspection?
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