Home Inspector in Auburn Hills, MI

Auburn Hills is a genuinely mixed market. The older sections near the original Auburn Road corridor are modest postwar housing. Then there's a large body of subdivision and condominium construction from the 1990s and 2000s built around the corporate campuses, plus a rental market driven by Oakland University. Those three groups fail in three different ways.

The 1990s and 2000s housing is the largest share and it's at a specific stage: everything the builder installed is arriving at end of life simultaneously. Original roofs past twenty years, first-generation high-efficiency furnaces, water heaters, and builder-grade windows fogging throughout the house. It's rarely dramatic and it's rarely cheap. I put the whole timeline in one place so you can plan capital instead of reacting to it.

The rental-converted housing needs a harder look. Homes carried as rentals for years accumulate deferred maintenance and quick repairs made to satisfy a tenant rather than to last. I look for the pattern: patched rather than replaced, minimum-effort mechanical work, and finishes that hide rather than fix. And for condos and townhomes I inspect inside your unit boundary while flagging the common elements that will reach you through the association.

Auburn Heights: pre-1940 cottages and Tudors (about 6%)

The old village of Auburn Heights around Auburn and Squirrel roads is the historic core, and the small Tudor and cottage-style homes there are the oldest housing in the city. Homes from this era commonly have balloon framing, knob-and-tube or cloth-insulated wiring remnants, galvanized supply lines, clay laterals, plaster walls, and stone or block foundations with the low headroom and damp corners that come with them. Several of these lots sit low along the Clinton River near Riverside Park, and on those I spend extra time on the foundation walls, the floor drain, and the sump. These small houses have often been worked on repeatedly with no permits, and I inspect the additions and basement conversions as carefully as the original structure.

1960s ranches and ranch-colonials (about 12%)

The 1960s were Auburn Hills’ first real subdivision decade, and the modest ranches and ranch-colonials from that period are scattered through the older sections of the city. Homes built from about 1965 through 1973 commonly have aluminum branch-circuit wiring, and Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels show up throughout the decade, so the panel and a sample of the devices are the first things I check. These houses also commonly have original cast-iron drains, single-pane windows, and furnaces and water heaters on their third replacement in ductwork that was never resized. Many of them have spent time as rentals, and the pattern I described in the intro, patched rather than replaced, shows up most in this age group.

1980s and 1990s subdivisions, condos, and townhomes (37%)

The 1980s added about 15 percent of the housing and the 1990s about 23 percent, the largest decade in the city, and much of it is attached: Auburn Hills is 11 percent condominiums and townhomes, among the highest shares of the cities I cover. Homes from this era commonly have polybutylene supply piping through the mid-1990s, hardboard siding failing at the bottom edges, builder-grade windows with fogged seals, and first-generation high-efficiency furnaces at the end of their run. In a condo or townhome I inspect everything inside your unit boundary, run the thermal camera on the shared walls and ceilings, and put the roof, siding, decks, and site drainage in their own section so you know what to ask the association about reserves and upcoming assessments. A condo inspection starts at $375.

2000s to today, plus the manufactured-home communities

Close to 29 percent of Auburn Hills was built after 2000, including about 3 percent since 2020, the highest recent-construction share among the Oakland County cities I cover, much of it newer condominiums near the corporate campuses. Homes from this era commonly show settled grading, missing kick-out flashing, high-efficiency venting and condensate mistakes, and punch-list items the builder never closed; an 11-month warranty inspection catches those while the builder still owns them. Separately, about 6 percent of the city’s housing is manufactured homes, the highest share among the cities I cover. I inspect those as manufactured homes: pier and tie-down condition, the marriage line on a double-wide, the belly wrap and vapor barrier, the data plate, and the site drainage under the unit, which is where most of the problems start.

Oakland County is EPA Radon Zone 2, and roughly 30 percent of tested homes in the county come back above the 4.0 pCi/L action level, per EGLE. I treat radon as part of the inspection in Auburn Hills rather than an option. A slab-on-grade condo and a ranch with a finished basement are different exposures, and neither can be predicted without a test; a 48-hour continuous-monitor test in the lowest livable level is $175 added to your inspection and included in the $749 Complete Inspection. On a ground-floor condo, the lowest livable level is the unit itself, and the test is just as valid.