Home Inspector in Troy, MI

Troy is a strong, competitive market, and competitive markets create a specific problem for buyers: pressure to waive or rush the inspection to win the house. I understand the pressure. I also know exactly what it costs when it goes wrong, and I schedule around your contingency clock precisely so you don't have to make that trade.

The housing stock here is dominated by 1960s through 1990s construction, with a substantial wave of 1970s and '80s colonials on generous lots and continued higher-end building through the 2000s. The 1960s and '70s homes are at the stage where nearly every major system has either been replaced once or is overdue. What I find most often isn't catastrophic failure — it's an accumulation of deferred maintenance that adds up to real money in the first two years of ownership.

Troy also has a high rate of renovation and updating, which is a double-edged finding. Updated kitchens and baths are great. Updated kitchens and baths done without permits, with drain lines run at improper slope, with electrical circuits extended past their capacity, and with bath fans that vent into the attic, are a problem hiding behind nice finishes. I look past the finishes. That's the entire job.

1950s and 1960s ranches and split-levels (about a quarter of the city)

The oldest full neighborhoods sit along the southern and eastern edges toward Clawson, Madison Heights, and Sterling Heights, and the 1960s alone account for about 15 percent of Troy’s housing. Homes from 1965 to 1973 commonly have aluminum branch-circuit wiring, and a house from this window gets its receptacles and switches sampled and its panel terminations photographed before I say anything else. I also check for Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels, original galvanized supply lines where the copper repipe never reached, single-pane aluminum sliders in the split-levels, and the undersized cold-air returns that make the lower level of a split hard to heat. These houses were built well. The risk is fifty years of owners adding load to systems that were sized for 1965.

1970s colonials and quads — the biggest single group

About 32 percent of Troy’s homes were built between 1970 and 1979, the largest 1970s share among the Oakland County cities I cover, and this is the house most Troy buyers end up with: a two-story colonial or a quad-level on a 13,000-square-foot lot in Beach Forest, Lake Charnwood, or the Long Lake subdivisions. Early-decade homes can still carry aluminum wiring. Late-decade homes are inside the polybutylene window, so I identify the supply piping at the water heater and under every sink. I open the panel, check for double-tapped breakers where basement and garage circuits were added, look at the original chimney flue where a high-efficiency furnace orphaned the water heater, and walk the roof with the drone for the third-layer shingle job that shows up on homes this age.

1980s and 1990s subdivisions and condominiums

The 1980s and 1990s each added about 14 percent of the stock, much of it north of Long Lake Road and along Adams and Square Lake, plus the big condominium communities like Northfield Hills and Crestwood. Homes from this era commonly have polybutylene supply lines through the mid-1990s, hardboard siding that is swelling at the bottom edges, builder-grade double-pane windows with failed seals, and a first-generation high-efficiency furnace on its last years. In a condo I inspect everything inside your unit boundary and put the shared roof, siding, and site drainage in a separate section so you can ask the association the right questions before your contingency runs out. A condo inspection starts at $375.

2000s to today: new subdivisions and teardown rebuilds

Only about 13 percent of Troy was built after 2000, but that share is growing because contemporary teardown rebuilds are common on the older lots between Big Beaver and Maple. A new house on an old street means a new foundation next to a 1965 sewer lateral, a 1965 water service, and neighbors’ grading that predates the lot. I check where the new footing drains discharge, whether the service line was replaced with the house, and how the builder handled the grade difference to the neighbors. Homes from this era commonly show condensate and venting mistakes on high-efficiency equipment, missing kick-out flashing, and unfinished punch lists. For anything still under construction, a pre-drywall inspection while the walls are open is the best money you will spend.

Oakland County is EPA Radon Zone 2, and EGLE’s test data shows roughly 30 percent of tested Oakland County homes come back above the 4.0 pCi/L action level, about three in ten. That is high enough that I treat radon as part of the inspection in Troy rather than an add-on to think about. Nearly every house here has a basement and most of them are finished, which is exactly the space you do not want to guess about. The 48-hour continuous-monitor test runs inside your inspection window, costs $175 added to your inspection, and is included in the $749 Complete Inspection with the sewer scope.