Find out what this house actually costs.
Your inspector checks the roof. Nobody checks the money. We run four checks on the exact address you are buying: the post-sale property tax, the true monthly cost, the replacements already due, and the asking price against the record. Delivered within 3 hours.
We take no lender money. 30-day money back.
Sample · a report we delivered
The ask sits within +2.5% of the published third-party estimate, and the real monthly cost runs 38% above the listing-implied payment. Two risk flags and a missing permit file have to resolve first.
| Principal and interest | $1,624 |
| Property tax, post-sale | $529 |
| Homeowners insurance | $192 |
| Utilities | $350 |
| Maintenance reserve | $525 |
| Actual monthly cost | $3,220 |
The listing shows you a payment. It is not what you will pay.
This is a real house we ran in August 2026: a three-bedroom in Wayne County, asking $315,000, twenty percent down.
Principal and interest, the seller's capped tax bill, and a round number for insurance.
The same loan, plus the post-sale tax, real insurance, utilities, and a maintenance reserve.
Source: Financial Inspection dossier, 21311 Outer Dr, Dearborn MI 48124, prepared 2026-08-08. Rate 6.69% (FRED MORTGAGE30US, week of 2026-08-06). Figures rounded to the dollar.
What we check, on your address, before you sign.
Four questions the listing will not answer and the inspection does not cover. Every report answers all four or says plainly why it could not.
Your property tax after the sale
Michigan uncaps taxable value the January after a transfer. We compute your bill on your parcel, at your city and school district rate, both with and without the residence exemption.
Every carrying cost, not just the payment
Principal and interest, the post-sale tax, insurance, mortgage insurance where it applies, utilities, and a maintenance reserve, totalled against what the listing implies.
The big replacements already due
Every major component with its age where a permit record exists, its typical service life, and the current metro-Detroit replacement band. Undocumented components are named as undocumented.
The asking price against the record
Every published third-party estimate for the address, the assessor's own figure, and comparable asking prices, lined up side by side. We add the arithmetic and no opinion of our own.
The seller's tax bill is not your tax bill.
Michigan caps a home's taxable value while the owner holds it. On the January 1 after the sale it uncaps to the state equalized value, and the bill is recomputed at your city and school district rate. Nobody in the transaction is paid to tell you what that number becomes.
| Who is paying | Annual tax |
|---|---|
| The owner today, capped | $1,327 |
| You, exemption filed | $3,466 |
| You, filed late | $4,438 |
| The difference, every year | $972 |
5077 Grayton St, Detroit MI 48224 — annual property tax on the assessing record, computed 2026-09-15. The residence exemption is Form 2368.
Arithmetic: taxable value $16,143 today × 82.1844 non-homestead mills ÷ 1,000 = $1,327. After the sale the taxable value uncaps to the SEV of $54,000: × 64.1844 homestead mills ÷ 1,000 = $3,466, or × 82.1844 ÷ 1,000 = $4,438 without the exemption. Parcel 21074217, City of Detroit Parcels_Current open data, pulled 2026-09-15; the parcel carries a 0% principal residence exemption today, so the first row is at the non-homestead rate. Millage: Detroit / Detroit City School District, Michigan Treasury Total Property Tax Rates in Michigan 2025. These are the figures the roll supports, not the treasurer's billed amount, which the report pulls separately.
On this house the uncap more than doubles the bill.
The last recorded sale on this parcel's assessor roll is February 2017, and its taxable value is capped at $16,143 against an SEV of $54,000. Uncapping closes that gap in one step, and the tax goes from $1,327 to $3,466 for a buyer who files the exemption: $2,139 more a year. On a parcel that was reassessed recently the same arithmetic barely moves. You cannot know which case you are in until someone runs it on your parcel, with your district's published rate.
The two forms, and their deadlines
Form 2368, the Principal Residence Exemption, goes to the city assessor by June 1 for the summer levy and November 1 for the winter levy. Form 2766, the Property Transfer Affidavit, is due within 45 days of closing, and the penalty for missing it runs $5 a day up to $200. Both are in every report, with the dates that apply to your closing.
This is the report. Not a mockup of one.
Seven pages from an inspection we delivered in August 2026, shown as they were written. Nothing below is blurred or redacted, because the point of the document is that the numbers are real and every one of them is sourced.
What you are looking at
- Pages from a dossier we actually delivered, on a listing that was actually for sale, unaltered.
- Every figure carries the source it came from and the date it was pulled.
- The four checks are scored pass or fail, and one of them fails on this house.
- The data checklist names every record we could not reach, and how to get it.
Sample · a report we delivered, 2026-08-08
The ask sits within +2.5% of the published third-party estimate, and the real monthly cost runs 38% above the listing-implied payment. Two risk flags and a missing permit file have to resolve first.
| Principal and interest | $1,624 |
| Property tax, post-sale | $529 |
| Homeowners insurance | $192 |
| Utilities | $350 |
| Maintenance reserve | $525 |
| Actual monthly cost | $3,220 |
What has to happen before this is a clean deal
1. Establish the age of the 9 major components with no record behind them. Worst case is $56,000 to $101,500 if none of them has ever been replaced.
2. Pull the city permit file. Until it is released, every claimed renovation on the listing is an unverified claim.
3. Reconcile the seller's taxable value with the treasurer. The county feed and the listing figure disagree.
Seven chapters. Seven questions, answered with numbers.
The same seven every time, in the same order, so you always know where to look.
| Ch. | Chapter | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is it really worth? | Where the asking price sits among every published estimate for this exact address. |
| 2 | What does it really cost each month? | Every carrying cost totalled, against the payment the listing implies. |
| 2b | The tax reset | What your bill becomes on the January 1 after you close, and what the residence exemption is worth. |
| 3 | What will it be worth later? | This parcel's own recorded growth rate, against its metro, its state, and the country. |
| 4 | What big bills are coming? | Roof, furnace, air, windows, siding, service, plumbing: what is documented, what is not, and what each costs. |
| 5 | What does it cost to leave? | The check you would actually walk away with at year 3, year 5, and year 10. |
| 6 | What do the records say? | Permits, code enforcement, the sale chain, the risk flags, and the negotiation sheet the facts support. |
| 7 | The straight answer | The verdict, what has to resolve before it is clean, and the checklist of everything we could not verify. |
Plus the data checklist: every record we looked for, marked found, not available, or manual, with instructions for getting the ones we could not reach.
Three words, defined before you buy the report.
Every inspection ends with one of them. A verdict describes the strength of a property's records and numbers as we found them, and nothing more.
The records and numbers as found support moving to the next stage of due diligence. Proceed means proceed with further due diligence. It never means buy.
Specific named items have to resolve first. The report lists each one and what would settle it, in the order that matters.
The numbers or the record as found do not support the asking price. The arithmetic behind that sentence is printed above it.
Not ready for the full report? Start with the tax reset.
Enter the city, the school district, and the price you are looking at. The tax check runs the same Proposal A arithmetic the report uses, on the published rate for that district.
You see the direction and the rough size of the change straight away. Leave an email and the full breakdown opens on the page: both scenarios, the exact mills, and the filing deadlines that apply to your closing. No charge, and we do not sell the list.
What the free check gives you
- The published homestead and non-homestead millage for your city and school district.
- Your estimated bill after the taxable value uncaps, at that rate.
- The difference the residence exemption makes, in dollars.
- The Form 2368 and Form 2766 deadlines.
What it cannot give you: your parcel's actual assessed value, its permit record, or what the house costs to own. Those need the records pull, which is the paid report.
Three steps, and a clock that starts at payment.
You give us the address
The address, the asking price, your down payment, and whether it will be your primary residence. That is the whole form. We confirm it and send a payment link before any work begins.
We pull the records and run the arithmetic
County assessing, the city file, the deed chain, the permit record, the published estimates, and the current 30-year rate. Every figure is stamped with its source and the date it was pulled.
The report lands
Delivered within 3 hours. Complex municipal records can take up to 6. The clock starts at payment, and you can watch the stages complete on your order page.
Michigan, with the real rate for every district.
We hold the published 2025 homestead and non-homestead millage for 165 communities across five counties, school district by school district. Each page below carries that community's real rates and the uncap arithmetic worked out.
One price. One report. No subscription.
You pay us and nobody else pays us. That is the whole business model.
$249
Per home, paid once.
- All seven chapters and the four checks.
- The post-sale tax computed on your parcel.
- The negotiation sheet, built from computed facts.
- The full data checklist, gaps named.
- Delivered within 3 hours of payment.
- PDF and web copy, yours to keep and to share.
30-day money back if it was not worth it.
$499
$166 a home. Reports never expire.
- Everything in the single report, three times.
- Use them across a whole search, at your own pace.
- Send the first address now, the others whenever.
- Same 3-hour window on each one.
- No expiry date and nothing recurring.
- Built for buyers comparing two or three finalists.
30-day money back on the pack.
No subscription, no upsell, no lender product. You are not charged on the order form: we confirm the address and send a payment link first.
We take no lender money.
We are paid the same whether you buy this house or walk away from it.
We accept no referral fees. No lender or brokerage partnerships. No rate products, no refinance offers, no commission from any party to the transaction. Nobody is buying placement in your report, because there is nothing in it to place.
What that buys you is a document with no reason to be optimistic. Every value figure is a third-party published estimate or a public record, reproduced with its source and pull date, and the only thing we add is arithmetic you can check line by line. Where a record was not available, the report says so and tells you how to get it, instead of filling the hole with an estimate.
Before you order.
Is this an appraisal?
No. We do not issue an opinion of value, and this report may not be used as one. Every value figure is a third-party published estimate or a public assessment record, reproduced with its source. The only thing we add is arithmetic.
Where do the numbers come from?
County and city assessing records, the published millage for your city and school district, the property's own deed and permit record, published third-party value estimates, and the current 30-year rate from the Federal Reserve series. Every figure in the report carries the source it came from and the date it was pulled.
What happens if a record is missing?
It goes on the data checklist, marked found, not available, or manual, with instructions for getting it. We never fill a gap with a guess. The credibility of the document is that list.
How fast do I get it?
Delivered within 3 hours. Complex municipal records can take up to 6. The clock starts at payment, and you can watch the stages as they complete.
Do you visit the house?
No. This is not a home inspection, a title search, a survey, or a legal opinion, and it does not replace any of them. Nobody from our team enters or physically examines the property. Keep your inspector. This is the other half of the same question.
Can I use it to negotiate?
The report includes a negotiation sheet built only from computed facts: the days on market, the documented replacement bands, the post-sale tax arithmetic, and where the ask sits against the published estimates. What you offer, and whether you offer at all, stays your call.
What do the verdicts mean?
Proceed means the records and numbers as found support moving to the next stage of due diligence. Conditional means specific named items have to resolve first. Walk Away means the numbers or the record as found do not support the asking price. None of the three is a recommendation to buy, not buy, or transact at any price.
Do you take money from lenders or agents?
No. We accept no referral fees, no lender partnerships, no rate or refinance products, and no commission from any party to the transaction. You are the only one who pays us, and we are paid the same whether you buy the house or walk away from it. Where an inspector refers you to us, we pay them for the inspection report we use in your analysis — that payment flows from us to them, never the reverse, and it never changes your verdict.
What is the refund policy?
Money back within 30 days if the report was not worth it. One email, no argument. There is no subscription and nothing recurring.
Where do you work?
Michigan, across 165 communities in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, and Livingston counties, where we hold the published homestead and non-homestead millage for every school district. If your address is outside that set, write to us before ordering and we will tell you honestly whether we can source it.
You are about to make the largest purchase of your life on somebody else's arithmetic.
Send us the address. We will send you the numbers, within 3 hours.
30-day money back. No subscription. We take no lender money.