Looked at a house today, great place in a great location. The price was good - too good, it seems. The house has a mold problem. The kitchen is bad. Looks like the refrigerator was leaking and it spread from there. Also there was some upstairs from a leaky roof. It seemed confined to these two areas - the rest of the house looked fine. It didn't look too bad but I guess it all depends on how much is behind the walls, which is the $20,000 question. The first reaction of our agent was to avoid the house, even at the great price (less than half of the average selling price of the neighborhood), but then she kind of backpedalled a bit, and said perhaps a mold inspection might give us an idea of just how bad or not so bad it might be.

Anyone have any experience with this? My first thought was this was a B&D house (broke and divorced, lol).

You need to find out how Tennessee handles it. Here in Wisconsin it has to be a mold remediation company that removes it, and they are very pricey because of that reason. Very similar to asbestos abatement. If for some reason the local government doesn't know about it, you can probably take care of it yourself, Take the drywall off, dry the area out thoroughly and spray everything multiple times with a strong bleach mix to kill the spores, then let it dry again.

Jeff

It can be very serious, and not always so simple. One of our state bldgs. had a mold problem. When it was built, the land wasn't properly graded. The structure (which had no basement) wicked up the water. What made things -real- bad was the black mold spores got "inhaled" into the HVAC system. Soon every vent was breathing out spores and the whole bldg was contaminated. It is slated for demolition now. :(

Andy, even if you have a certificate it is clean, you will still someday want to sell it and you could be looking at a very limited amount of buyers because of the mold disclosure.

A new house in my daughters neighborhood had water damage while it was vacant and has been for sale over two years now even though it has a certificate that it is mold free. Just my $.02

Mold is mold..it grows and grows..These companies that say they rid the mold..most are fraud...the mold growing could be of 1000's type mold...some ok..some a killer...BE SURE TO FIND THE RIGHT CONTRACTOR....other than that all I can say is be careful....;)

walk away JMHO
it could get real expensive just to clean up>> removal of sheetrock in the house there no telling how far it spread in the walls
then more money to correct the problems that might have caused the mold

a friend of mine about died doing a renovation project he started on a bathroom of his home. the mold was behind the tile on the wall and floor. he inhailed the spores while breaking up the tile. made him sick the drugs he had to take to deal with what was in his lungs and blood did a number on him also. He had to hire someone to cleanup the mold and then someone to finish the project. the childern had some illness related before that they think was related. the house was 60 something years old. he end up selling and moving to a new house built for then all problems with the kids went away but he had some damage to his lungs

Andy as far as Tenn. cares you can raise mold in your house for a living if you want. But as far as your family goes that could be different. My wife is allergic to mold severely. Myself I fell 0 effects from it but she can't breathe around it. If you have children you will need to consider them also as some children as mine have reactions to mold probably inherited from my wife. If none of the above is a issue I would see what it will take to replace the drywall and get rid of it. If there is issues with the family then I would not consider it. If you bought it and fixed it and lived in it for 10 years you could return a hefty profit and buy many Buick parts. But don't let money jeopardize your family's health.:thumbsup:

A guy in town had it so bad in the walls that he ended up tearing the whole thing down. Be careful.

LK

My dad owns a mold removal company and I have worked for him on occasion. It is the worst job ever. Many types of black mold are toxic which made us have to wear full resporators and reverse air pressure machines. THe only way to really get rid of it is remove and sheet rock or wood that it is on and chemical sprays for stone. There is no way to know how bad it is in a wall until the drywall comes off.

Thanks for the opinions guys. I think we might spend a few hundred on a mold assessment. We really liked that house, and I have no problem doing the kind of repairs necessary if they aren't too extensive.

RUN, don't walk, RUN AWAY

Even if turns out to be non-toxic mold and you clean it up yourself or hire someone else to, and assuming you fixed the cause the moisture that caused the mold (leaky roof, whatever), you will have a mold disclosure that will scare away a lot of potential buyers when YOU go to resell the home.

We had to walk away from a house we almost bought last year after the home inspection found mold in the attic and we then paid more money to have a "mold inspection" where they take a sample and get it tested. The problem I had with all these inspections was that after spending hundreds of dollars we still did not know the true extent of the mold or damage because you and inspectors can't tear apart the drywall or anything. It just isn't worth negotiating over mold remediation or dealing with uncertainty, especially if you have kids or will have kids. My wife and I decided we weren't having kids in any home that has or had a mold problem. Health problems from breathing in mold may be overblown, kids getting asthma or whatever, but better than safe than sorry I figure.

We ended up buying another house a few months later, a much nicer home than the one with the mold problem and we have NO REGRETS.

There are other houses out there without mold, and a lot of great deals to be made as well.

The houses on either side of me had a mold problem. Now for me it is no problem as both houses are in the landfill!

Mold is a very serious problem. It's not uncommon to literally have to tear the house down from the inside out to fix it.


Rocky

'Mold' - people freak out when they hear that word, but in reality it is everywhere. Sure, I agree that some types of black mold can be extremely toxic, but I think those cases are few and far between. Nowadays, small instances of mold send everyone into a tailspin!

I can pretty much guarantee you that every home has mold in it at some point no matter how new it is. Again, I'll admit there are extreme cases, but those are few and far between. If you find a problem (leak), fix it, clean and dry the area and repair... if there is no mo moisture, there will be no more mold.

Big time money maker based off of fear mongering! Just like the bio-hazzard cleanup business!:yes:

Andy,

I agree with every response you've gotten so far. Regardless of scientifically how bad the mold is, public opinion has declared that mold is bad. Even if it turns out to be non-toxic and you fix it, the disclosure will scare people aware. Worst case is a gamble with your family's health. Walk away.

Run away from that house

Buying the house? Doesn't the seller have to clear an inspector report? Isn't this something that can be contingent on the sale, that the seller cure the problem?

Here in CA, if an inspector says there's a problem, a lot of times the seller must cure the issue before the inspector will sign off. Ask your agent if the seller will cure the problem!

That being said, there is mold -everywhere-. As said before, some is good, some is not so good, but back in the day, a group of attorneys got together (literally) and coined the phrase "mold is gold". If it's moldy, it must be bad and therefore a revenue generator to get rid of it, when in fact it frequently just isnt that big of a deal from a health standpoint...

Still, if it's visibly growing somewhere, that just cannot be good!