House has mold, is this a big deal?

[rei2005]

I just found this house for sale, but it is vacant and there is a piece of paper on the window that states this house has mold and it has been winterized. Whats the deal with mold, is this a house I should stay away from? It says that its not allowing any inspections until it has an offer, but if I can't inspect it how do I know what to offer? I walked around the outside of the house and it seems nice, but I really would like to see the inside. I guess I can always call the realtor and find out what the listing price is and take 50% off. Any help would be great.

[IWINUWIN]

Mold has become a big issue in recent years. Who's piece of paper is it (health inspector, Agents,)? Mold can typically be remidied by stopping the water source and clean-up with a bleach/water solution of 10 parts water to 1 part bleach). However, this can be expensive. Carpet/Padding may have to be removed, interior walls may have to be removed and insulation taken out and replaced, etc. This can be a good deal tho. A Broker friend of mine bought a house full of mold for 18K, spent about 20K rehabbing it, and sold it for 105K about 2 weeks after the rehab. He had to cut the walls about 1/2 way up, remove/replace insulation, new sheetrock. Everything was bleached(2x4's, floors, everything). In fact it smelled like a clorox factory for awhile. The mold was caused cause house was vacant and pipes froze and burst. However, no one was aware of mold like a health inspector. This fact was disclosed to the buyer tho.

Another story: In Marlboro, NJ - a family was removed from their house due to mold by the health inspector. They could not take any of their belongs and lost everything.

Also some insurance companies may not insure a house that has had mold - so one must be careful.

KEC

[rei2005]

thank you so much for replying.  Finally someone gives me some great input on this subject.  I diffentely will try and find out how much mold is in it.  I just found out that it is a HUD home.  So, I'm not sure exactly how this works I called the phone #, but it said to post a bid.  Well I already did comps for the area and figured out the FMV by doing cost per sq. ft.  I guess I will find out everything tmw when I call.

[ricksconnected]

hey this is a great topic. please keep everybody up to date ok? this topic could help alot of people.

[kdhastedt]

rei2005,

You should be able to see the full inpsection report, etc. at http://www.hud.gov/homes/index.cfm.  From there, click on the state where the property is located.  This will direct you to the Property Management site that handles HUDs in that area.  They should have a list, by city of what properties are available, the details of the properties, and the inspection report.

Let me know if you need any additaional help with this...

Hope it helps!

Keith

[vbarnett]

There are hundreds of different kinds of mold, but less than 50 that are toxic- as I have been told.  It was also explained to me that a local "large" hardware store has tests kits for mold issues.

[MikeInCali]

I've heard that once a house is recorded as having mold it ends up in a database that insurance companies use, which can make it hard to insure in the future.  Not sure how easy it is to straighten out once the house is clean.

[rei2005]

kdhastedt,
  The property didn't show up on the hud website.  Not sure why.  I guess they just don't have it listed with them.  Thanks for the info, though.  I will make sure to check that site often.

[vbarnett]

I live in the Southeast, where every house has some kind of mold because of the high humidity.  I noticed that every house that HUD puts up for auction is lists "mold" in the decription as protection and notification there could be toxic mold in the house.  I have not encountered this myself; however, I have been told by a VERY seasoned investor that this can become a non-issue with the test kits.  A house only has to be "gutted" if it tests for toxic mold.

[kdhastedt]

The VA is really bad about listing most houses here in Louisiana as having mold (most house have SOME mold!)...I think this is mostly to limit their exposure to liability and to future litigation...

Keith

[SpinDocSuzy]

Don't know if an insurance company wouldn't insure if a house had mold, but it is definitely an exclusion on home policies (along with terrorism), so mold damage wouldn't be covered. Big, big settlements that came out of mold 2 or 3 years ago make it a standard exclusion in policy wordings now.

Suzy
Insurance Weenie Diva  (aka agent)