Mold-in home we want to buy

silvergirl in her post was on the money as I ran a Cleaning service for 30 years . FEMA also has a site on how to treat and clean up mold.
Indiana Country Friend

Nearly all homes have experienced some type of mold at one time or another. All is not lost. There have been knee-jerk reactions to people finding mold in their homes and leveling them to the ground, as recent as 2 or 3 years ago. It seems that most people, mortgage companies, ins. companies, etc. have calmed down quite a bit about mold. Here's what I would do:

1. have a co. that does mold or environmental inspections do some testing (try to find one that tests, but does NOT do remediation since the chance for a big remediation job skews their opinion);
2. get in touch with a contractor that specializes in installing new drywall and try to find one that knows about remediation techniques for mold to get an estimate.
3. after you get the estimates, deduct that amount from your offer;

OR....

put in the seller's lap and require that all mold be removed with new drywall, and adequate testing to your satisfaction before you close.

Mold is OFTEN a very minor thing. But it does require attention and remediation.

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Society has gotten to the point where everybody has a right, but nobody has a responsibility.

The mold may or may not be worth a major price reduction ..so it would be wise if you make sure you really want this home and can afford this home before you put in an offer.
If this is the first ..or one of the first ..homes you've looked at ..you may want to look at a few more before you get your hopes too high. Sometimes the novelty of looking at your first home or two can make a person get too excited over a home they might otherwise not put an offer on ..especially since there are so many homes for sale in this area. There are a lot of homes out there ..perhaps there is one that you'd like even better ..one that doesn't have the problems this one has.



Finally ..mold or not ..it makes no sense to bid on a home if it is out of your price range. I noticed last week you posted that you were seriously thinking of pulling up stakes and moving to Kentucky ..so maybe it would also be wise to be absolutely certain what you really want to do ..before you make a substantial offer on the home. If you would need to sell your current home first ..then make sure you stipulate that as one of the conditions into any offer you make.

There's mold, and there's mold. We recently dealt with a claim on a home that had mold and it was a total loss - 100% loss including the furniture. Be careful and get several estimates and opinions - IN WRITING.

In my experience it depends on what caused the mold. If it was caused by poor venting and leaking pipe, once the problem is repaired and the existing mold is cleaned, that should take care of the problem. Once you get "professionals" involved the cost will skyrocket. These companies have strict guidelines to follow. I would just be sure of the cause. If it can be remedied than I would use a good bleach solution and not worry about it. If you have someone in your family that has allergies, I would likely talk to the doctor. The problem is the over reaction. There is a lot of money being made from litigation.

We decided against moving out of state because dh's job is too secure here. To move anywhere else he loses his senority and security. It really isnt the best idea with a large family right now.

The owner stated he will be getting a license contractor in to clean and to fix a broken window. upon being cleanedwe will get someone to inspect it. Will update as things go along. We will put our offer in after its cleaned.

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Farmer Manda
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Today is yesterdays tomorrow

At this point the only known allergy is to cotton wood... and pine.. both are here and kills me at certian parts of the year. We had mold in our basement for a short time and it didn't seem to bother us. Dust was another issue too. But it was so mildcompared to the amount at this place.

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Farmer Manda
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Today is yesterdays tomorrow

Please be careful! Mold can be very serious. When we still lived in town, we lived in a rental place that had mold on the bottom half of the walls. The owner knew before we moved in, but had "cleaned" and painted over it. Well - less than a month after we moved in - it came back. During our time of living there we had it cleaned twice by professionals and it always came back. The last straw was when our little girl who was a baby at the time developed ashma - I told hubby either find a new place or I was leaving. We were in a new place a week later. Our little girl hasn't had any symtoms since we moved. I just think that you can never really get rid of it and it is not worth the health risks to you and your family.

I agree with prairiecomfort

In that you and your children only have one set of lungs - that's it there and there are lots of other houses out there that won't need work - especially because it's becoming a buyers market.

Also, i guess i would wonder if someone had that much mold and didn't bother to fix/repair it and get rid of it how well did they really keep the rest of the house.

Guess i'm just a stickler that you shouldn't buy something that has problems at the on-set because you will find other things along the way - that goes with buying someone elses house.