How to Sell a Moldy Home

Selling a home that you no longer want or need can be a hassle all by itself, but when you add mold contamination to the mix, it just gets ugly. It is not easy getting rid of a home that is contaminated with mold at the price that you want and a lot of times, you have to lower the price that you ask for it before you can even get anyone to come near it. There is hope, however, for those of you who are willing to do a little work.

If you do happen to find a buyer, you should make sure that an environmental inspection clause is included in the sales contract. This will assure the buyer that they will have a two to three week period where they can have an inspector come to take a look around the property and examine it for mold or any other hazards that could possibly exist. If they or the inspector see that mold exists on the property without testing, then the only test that should be performed is to determine whether the mold is toxic. Even if the mold does not happen to be toxic, it still needs to be removed due to the structural damage that it can do to the building materials the home is made out of. Drywall that becomes infected usually needs to be replaced and so does any wood or other materials.

Whatever you do, do not try to hide the mold contamination from your buyer by trying to cover it up or remove the mold superficially. Even if you remove the mold off of the surface of a piece of drywall, odds are good that the whole depth of the sheet has been contaminated because drywall is a porous surface covered with paper both on the front and the back. If your buyer discovers there is mold on the property and you mentioned nothing about it, they may suspect that you are hiding other things about the home, as well, and you will have lost your buyer.

You should also have a clause in your sales contract that says that neither you, your lender, or your real estate agent is responsible for any complications caused by mold after the home is sold. Listing all mold and water damage that has been done to the home in the past and what you have done to fix the problems should be enough.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.