Should I pass on buying a house because of the moldy basement????

Question : Should I pass on buying a house because of the moldy basement????
Furry is how best to explain the walls in the unfinished basement. There is no light down there and the flash pictures taken look like dirt and mold and part of the rest of the basement is limestone. We are looking in to mold remediation OR jacking the house up to pour a new foundation..and how much would that cost anyway. I think we’ll be able to get the potential 5 bedroom 2116 sq ft home for 50k. I would love to hear your thoughts as long as you don’t tell me to run as fast as I can! ;o)
We are looking in a VERY small town in Iowa, 50k isn’t a huge impossibility.
The mold is like shag carpet and covers a couple of walls.
mold remediation in homes

Best answer:

Answer by david o
I don’t know where you live, but if you can buy 2116 sq. foot home for 50k (in a reasonable neighborhood). Buy it. I’ll skip the lecture on mold and how to fix it.

This entry was posted by admin on October 7, 2010 at 5:18 pm, and is filed under Property Appraisals. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

Comments (11)
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#1 written by saaanen 1 year ago

I wouldn’t do anything until you have a professional inspection done. Not by a mold remediator, but a pre-sale inspection. Licened inspectors are trained to recognize 90% of the visible problems and give you probable causes and approximate repair cost.

The price seems too good to pass up based on opinions of YA’s.

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#2 written by takoma620 1 year ago

Well, I mean it seems that running, that first instinct YOU had, was the same one I had lol. That being said, your costs eill vary. You can jack up the house anywhere , depending on the shape, height of the place. But the pouring of the foundation, that should be your main concern – and you would want to look at QUALITY over PRICE, hands down!!!. Dont wanna have to get it all done just to have a leaky moldy finished basement in 2015

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#3 written by Irv S 1 year ago

You might not be looking at mold.
If those walls are limestone, water seeping through.
will carry lime which will deposit on the walls as it
drys out leaving a ‘fuzzy` looking coat of fine stelite crystals.
Look closer.

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#4 written by Ronald P 1 year ago

Sounds to good to be true. I would do some research to make sure it is not setting on toxic landfill. I saw on tv about a week ago this happened to a couple

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#5 written by flowergirl 1 year ago

Find out where is the water source that is causing the mold to grow on the walls. Why is it so damp? What is the water table in that area. Talk with a sharp and intelligent home inspector the best way to do with this.

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#6 written by peppersham 1 year ago

First get it looked at by a professional in mold removal.Then based on what he tells you go from there it may or may not be fixable.It may be an ongoing problem over the years and that will be expensive for sure.

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#7 written by litlfitz 1 year ago

Walk away from this purchase, “don’t run” if after factoring all your cost to correct the mold issue it will push this house above market value then you might not be making a good deal, however if this house is in a great location it may have tremendous amounts of equity already built into that property and therefore you should go ahead and make this purchase. But you will need to make a quick study for determining how you decide on spending your money because once those papers are signed there will be a cost associated with changing your mind…

Best of luck
`Mr. invest

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#8 written by oil field trash 1 year ago

If you can clearly identify the cause of the mold and correcting the problem is reasonable, then I would not “give up” on the house.

If you can’t figure out the cause and a good solution, then I would avoid the house. If you buy it, you will be battling the mold for the rest of the time you own the house.

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#9 written by napper 1 year ago

Your call.
You need to get a LOCAL engineer, builder or carpenter to have a look first to get a very rough idea of cost to rectify. Local because they will have local knowledge of the enviroment.
Then make your decision.
From experience the way to avoid mould is ventiation to help remove damp.
Sounds like a good buy in anyones language.
Hope it goes well for you and don’t get emotional about it.
50k might be a good price but is it viable?.

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#10 written by morris 1 year ago

If it is a good deal for your area, buy it. Mold can easily be dealt with using bleach and a scrub brush. All homes have some mold, especially older homes with damp basements. 99% of common molds are harmless.

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#11 written by M L 1 year ago

i would definitely find out the cost for repairing it FIRST. 50K sounds too good to be true for any neighborhood so make sure you get the whole house inspected by someone good so you don’t get in for more than you can afford in repairs. good luck!

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