Mold in a house

[Anonymous]

We have been house hunting for 3 years and finally found a house we like. But it has a musty smell and we are strongly suspicious of mold. We are having it inspected for mold. If it turns out to have mold, would you rethink the purchase? The smell is throughout the house but stronger in the basement, faint in the upstairs area.

[Anonymous]

Musty smell isn't always mold. If it's in the basement it may be as simple as running a dehumidifier. But, always get a home inspection. ALWAYS.

[Anonymous]

You won't know til you open the drywall.

Not a house I would buy sorry OP.

That musty smell means one thing water. Water means leak and sometimes hard to find.

[Anonymous]

Hard pass. I wouldn't have even bothered with an inspection.

[Anonymous]

Immediate pass. That is like the very first thing to disqualify a house.

[Anonymous]

Nope nope nope nope. Our friends are in a six figure black mold nightmare at the moment. Mold was found during the inspection but “remediated.” Don’t go down that road.

[Anonymous]

People, as you can tell above, overreact to mold. If the house otherwise meets your needs, it can be remediated. Use a professional mold assessor (who doesn't do remediation) to check the house for mold. They will use multiple methods to give you a full picture of the issue (thermal cameras, air samples, surface samples), and will likely provide a remediation plan. You can then get a quote on executing that plan. It may involved ripping out drywall, demoing part of a finished basement, etc. But you can fix it and move on (assuming you find the source of water). Personally, I'd use it to buy the house at a discount given how freaked out other people get about the issue.

[Anonymous]

It smells musty so you already know there's a problem. Do not buy this house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, as you can tell above, overreact to mold. If the house otherwise meets your needs, it can be remediated. Use a professional mold assessor (who doesn't do remediation) to check the house for mold. They will use multiple methods to give you a full picture of the issue (thermal cameras, air samples, surface samples), and will likely provide a remediation plan. You can then get a quote on executing that plan. It may involved ripping out drywall, demoing part of a finished basement, etc. But you can fix it and move on (assuming you find the source of water). Personally, I'd use it to buy the house at a discount given how freaked out other people get about the issue.

Nope, you sound naive. This sounds good in theory but it's very easy to miss mold if you don't tear out a lot of walls - which isn't going to happen during an inspection - and they you will be the hook if it's more mold than you think.

When this happened to us, we consulted a real estate attorney who advised us to walk away, and we did.

[Anonymous]

Yet another mold thread. Every house has mold. Around holes in the walls, windows, seams in drywall, HVAC ducts, etc. Just get it checked out and see how widespread it is. Generally it’s not a big deal and can be fixed.

[Anonymous]

Pass on any house with that smell op. Just not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, as you can tell above, overreact to mold. If the house otherwise meets your needs, it can be remediated. Use a professional mold assessor (who doesn't do remediation) to check the house for mold. They will use multiple methods to give you a full picture of the issue (thermal cameras, air samples, surface samples), and will likely provide a remediation plan. You can then get a quote on executing that plan. It may involved ripping out drywall, demoing part of a finished basement, etc. But you can fix it and move on (assuming you find the source of water). Personally, I'd use it to buy the house at a discount given how freaked out other people get about the issue.

Nope, you sound naive. This sounds good in theory but it's very easy to miss mold if you don't tear out a lot of walls - which isn't going to happen during an inspection - and they you will be the hook if it's more mold than you think.

When this happened to us, we consulted a real estate attorney who advised us to walk away, and we did.

I sound naive? You took your mold advice from an attorney. While a real estate attorney can be very valuable in issues surrounding a transaction, they are not necessarily the authority on how to assess and fix mold issues. As another poster indicated above, all houses have mold, it's just a question of whether it is actively being fed by a water source. Re your example of mold behind drywall: I'm 100% sure there is mold behind the drywall somewhere in your house, it just isn't an issue without a leak (internal or external) to feed the colony. For OP, given musty smell, I'd agree there is mold/water somewhere that needs to be addressed, but a competent assessor can shake the whole house down to find sources of water intrusion (even behind walls). I certainly wouldn't buy the house without that, but just pointing out that it can be dealt with and present decent opportunities given the hysteria on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Last night’s episode of Call the Midwife had this situation! It was disgusting. Little girl had to be hospitalized.