Black Mold

I have had the same issues with our home, and wish we never bought it. My children and I have been sick a lot, with crazy strange things. The chronic fatigue and brain fog, makes me insist to you, it is not worth it, no matter what a good deal it is. The mold and consequences of this are the reason why it is such a good deal. Good Luck, and I hope this helps!

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Definitely consider passing on this house if you see visible mold. Once you know a house has been "infected" you will need to disclose that to any potential future buyers. Also, it could affect the insurability of the house.

Usually a home with visible mold requires expensive mitigation procedures.

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Be very, very, VERY cautious.
You need professionals. My best friend had a small drip near her air conditioner that turned into a complete and costly nightmare! There is a house a few streets from me that has been sitting vacant for years b/c of black mold. It's a great house too. If it was easy & cheap to get rid of the mold, someone would have scooped it up long ago! It needs to be very thoroughly dealt with by a company that does it all the time. Good luck!

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We had to walk away from a "too good to be true" foreclosure deal as well due to bad water problems. I was devastated because I thought it was the home of my dreams but I'm so glad we didn’t buy it because we found a nicer and brand new home for the same price as the foreclosure without the worry about water. Water is so damaging and mold can be very detrimental to your health. It could be spreading throughout the home inside the walls where you can't see it. The health of your family is not worth saving money on the house. The fact that these people didn't take care of a hole in the side of their house makes me think there are probably other things they didn’t take care of. Proceed with caution.

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I would walk away from any kind of mold. We currently rent a house with mold problems (looking to move out as soon as we can afford it) and there is NOTHING you can do about it short of a remodel that includes replacing the drywall.

Good luck!

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K.,
My husband, daughter, and I recently went through this process (last fall). We loved a home that we saw had visible mold. We went through an ASHI certified home inspector, who sent the results down to FL. When they came back, the stacybottrus (black mold-sorry for spelling) wasn't as bad as the level of pennicillium, the highest mold count our inspector had ever seen.
After receiving the report back, we had a mold removal company in the KC Metro give us a quote. The minimum for removal was $8K. The problem was that we could see where the rain came in (bad flashing on the roof) but it wasn't as simple as just patching the roof. Since the home had sat for 3-4 mo., the mold had gotten all over the place and in order to guarantee removal, we would've had to clean everything.
There are chemicals that work on mold (Sporoclean, I believe?--my dad used it on flood work in Cedar Rapids) but I'd leave it to a professional.
In the end, the foreclosure company refused to acknowledge the mold report and we had to walk away from our home. We were sad. My advice, though, is not to let love of a thing overrule the love for your family. We decided we couldn't live with ourselves if we caused neurological damage to a baby or asthma problems to our family.

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Just wait till you get the tests results back before committing yourselves. Even if it's not black mold, you should make sure it's not running all through the walls.

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You could request the bank get the hole reinspected, but the thing is, if there's a hole in the roof and they're just fixing that hole, you may find it's not the only problem. Roofs are like window leaks. It's a trial and error thing. Sometimes you fix one part of a roof, only to find it's leaking somewhere else too. As far as black mold, if it's stated in your inspection that there's mold, you are responsible for it down the road if you sell the house. What I mean is if you are aware there is mold, you have to disclose that. If there's paperwork saying there's mold, then you are "aware" and in order to protect yourself from potential lawsuits, you'd also have to have paperwork and receipts showing that A)you got it fixed and how it was fixed and B) the results of testing showing that there is no longer black mold. If you get the test results back and it's black mold, definitely ask the bank to hire a company to go in and take care of it, and also require another test to be done afterwards to be sure it's gone.

A little bit of black mold, like say on walls above showers, can be treated with a mixture of 1/2 water 1/2 bleach in a spray bottle, but if you have it in the drywall or floorboards, then you're talking some major repair work that would need to be done.

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Great job ! You are doing your homework and researching for the health of your family ! My friend "flips" houses and has bought MANY with black mold...he tears out and replaces EVERYTHING with and near the mold. Even with replacing the sheet rock/2x4's ect, this could still be your dream home. I do agree you should hire a professional to inspect the mold before closing. Fixing the roof properly should fix the problem of more mold growing. Good luck!

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WHOOOOOA!
I have been working water mitigation/ mold remediation for years. It is NOT as horrible as everyone is saying! Mold has turned into a big insurance scam. (my opinion) I have witnessed soooo much unnecessary demo/and reconstruction ...it is amazing. Now, having said that, it does have to be completly remedied by someone who is liscensed and knows what they are doing.
I would assume that if you are buying a foreclosed home that you plan on putting some money into it anyway...the air ducts will have to be cleaned no matter what. That's just protocol. It is not a huge expense, though. You really need to find out the extent of damage first...then you can make an educated decision on whether this is the house for you and your family :)
There are millions of different types of mold. Very few are toxic. A lot of the symptoms that people describe from having mold in thier house is from allergies to the mold. I am NOT saying having mold in your house is ok...it does spread if not attended to. I could go on and on. The best thing to do is call someone who deals with mold and get an estimate.
There is a man in olathe that I used to work for (before I became SAHM) you can call. His name is Rick Cauthon...he has a locally owned business call RC Certified Inspections ###-###-####...he'd be happy to help, I'm sure. Good luck!
feel free to mssg me if you have any specific questions...I'll help if I can!

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I would also advise you to be very cautious and diligent in learning exactly what species of mold it is that has invaded the home.

Many molds have no treatment and are impossible to eradicate.

Others (such as aspergillus niger) can be toxic to your respiratory system.
As great of a house (and deal) as this may be, a good fungus professional should be able to tell you how serious of a problem this may be.

Good luck.

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