Foreclosed homes and mold - hand-in-hand

Parts of this post are based upon a press release from Trans World News – Real Estate news, 3/12/2009. Health problems related to mold is becoming an epidemic, which can be directly linked to the foreclosure crisis in real estate. Mold and foreclosure—there may not seem to be an immediate correlation between the two, but if you're talking about the foreclosure crisis you might see that oftentimes they go hand in hand. Foreclosed homes or buildings can sell for a fraction of their original value, and may seem like a steal: A fixer-upper at a low price. But, while there are plenty of good deals to be found on the foreclosure market, “these homes can also harbor unpleasant guests—such as mold, bacteria, mycotoxins and endotoxins” stated Dr Rajiv Sahay, Director of Lab Services at Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory (EDLab) an AIHA accredited microbiology laboratory.

Bill Radu, CIAQP/Industrial Hygienist with Pure Air Control Services/Building Heath Check®, a national leading indoor air quality consulting firm with over 24 years experience and over 10,000 studies stated “we have evaluated numerous foreclosed homes and we are finding that since the homes have been left unattended, they are enclosed, many in conditions such that the microbial amplification has exasperated exponentially causing significant growth and potential health risk to those who enter.” Temperature and humidity levels have been out of norm for weeks and in most cases months and will produce conditions where microbial contamination can and will proliferate. According to Bill, “The homes are like giant Petri dishes without proper care. The longer the homes sit the worse they get”.

I can certainly attest to the mold issues that I’ve seen in many, if not most foreclosed houses in my area in Michigan. I’ve witness scenes from a little mold around the well tank area or under a sink to basements covered floor to ceiling with mold. I had one house that was so bad that I wore a mask to even enter it, but then decided that the little painter’s dust mask that I was using probably wasn’t enough protection, so I got out. It was very much like the picture to the right, here. If you’ve ever seen what the mold remediation guys wear into those houses it’s like the scene near the end of the movie ET where the government guys came in wearing their “moon suits”.

A lot of vacant homes also develop mold in areas that aren’t easy to see, such as up in the attic or down in a crawl space. Mold can even be hiding inside walls that look on the outside to be perfectly OK. You just wouldn’t see that in a real estate walk-through, but a good home inspector will find it (OK, maybe not the mold hiding inside the wall). People who have mold in those areas may have been experiencing unexplained illnesses and cold and flu-like symptoms for quite some time without a clue as to what might be causing them. It’s not the mold itself, but the toxins that many mold strains gas off as a protective mechanism that makes people sick.

So, if you’re hunting for one of those great bargains in the foreclosed properties market, just beware of homes that have set empty for months and make sure that you get a good and thorough home inspection, with an emphasis on finding any mold in the environment. Mold can be remediated and the house made safe again, but first you have to find it and identify what type it is, so that the proper treatment made be pursued. If the mold is anything other than a small amount of common household mildew that’s a job best left to professionals.