DIY mold remediation?

My parents are looking at a repo house that sat for 2 years unheated and just had a mold test completed. Three problemm areas have high common mold count (but no toxic black mold). Attic, crawlspace, and one interior wall where there was a leak. I have been in all of them, mold is visible under the house in places, but the rest doesn't appear immediately visible.

I'm waiting for my mom to send me the report this afternoon, but it certainly seems like something you could do yourself by spraying with killing agent then encapsulating the remaining spores. Interior would be stripped and drywall replaced.

Mold company wants between $80,000-150,000 to clean the house (5700 sq ft), including evacuating the house for two days. No guarantee of results. Apparently I'm in the wrong business.

Anyone with experience?

 

The particular house is somewhat unique, my dad has always liked it, and it finally came up for sale. He retires in a year and the plan was to buy it out of foreclosure, put another $150k+ in bringing it back to good shape in the mean time (new roof, paint, carpet, HVAC, pool equipment, redo the carriage house, etc). This was going to be the last house they ever planned to buy.

They have put multiple offers in over the past 6 months, but it was contingent on passing a mold test. Finally the bank agreed, and now themold test has came back and not surprsingly mold is present. This unfortunately is probably a deal breaker for them, although in our area the toxic black mold is uncommon, and none was found in the house. Just high levels of normal types of mold you would find in your shower.

I have no doubt we could remediate it. One wall of drywall would have to be torn out and replaced, and of course the attic and crawlspace would also have to be done. Give it our best shot, re-test, and see what other areas need attention. The house has sat without cleaning or heating/cooling for 2+ years, just cleaning the hell out of all surfaces and turning the A/C on for a few weeks to pull humidity out of the air and filtering the intake with a HEPA filter would certainly start the process.

There was another offer at the same time as my parents' but it was contingent on the buyer getting a portion through financing (my parents were paying cash). Now that the mold test has been completed and is public record (both realtors and bank now have a copy), basically the other bidder would have little chance of obtaining financing. I can't imagine a bank loaning money on a house known to have mold issues. The bank still owns the house, that now few people would want and even fewer could afford to buy in cash.

So in talking with my parents, it doesn't sound like the house is completely out of the question, if they can buy it even cheaper with the current mold issues or let the bank pay to fix it, prove it is eradicated, then negotiate price again.

In researching the whole area of mold, it seems a bit overhyped. All mold is not black mold, and most is harmless. But the remediation companies seem to play up the fear that if one spot of mold is found everyone will clutch their throats and die. Obviously it is a problem, but it is the degree I question.

 

Thank you everyone for your responses. I spoke with my mom this morning and they withdrew their offer on the house, they had wisely insisted in the mold test as a condition in the contract.

The realtor is a nice lady and it is too bad for her and all her effort, I guess she will have to update the youtube tour and remove "under contract".
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9XfHYazWGQ[/ame]

 

I thought I would just add that in general it is really unfortunate that many times banks choose to let homes in foreclosure sit without utilities. It is amazing how quickly a structure can fall into disrepair without heating and/or cooling. In MO you can have 110F in the summer, and -20F in the winter with plenty of moisture.

Fixing this house probably cost more than it is worth. Can a house be "totalled" like a car? At the very least, with the mold history this house is now branded forever, analogous to a salvage title auto.

 

Many metro places I agree the land has definite value. This house is on 10 acres worth perhaps $35k total if it was bare ground. Hypothetically though the cost of demolishing the house would probably cost a good chunk of that to make it back to a buildable lot. It really is an unfortunate situation.

I will be curious to see what the bank does with it. My guess is they will drop the price to around $250-300k "as is" and hope to get someone to buy it that either doesn't fully understand the mold implications or doesn't care and only wants a low price.

 

Appraised at $600k last fall, first offered as is by the bank in October for $492k. Several reductions in asking price, was $372k I believe last week. My parents submitted six or seven bids throughout the process as the asking price came down toward their bid price. They barely increased theirs over the past few months, and it was less than $372k.

 

FWIW, over the weekend the realtor called my parents and told them the other party bidding on the house had continued to want the house and signed a contract on Friday.

Apparently all that had to be disclosed to the new buyer was that the first offer (my parents') was withdrawn because of the mold contingency. The contents of the mold test were not disclosed to the new buyers, only that mold was the reason they withdrew.

The bank was insisting on an "as is" stipulation in the sale of the house, this was the big sticking point with my parents' repeated offers to have time (7 days) to do a mold test.

Sounds like the buyers either don't care or have discounted the importance of the mold.

Should be interesting to see what happens once they get into the property. They also needed to finance 50% of the house, I'm curious to see if a bank will finance given a previous positive mold test.

This is a small town (pop: 12k) and if there are issues, we will hear about it through the grapevine.