Mold Growing Wild in Atlanta Foreclosures

 As has been mentioned at least a few hundred times on here and elsewhere, I’m a broker as well as certified appraiser. Since ’89 I’ve appraised and reviewed thousands of homes, currently I’ve been completing foreclosure assignments all over the Metro Atlanta area. No agent knows the market as well as an appraiser; we are in the field daily, in different areas and completely immersed in the data. We’re also completely immersed in the foreclosure mess.

I’ve been posting tales from the foreclosure darkside for about a year now, took to carrying a video camera and have been shooting some of the more disgusting ones I come across (CLICK HERE). What we see is nothing short of depraved; from dead animals to drug dens to vandalized homes to homes with squatters and homes that have been squatted in (use your imagination or just hit that video link). The thought that some of these homes are going to be sold – without disclosure of course – is chilling.

NPR touched on the issue of mold, something that is now pretty much common place in these vacant homes. Most are buttoned up, sitting vacant with no active air circulation. As they sit, often for months or even year, the hot humid Atlanta weather wears on them. Add moisture that might come in from poor surface water management or leaks and watch the mold grow. As I caution my buyers, it’s not just in the obvious areas, mold gets in the heating ducts, behind walls and in all the nooks and crannies. Once that moldy home has the power turned back on and the HVAC system cranked up, it spreads like a bursting bubble.

This is an especially nasty and schkeevy issue; the banks do not care to hear about issues and won’t properly eradicate the mold. When you purchase a distressed/foreclosed/bank owned/REO  home you are essentially signing a “hold harmless”; the seller is in no way responsible for anything to do with the home. Proper mold remediation can run well into the thousands and buyers will need to disclose this when it’s time to sell. I’ll say it again, there is much much more to purchasing a foreclosure than most people think – it’s a very risky proposition under the best of circumstances; toss in mold, rats, roaches and depraved humans and that risk multiplies exponentially.

Check the Foreclosure Video and the Distressed & Foreclosure categories, I’m posting new things regularly and there are some wonderful things already up. Click on the image below to listen to the NPR report