In May, I wrote about a home that was bank-owned and priced $100,000 below market because it had a considerable amount of mold near the front door on both the first and second floors due to a neglected roof leak.
Well, the update on this home is that it sold a couple days after it was listed and it sold for around $20,000 over the list price. Speculation was that it was probably purchased by a flipper.
I made a point to watch to see if the mold mitigation trucks showed up or whether the flipper would do the work himself and not truly have it mitigated.
In the past month or so, I’ve noticed the owner working on the home and a neighbor said that a 2-story deck was built in a day. I never saw dumpsters – which would indicate that large amounts of drywall, flooring and carpet were hauled away. Surely, they had to take all the mold-damaged material away as it was too extensive to not do it so, perhaps I just missed it.
Apparently the flipper is done as there is now a ‘for sale by owner’ sign in the front yard. Although un-represented sellers “should” abide by the same disclosure laws as real estate agents, I just wonder if the disclosure form is completed in the way it should be given the amount of mold that existed.
Also, unless a real estate agent happened to view the home during the few days it was on the market, they would be totally unaware of what might be lurking under any new drywall or carpet. And the poor buyer of the home may not realize that their bedroom and a child’s bedroom next door once had black walls and floors … until after they move in and have chats with the next door neighbors.
I have a feeling that the story of this home is not over yet.
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