Think and prepare yourself for Buying a Bank Owned Mold House? -Part 1.

With the rash of recent foreclosures over the last several years there is a tremendous amount of backlogged inventory just sitting there which is Bank owned. These properties are called REO, which stands for real estate owned (that's Bank owned in other words).

These properties have created tremendous investment opportunities for serious investors and hobby investors alike! but, alas with the tremendous opportunity comes an amazing amount of potential liability as well. You see when a home sits empty, there are multiple issues which can create water intrusions, and with water comes- Mold!

Many investors have been led to believe that mold is a very easy way to buy a property far below market value- and they are right! Most of these investors believe that they can just have their handyman go in rip out the moldy drywall and spray some bleach paint it over with kills and voila- mold problem solved! Sadly this can create multiple problems. Many times i have been called out to inspect one of these "flips" i am usually called by the end buyer who is now experiencing health problems or worse their small children have developed asthma allergies or worse! Then I get paid to test the air and wall cavities. When I find mold a whole new beast rears its ugly head-- lawsuits and liability! Lawyers just love these cases; you see juries are very sympathetic towards homeowners who they believe to have been "cheated" by unscrupulous home flippers.

What worse is in some cases the investor have even hired "certified" mold companies to do the clean up for them! Most of the time they falsely believe that they have eliminated the liability by hiring a third party. Sadly this is not always the case! i should know i have been paid to act as an expert witness on multiple occasions and believe me these attorneys can be downright vicious when they smell an asset (victim).

You see when a house has sat empty for a long period of time, especially in houses with basements or crawlspaces a physical source of puddling water is not even required... Water can move through out the house invisibly in the form of vapour. This invisible movement of water is one of the main reasons that both amatuers and so-called professional remediation contractors screw up and leave the structure contaminated after all visible flowering mold has been removed!You see most professional mold companies, received their certification from a two or a three day seminar. What's worse is this is usually completed by the company owner and not by the actual workers who are performing the work! It takes me usually an average of at least six months in order for me to adequately train someone to work for me with 40 hour a week on the job training! It is absolutely impossible to cramm all of the essential information necessary to become a competent molds professional into a two or three day class, and then expect that person to become a qualified instructor for his own workers! When it relates to bank owned properties the learning curve is even greater.