Is that house toxic?
September 24th, 2009 categories: Rants & Raves
I’ve decided that a new category is needed on my blog, It just wouldn’t be me without it - Rants & Raves! So what sparked the new category this time? I have a rant about the condition of some homes actively on the market.
As anyone who have read my posts knows, it’s imperative as a seller that you show your property in it’s best condition. I know that makes sense to 99.9% of you. Well, I ran into the other.01% this week! This is story:
I have a young couple looking for properties under $130,000 in the North Asheville, Weaverville areas. They aren’t real picky, are easy to work with and understand their options will be limited at this price point. So they are very realistic that they won’t be finding a mansion and will need to invest in future updates or repairs. Our first venture out we visited four homes in that price range. Out of the four, two were good possibilities. It was the 3rd house that we looked at that made me angry. Described on the Asheville MLS as “A beautiful country home”, we were eager to see it. On arrival we saw that it was located across the street from a used car dealer, definitely a negative, but we still wanted to see inside. Stepping inside the house it looked like someone had completely trashed it – then the smell hit us! The smell was a combination of musty mold & cat urine that had been closed up and incubating for a very long time! My eyes were burning and I could only hold my breath hoping to quickly be in and out. It was when I reached the kitchen that I absolutely lost it, the stench was amazing. When we got outside, my clients stated they felt they needed to go home and shower. I had a pounding headache the rest of the night.
What makes me angry is that the MLS comments made by the listing agent made this house sound like the idyllic country home, with a few repairs needed. It was THE most toxic house I have ever entered and could see a minimum of $50,000 in repairs, not to mention how the smell could ever be remediated. In my opinion, this house was a health risk and should not have been on the market. Fortunately, this situation was extreme and has been the exception for me. For those individuals with health issues there should have been a warning before entering posted at the property on in the MLS.
So the moral to this story is this: Sellers need to take responsibility to make sure their property is not putting the public at a health risk. If you can’t walk into a building without holding your breath, it doesn’t need to be on the market! Listing agents need to represent a property correctly and not mislead with a description that draws a completely different picture of that property, or don’t agree to put it on the market! It’s your reputation on the line!
I’d love to hear from any of you out there who have had a similar experience.
Have you ever watched Jim the Realtor? http://www.youtube.com/user/JimtheRealtor
Somebody needs to do that locally…
John,
Thanks for sending along Jim the Realtor, I had not heard about him but found his videos interesting & entertaining. I’m planning on ramping up the video on my site. Stay tuned . . .