Can You Sell a House With Black Mold?

a close up of mold

Finding black mold inside your property is never good. Mold and fungi of different shapes, sizes, smells, and colors can infiltrate a home and completely disrupt your life – or your tenant’s life if it’s a rental property.

While you can legally sell a house with mold, you must disclose everything you know about the issues to potential homebuyers. You should also take some necessary precautions before selling to protect yourself and get the best price for your property.

Keep reading to learn the answer to the question, “Can you sell a house with black mold?”, plus everything else you need to know about black mold as a landlord, homebuyer, or homeowner.

Is it Legal to Sell a House With Black Mold?

a house interior with black mold on the walls and ceiling

In short, yes, it is completely legal to sell a house with black mold inside. Black and white mold are two of the most common types of mold found in homes. However, regardless of the color of the mold in your home, you are legally allowed to sell your property with this issue.

The important thing to note is that you must disclose this information to potential buyers. In many states, sellers are required to disclose any known defects regarding their property to buyers. This includes black mold and many other issues (like foundation issues and code violations).

Do I Need to Disclose Mold Issues When Selling?

When selling a house with mold issues, you must let buyers know if you are aware of the issue. If you are listing your home on the market, you can place this information in the description. Or you can let interested buyers know once you connect with them.

You should let them know about the black mold infestation before they make you an offer. Otherwise, you are at risk of being sued later or losing buyers once the home inspection identifies the issues.

Cover and protect yourself by fully disclaiming any known defects within your property, including black mold – and don’t leave out any important details. The more information you provide, the better off both sides will be (in terms of entering into a contract together for the sale of your home).

Who Will Buy My House With Black Mold?

Finding the right homebuyer for a property that is suffering from a breakout of black mold isn’t the easiest task. Depending on the severity of the mold issues, it could deter certain buyers from making you an offer. For first-time homebuyers and families looking to move into a turnkey home, they may lose interest in yours after learning about the black mold issue.

Not everyone wants to get their hands dirty and work on a house that they buy. Many homebuyers prefer to move in directly after closing and have the property in pristine condition. There are certain caveats to this. For example, if your property is located in an area where mold growth is common, buyers may be more willing to make you an offer.

If you don’t want to fix the issues, it’s still worth listing your property on the market. Listing your home with a realtor can help you blast out your property to the largest pool of potential buyers in your area. Just remember that if your home has a serious black mold issue, you may have issues selling the property quickly.

House flippers and developers are ideal to reach out to you about buying your property when it has issues like black mold. Oftentimes, when flippers purchase homes, they will completely gut and renovate the interior of a property.

This means that they will take care of the mold issue themselves. In turn, this enables you to sell your house with black mold issues and not have to worry about cleaning or disinfecting anything.

How to Fix Mold Issues On a Property

Sell a House with Black Mold

Whether it’s your primary residence or a rental property, there may be multiple reasons why you want to keep the property (instead of selling) or fix the issues before selling. Mold remediation is almost always an option when trying to recover and save your property.

Here are the initial steps you’ll need to take when starting the mold remediation process:

Tips For Fixing Black Mold Issues in a House

Start by reaching out to local mold specialists and mold treatment companies. They will schedule someone to come out to your property and test for mold. There are different types of mold tests that they can perform, all with varying prices.

If your black mold issue is severe, it’s recommended to do both a swap test and an air test in every room of your home. This way, you test the surfaces within your property that could be infected by mold as well as the air. Testing the air for mold is absolutely necessary when determining how severe the issue is.

Mold isn’t visible until enough of the spores pile up to the point that it’s visible to the human eye. However, even when it’s not visible, mold is harmful to the body. It can still be present on surfaces and in the air before it reaches amounts that we can physically see.

So, tap into your other senses when investigating where mold could be present. If you smell bad odors in your closet or feel damp surfaces in corners of your home, there could be mold present.

Make sure that you are keeping your windows open and allowing airflow to enter your home while mold is present. You want to make sure the property is as safe as possible if people are still inhabiting it. Of course, it’s safest to vacate the property if the black mold is severe.

Once you get the mold test results back, you can determine what remediation strategy you want to implement to treat the issue. Mold test results oftentimes show multiple types of mold, including white mold and other species. If you plan to keep the property after taking care of the black mold issue, make sure you remove every last spore!

Summary

Every mold situation is different. Certain people would rather keep their property and treat the issue with local mold specialists. Others would rather get rid of the property. If you want to sell your house with black mold, it’s possible. The hardest part is finding the right buyer.

Remember, you are legally allowed to sell a house with mold issues. But the issue must be disclosed when you’re aware of it.

Are you considering selling a property with black mold? At Brotherly Love Real Estate, we buy houses in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas in any condition. We buy houses in any condition, including those with all types of mold issues. Contact us today to get your fair cash offer price.