Can I sell a house with mold on Long Island?
Written and reviewed by Andrew Ragusa, Licensed Real Estate Broker and Broker of Record, REMI Realty LLC — 11+ years of transactions across Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens.
The short answer
Mold is one of the most common problems I find on Long Island homes, and most buyers do not know what they are looking at. Colonies show up as circular or odd-shaped patches, not full-surface coverage, which is why first-time buyers miss them.
In East Setauket, I was the buyer's agent. I spotted spore colonies covering almost all the basement walls, with a wet rug underneath. The buyers had no idea what they were seeing. I told them that is mold, showed them the patches, and explained how colonies appear. They walked away from the house. A home inspection might have caught it later. I caught it on the walkthrough.
At a Center Moriches sale, mold was discovered during the process. It was relatively contained and needed cosmetic work, so the parties agreed to a price reduction of about five thousand dollars instead of walking away.
At 30 Columbine Lane in Kings Park, mold turned up during the bed-bug work. The general contractor was pulling wallpaper and wood paneling and sent me a photo of what he found in the first-floor bathroom shower: mold in the top corner, hidden behind the wallpaper. There was also mold under a leaking refrigerator, where soaked wood boards had been wet for years. I told the seller it needed to be handled before listing. She left the fix to the general contractor. He cut out the sheetrock and replaced it, and removed the damaged subfloor and flooring and replaced those too. I did not direct the work.
Mold testing is available through home inspection companies. They set up a machine in the house, leave it for a set time, and send the samples to a lab. The buyer then decides whether to proceed, renegotiate, or walk.
The New York Property Condition Disclosure Statement asks whether the property has been tested for indoor mold. If the seller answers yes, the report gets attached. The seller fills out that form. I do not.
What I bring to this is construction experience from buying and flipping my own homes, including foreclosures and sheriff-auctioned properties. That is where I learned to spot mold and read what it means for a sale.