What is the $$ Value of a Lead Free Rental?

[Julie Hassett]

Hi BP community! My partner and I just had a deal on a Baltimore (21213) row home fall through on appraised value.

Here's the quick and dirty:

We agreed on a $74K sales price for a recently rehabbed lead-free unit. (I'm the buyer.)

The contract had an appraised value clause of $68K or higher.

Appraisal came in at $60K.

Even though our CoC return would still be somewhere around 15%, that left us with no exit strategy for the next 5 years and we walked from the deal.

My question is... the properties they used to comp were not lead free. Is there any "monetary value" to a lead free rental or no? Lead remediation is SO expensive (and ultimately valuable to a landlord) that I would think that would think it would bump up the appraised value.

My lender says no, but I wanted to hear if you guys have any interesting opinions on the subject.

Thank you!