Walls are sticky

[Bienes Raices]

My offer was just accepted on an REO. There is visible mold in one closet (photo below), but also the walls in some of the rooms seem to have a sticky feeling. I don't mean that there's actual goop or liquid on the walls, more that the walls have kind of a tacky feeling to the touch (kind of hard to explain without actually touching it). Does this usually mean that there is mold or wetness present throughout house? What causes sticky wall? If it matters, the AC was removed so it's warm in the house.

[Ralph S.]

Not sure they are related. More likely some kind of smoke or something they did in the rooms contributed to the sticky surface. As far as the picture, you need to find and stop the source of the water. What's on the other side of the wall? Bath or exterior? Then again, it could have come from a pair of tenants I once had. I called them The Piglets. Always had to stay on them to clean the place up. Finally had enough. They bailed on the fifth day of the 5 day I served, leaving the clothes. In their bedroom closet, they piled up a bunch of wet clothes, then piled more, dry clothes on top. Under the dry ones, the wet ones had "molded" themselves together and against the wall. It looked a lot like your picture after the clothes were bagged.