All Forum Posts by: Will Houston

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

You got stuck with it so now you need to do everything to fix it, much more than what is happening. It's not just the removal of the pieces, you need to clean the air. Many people are highly sensitive to mold and you could be looking at future lawsuits if you don't get a full clean bill from a reliable company and complete air testing, as well as fixing the moisture issue in full. My question is, how did your home inspector miss this? It smells and seems pretty obvious. The last thing you want an employee trying to do in a mold situation is trying to save you money by leaving some mold to paint over and not doing a thorough examination.

That’s my thinking too, I personally am sensitive to mold so I can understand it from a tenant’s point of view. 
How did the inspector miss it? So I went with an inspector that my agent referred to me. He gave it a clean bill of health. I looked back at the report and noticed they had a nice carefully worded “the scope of this inspection does not include mold”. This one is on me for being careless with my homework. Funny thing is I could have gone with an inspector that did a super thorough job with my first house but I thought I was being clever and tried to save a couple hundred bucks.

 Still though, agent didn’t say anything about mold, inspector didn’t, and the previous owners didn’t (and they straight up painted over a bunch of it). I was banking on the place just being a little musty from lack of airflow. 

I am currently getting some more estimates from mold companies. The most recent company came back in the 5-6k range which seems a little high. Estimates I get are all over the map so can’t say for certain. These companies are a dime a dozen. 


Thanks for the reply. I guess this is what landlording is all about. 

Quote from @Javier Santana:

Get a Mold Expert in there, with the best reviews. Take his advice and do as he says. Need to get that problem knocked out

Totally agree, although these companies are a dime a dozen and you never know who to trust. 

Hello reader, thanks for stopping by.

I bought an apartment I plan on renting out. It’s a studio. The previous owners didn’t disclose that they had a mold problem. It smelled a little musty when doing the walkthroughs with the agent but I didn’t think too much of it. As it turns out they painted over ALOT of it.  I have to deal with this so I can get it rented out. Now anytime I walk into the place I can definitely smell the mold and I just want it gone. 

Context: It started out in the closet that contains the air handler. Mold was visible in some spots, and painted over in others. Clearly there was a moisture problem at some time but it didn’t look like a present problem. I had a guy come and take a look at it, he did 4 hours worth of work and ended up removing some drywall, killing the mold with a spray, and scrubbing the air. He left some visible mold in the air handler closet and recommended that I paint over it with Kilz. He claims it is all dead. He claimed that he couldn’t get all the drywall out without taking out the air handler which would easily be another grand. He said he was trying to save me some money. However, isn’t that what I pay a mold remediation company for? To clean up the mold? I expected him to at least clean the drywall that he couldn’t take out. The guy seems honest enough, he said he would come back to fog the place again and remove the rest of the drywall once I get the AC company to come out and remove the air handler. He quoted me $950

…Few days later…


I didn’t want to wait for an AC company and I was naturally curious so I went in there myself with an N95 mask and some goggles and removed almost all of the drywall that he left in there. The other side of it was black as can be. I then did some very deep examination of the bathroom ceiling which is close to the air handler closet (they share a wall) and noticed some mold that was painted over in there. I took a small piece of drywall out and noticed it was partially black on the other side. So logically my mind is thinking “this mold guy  isn’t all that great at finding mold”.


Like I said the guy offered to come back but my trust has waned. I confronted him and asked him why he didn’t remove all that infected drywall inside the closet and he said that his company doesn’t deal with air conditioners and didn’t want to be liable for messing up the ductwork etc. What do you think about this guy? 

Any good recommendations for mold remediation companies near Tampa Florida? Or how about some solid principles for choosing companies/contractors to do jobs for you?  I want to do this right

Is it possible for one person to bid and win the HOA auction and someone else win the auction for the foreclosed mortgage? What happens in that case?

Hey all, foreclosure newbie here.

I am hoping I can leverage what cash I have to get a property with a preexisting mortgage that I can take over to rent out and be cash flow positive. I see a property here on my county website up for auction well within my price range. The information provided about the case hints that there is an HOA that initiated the foreclosure. I have some questions

1. Can I use any old title company to lookup any existing liens? I live in Florida and here this is something you shouldn't do solo

2. How fast can I get an audit of all outstanding liens for a property?

3. Will an audit of existing liens give some insight into the mortgage that may exist on a property?

4. What happens if I outbid the plaintiffs max bid and someone else also outbids the plaintiffs max bid?

5. How common is it for a property to have multiple liens against it?

Any insight appreciated

- Will from Greater Tampa, FL