Any good Realtor knows what her responsibilities to her clients are: preparing the home for the market, setting up a strong Marketing Plan, reaching out to the Real Estate Community to promote the home even before it's on the market --- things like that. But, I'm talking about much more serious responsibilities, some of which could come back to bite you. When your clients find out there are problems in the home they have to address, should you get involved finding professionals to help? And, what if the clients say they'll "take care of it, don't worry?" How far do you push to know what they're planning? I know a Franklin Lakes Realtor who got sued because his clients were accused of hiding material defects. He didn't, but that didn't stop a court from ruling against him and his clients.
As I've written before, mold is a great example of a no-way-to-win scenario. The EPS booklet, "Mold, Moisture and Your Home" is a compendium of contradictory information that certainly looks to me like a recipe for disaster. It says mold usually isn't a problem indoors (isn't that where most people live?). It also tells you how to clean up the mold yourself, but if you talk to the "experts (i.e.: anyone with a truck), they'll tell you the mold will come back "if you don't have it removed professionally." Apparently, there isn't enough scientific evidence that mold makes otherwise healthy people sick for the government to regulate this industry. In the meantime, sellers are asking why they'd spend thousands of dollars remediating a problem that may not be a problem for most people. The answer? Anytime a buyer's inspectors use words like Radon, Mold and Asbestos, the liklihood is the buyer is going to demand something be done to fix it.
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