asbestos - Posted by Marlene

Posted by Jimbob on November 21, 1998 at 10:08:34:

Marlene,

Asbestos is a very touchy subject for a lot of people who are looking to buy a house with good reason. The general rule in the construction industry is if you can at all help it, better not to tamper with it and leave it alone. If there are exposed areas of Asbestos, you should look at getting some kind of sealer that hardens and cover up all exposed areas so no particles can go floating into the air.

Once you seal up the exposed areas, you can use some sort of an acryllic sealer paint to piant over it so long as the areas are not exposed to any kind of heat that would make the paint blister or burn.

If you decide to have the Asbestos removed you will definitely need to hire a qualified contractor to remove and dispose of the materials properly. Do not attempt to do this yourself, there are many health hazards associated with this and you could incur big legal fines if you do not dispose of the materials properly. It is not very cheap to have it professionally removed, but it is cheap if consider the legal mess you could find yourself in.

As far as potential buyers of the property, that depends on the person who’s looking to buy. I’ve seen people who were deathly afraid of it, and I’ve seen others who didn’t really care as long as there was no chance of the fibres floating around in the air. You’ll pretty much have to make a judgement call on that one.

If you are going to sell the house with the Asbestos and your state requires you provide the buyers with a property disclosure form, don’t try to hide that fact that you knew about it. You’re better off disclosing it and let the buyers make the decision as to if they still want to buy or not.

I have not really notice much of a property value loss because of it but it all depends on how much you have and what the circumstances are. You may elec to lower the price by $2,000 below the market value but I wouldn’t say any more than that. You could even ask full price for the house and give the buyer a $2,000 credit to have it removed, that way you get a tax write off for the cost.

Hope this helps

Jimbob

asbestos - Posted by Marlene

Posted by Marlene on November 21, 1998 at 06:26:50:

My husband and I are in the process of getting an appraisal on our present house in order to obtain some money to purchase a rental unit.
Our problem is that our present house contains asbestos in the basement, which was put in with the old furnace. The old furnace was an oil, hot water, radiators with pipes furnace.
We took out all the radiators and pipes and put in wall furnace in the upstairs and downstairs. However, the asbestos in the basement is still present.
Our question is, will the presence of asbestos lower the appraised value of the home, and should we attempt to get rid of the asbestos? Most of the pipes are still in the orignial condition, although a few of the joints have white asbestos showing.