51: New Homes - The danger of emotional decision making

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everyone. How's it going? So I get a lot of DMS on Instagram all the time, and a lot of them are very, like, long, drawn out explanations of what's going on. And a lot of times I can't look at them. Right. It's just. It's too much to. To be able to go through and really be able to look at them and then to be able to have a really definitive opinion on something when I haven't seen the property. Right. So it's difficult. And so, you know, sometimes I don't respond to them. I don't want you guys to think that I'm, you know, like, ignoring you. It's just, you know, I don't know how much I can offer in certain situations if I don't really know what's happening. But a couple days ago, I got one that came in, and there was a lot of. A lot of detail and explanation in this.

And honestly, normally I don't read them when they're this long because, I mean, it's a lot, right? There's a lot going on here. But for some reason, I decided to read this one, and there are some things going on here. I just want to talk about this in general with everyone. Okay. Because it's about buying a new house. And so I didn't buy the house that I'm in now. I rented it. But it was a very competitive market that there was. I told the whole story in previous episodes, but basically it felt like we were trying to buy the house because I was trying to go through and, like, do an inspection while it was getting toured. There's no really contingency period, so I really had to feel good about it, you know, just off of my gut from looking through stuff. And I feel like a lot of people are in that same boat and maybe just don't have the tools that I, you know, and the experience that I have. And because of that, you don't feel as confident, and it just kind of brings up more questions. And then you start getting. Getting in this kind of perpetual cycle where you're just like, I really like the house. And the neighborhood's great, and X, Y and Z of all the good things. But then you're like, well, it smells kind of weird and it's on a slope and there's this and there's that and like, what are you prioritizing? Are those things really a problem? Are they not really a problem? You know, your general inspector is really not going to understand that stuff anyway. So it's just this. It's just this cycle, and then you could kind of drive yourself nuts, right? And so that is really what this very long.

Message that I got is about. I'm going to summarize a couple things for you. I'm going to try to put them out there in a way where you could kind of category or put them in the two different, like the pros and cons, right? The pros are all the things we like about the house. Which, by the way, when you're doing a pro list for houses like this, it's never like structural stuff and safety stuff, right? It's always where the house is. It's beautiful. The neighborhood's great. There's trees everywhere. That's always the pros, right? So before we even get into this, just if you're. If you're listening to me, right, or you're messaging me, then you probably have a pretty significant mole concern, right? So I think we need to flip the priorities of what we're looking at. It's. It's not about the neighborhood, and it's not about the pretty trees, and it's not about all these other things. It's about the house, and is it going to be healthy? And when you're sleeping in there, are you going to wake up feeling more sick the next day? And then are you going to be stuck there because you put it down, you know, down deposit down, and you're invested a lot, right? And I know that the neighborhood and all that stuff is really important, right? There's definitely quality of life for just, you know, enjoying your situation, but there's also quality life of health, right? And I think. I think that we need to really ask ourselves, what is the most important one, right? Is it more important to be in an area, in a neighborhood that we want to be in, but to be basically sick for the next 20 years? Or is it more important to find a place that might not be exactly where we want it, but we're able to manage everything in the house and we're actually able to start feeling better, right? And I know it sucks that sometimes we might have to make that decision. But I think we need to think of it because when you're buying a house is such an emotional process, right? So you're looking, you're looking, you're looking. You're putting in offers, you're putting in offers. You know, one of them finally comes in and you get super pumped that. That you're being considered right now. It's like, I want this house. And I know how it was on us just when we were trying to rent this place that we are in, and there was nine offers in the same weekend, there was offers on a rental property, right? Like, people were offering more money. They were offering, like, sports tickets because there was professional sports teams, players that were trying to get into the house in the area that we live. It was just nuts. And that's what the housing market is like right now, too. Like, I have, you know, someone that I know is looking to buy a house right now, and, you know, they find a great place, they put an offer in, there's multiple offers. Within 24 hours, the price gets jacked up, you know, you know, 10% over what ask was, and boom, now they're out, right? And so now there's another place, and they're trying to go in. And that's kind of what's going on here. So this one is in Washington. It's just outside of Seattle in one of the suburbs. That's kind of how they described it here, right? The. The market's super hot, right? And so that's kind of what they're dealing with. And at the end of this message, I kind of get the feel that, like, yeah, we've been. We've been going through this for a while. We really like this place. But, you know, but here's a quote. Now I feel like there's so much pressure not to miss anything. This is my health, and it's huge. So end quote. So, like, you get that, right? You get that the health part is the important part, right? So I'm just going to pull a couple little things out of this message and then we can start thinking through it, right? First, so we went pending on a house. My mind was spinning because I have all my health issues, and what do I need to think about? The house smelled a little musty at first when we went in, and then also when we went back. Okay? This is first major, major, major problem if you are smelling musty odors. There is mold growing right now, okay? So if you're concerned and listen, I'm not going to tell you 100% of the time, right? Because I guess your description of what a musty odor is could be different than what mine is. But most people describe that mold smell, that moldy smell as a musty odor. Okay? So if you're smelling a musty odor in a house, you immediately know that there are mold problems in there. And think about it, like, if you're smelling it throughout the house, you know, you're probably not right next to the sources, right? Sources are hidden. They're in walls, they're in ceilings. Maybe it's your air conditioning system, but like, you're not right next to it. And if as you walk through the house, the smell is basically permeated the house, it's like filled the house with the smell, then that means it's like a big problem, right? That there's a lot going. It's not just one little thing. It's not just something under a sink that's putting a musty odor through the entire house, right? There's got to be multiple things that are going on that are causing that. So. So first red flag on this. You're smelling a musty odor not once, but twice when you went back. And it says it's not super strong, but it's definitely there. You know, if it's there, it's there. Right? And the thing about the musty odors is that again, it's when mold is growing, right? So mold can go in and out of growth phases, all based on moisture. So this house is in Seattle, right? So if it rains and the humidity peaks and there isn't proper dehumidification control happening in the house and the humidity in the house gets up to 55, 60%, it could trigger some of those molds to start growing again. So you might have times where it's more of a strong odor and times where it's less of a strong odor, but it's still there. If it's there, it's a problem. So, you know, this is the first really big red flag on that, right? And then here's the next, the next thing. So our realtor also smelled it, but encouraged a mold follow up if and when the general inspector finds something. So I did a whole episode on.

General home inspectors not being mold inspectors. I guarantee you, I don't want to guarantee. I feel very, very confident that your general home inspector is not going to call out any kind of mold problems. And if they do, it might be like one super obvious thing, but they're not going to see a bunch of the other hidden things, right? So waiting for a general inspector to then say, oh, yep, there's a problem here. It's not. They're going to miss it, right? They miss it all the time. So you can't rely on that. Okay. If you're waiting for that to happen, they're just going to miss a bunch of stuff, and then it's. And then you're just going to move in thinking there's no problem. And this is actually your next statement. So it's. My fear is that he's going to find old damage and everyone is going to think it's no big deal. Right? So you're getting this, right? You get this. So you get the smells an issue. You get that you can't rely on the general inspector. Right? So you're definitely like, you're definitely taking all this in. And then. So here's the next statement. We love the house, but. And then here we go. It has all of your things that you don't like a crawl space. It was built in the 70s. There's tons of wallpaper in bathrooms. There's tons and tons of wood paneling. It sits on a hill, and the slope of the hill comes directly down into the house.

Start adding all this stuff up, right? You got an older house. We talked about old houses. They have a history. The longer that a house has been around, the more little leaks that have happened, the more things can occur. So you have an older house, so that's going to go on the con side. You have a crawl space, goes on the con side. You have musty odors, goes on the con side, Right? There's a bunch of wallpaper and wood paneling. I'm not a big fan, right. But I don't think that that's a deal breaker necessarily. But the problem with. With paneling and wallpapers that it covers up the walls, so there could be stuff behind the walls. If you're smelling these big musty odors, there's a possibility when you take the paneling off or you take the wallpaper off, there could be mold back there. Right. We don't know, but. So it's definitely not a pro. I'll put it that way. Let's just put it neutral, right? So we got a lot of cons on this list right now. But the one thing that's in the pro is we love the house, right? So you see where we're going here. The pros are always the emotional stuff. The cons are the actual things that are the problems in the house. And so you have to weigh your emotion versus your logic, thinking of whether or not a place is a good fit for you. Right.

So a couple more things as we go through this.

The general inspection is happening on Wednesday. What are my options in my area at this point? Well, I'm not sure what you mean by options, but let's think. So if you're in the process, you know, with, you know, the escrow process, right. That means that you have a contingency period, okay. In your contingency period, you could get out of it for any reason at all. You could just wake up one day and be like, ah, I don't like, I don't like the color of that door. I'm out of this house. And it's fine. You can do it. Okay? And you'll get your deposit back. And that's how the contracts are written. So if you're asking what your options are, meaning that you basically put an offer on the house, and then you started thinking through all this stuff and you started putting the pro con list together and you said, pros, I love the house cons. There's a whole bunch of problems in the house that might make me sick, and you decide that you don't want to move forward with it. If you're in your contingency period, you still have an out. So if that's what you're asking about, what your options are, then you still have that. So next is, my realtor knows and understands all my health issues. But I think we're trying to navigate this the right way. But I need some sort of testing or inspection or a mold specialist like you to feel comfortable enough to move forward. I get that. And if that's what you're talking about, what are my options, I totally, totally get that. Okay. And it's really hard because you don't really know what to look for. And it's a difficult process. I'm working on a program right now that's going to teach you what to look for and actually map out the entire process that I do when I go through a house.

We're looking to have it done in October, so it's not a long wait. Right. I know that you're probably looking for a place right now. And, you know, every. Every day and every week that goes by is probably a day in a week that you want to be in your new place. Here's what I. If I didn't have this program going for, like, about to come out, you know, I might have a different answer for you. But here is what I would tell you I would wait for this program to go out. I'm not going to release the name out yet, but I would wait for this program to come out. So come out in October. It's literally going to show you exactly how I go through a house. Everything I look for every room that you have in your home, where to look for it and what it looks like. Okay? And with this, you're going to. There's video tutorials, there's blueprints of rooms. It's literally like I'm just walking you through an entire inspection. Okay? With this, you're going to be able to go through any house that you're looking to buy, and you're going to be able to figure out how many of these potential problems are there, right? And that's really, really going to help you through this process, because without having someone that's really going to be able to do the deep dive that you need, it's going to be tough. And so then what you're kind of relegated do is is taking an ERMI sample and seeing what it looks like, right? And I'll tell you right now, from what you're describing, it's probably not going to look good. And then you're going to say, okay, well, you know, I have to move. The problem is most homes have something going on, right? You're not going to find the perfect home that doesn't need any work. And if you're not finding the perfect home that doesn't need any work, then typically you're going to have some sort of mold type that's going to spike. And in an ERMI test, and it's because there's some sort of issue going on. So the ermies are screening tests, right, to show what's going on.

And basically to let you know, is there something happening here that we need to investigate further. That's really why you look at those. And so that's why a lot of people use them as screening tests. And you could do that, right? And you could do it right now and you could take the sample and do it, and it's probably going to come back high. And then your next question is going to be like, okay, where's it coming from? And that's the tough part part, right? And that's the part that I'm working on putting together for you. So if you could wait, I would wait for it because it's really going to help you through this process. And you're so close to the timeline that I feel like it might Be worth, you know, worth a wait for a few weeks for it to come out and for you to be able to check it out. Because, you know, I say this a lot to myself. I say to my wife, when we're looking at maybe buying something and we really want it, like, right now, you know, and. And to the point where, like, we're willing to either two things. One, settle for something that we don't want just because we want it right now, or, like, wanting to pay more for something just to get it, like, a few days earlier, right? This used to happen with iPhones all the time, right? We were so pumped about getting iPhones. Like, when they were, you know, like, I don't know, five, six, seven years ago, I used to get super excited about Apple launch day, and I would, like, watch the whole keynote and be like, I want this phone right now. And they're like. I'm like, oh, they don't have the color that I want. Like. Like, maybe I wanted the black one, and they had the black one, but they had the gold one. And I was like, I mean, the golden's like, okay, I guess. But, man, if. If I order the black one, I have to wait another three weeks for it to show up. But if I get the gold one, it'll be here in, like, three days. All right, fine, I'll get the gold one, and then I get the gold one. And I'm like, I really wish I had the black one. Was three weeks really that big of a deal? I mean, I have this one for two years now, like, was really that big of a deal. I've definitely done that before. I've done it with cars, too. So a car that I. That I got two cars ago a while back. Now, I really liked everything about the car, but it didn't have the color that I wanted, but they had all the things inside. And I was like, well, I mean, I'm inside the car more than I'm outside the car. So, like, am I really going to notice it that much? And if I wanted to get the red color that I actually wanted it, it was gonna be, like, extra money, and it was gonna take, like, another two weeks. Or they had a white version of the car that was exactly everything that I wanted except for the paint color, and I could walk off the lot with it that day. And I was like, ugh, all right, I'll take the white car.

I've done this multiple times. I took the white car, and literally, for the next three years of the lease cycle, I was like, man, I really wish I had the red car. Man, I see the red car driving around, it looks so awesome. And my car's white and like every car is white. And why did I do this? And.

It'S something I think that we all do, right? When we're looking to buy a house. Again, everything I just described was a very emotional decision, right? I made an emotional decision on buying the car because I just really wanted it right then. I made an emotional call on getting the gold phone instead of the black one because I just really, really wanted it right then, right? You really want your house right now. So you make an emotional call and you get the house. Here's the difference between my two scenarios and the scenario about buying a house that might not be right, right? An iPhone, while it's not cheap, is definitely not as expensive as a house is, right? There's a time limit on an iPhone. It's a, you know, you swap them out every two years. At that point in time, it was a two year swap out, right? When you lease a car, which is what I did with that car, there was a three year time period, right? It could only, can only be so bad for a short period of time, right? You can only be unhappy for a short period of time, then you have the opportunity to change your mind and do something else. Additionally, those things weren't contributing to my health, right? Those things were just about me maybe not liking it as much. But the, the gold phone wasn't making me sick, where maybe the black phone would have not made me sick. Like that wasn't happening, right? The white car wasn't making me sick where the red car would have kept me healthy, that wasn't happening, right? A house is very, very different, right? You're buying a house, it's a lot of money, there's no contract expiration date where you can get out of the house after a couple of years and be good, right? And if you get the wrong one, you act. It could actually be like causing big problems for your health, right? So the reason I give you these examples is to say, listen, if you can wait through the end of October for this thing to be available so you have the tools that you need to actually go through a home and figure it out. I would wait. And I know that there's this emotional decision happening and you just really love this house or you love the area or you have to get out of where you currently are. It might not even be the house. It might be. Maybe you're living with your parents in the meantime, or you're renting a place or that you don't like or whatever it is, Right. There's always something, and you're just so, like, emotionally tied to this place. Try. Try to take a step back. Try to think through things. Try to think about the. The pro and con list that we talked about, how the pros are typically emotional and how the cons are typically logical. Right. And think through that stuff. And if you feel like that you can wait a little bit, then I would. I would wait a little bit. Right. So that'd be my recommendation for you. I will tell you right now, off of everything that you just described in this thing, this house is going to have problems. And it's. It's not like one or two small problems. There's. There's probably going to be multiple things going on here. Right? Just think about it. So you have the odor. We talked about the odor. Right. That's a big issue. It's a big red flag. You have a crawl space. Not only do you have a crawl space, we have a very big slope that you describe coming down a hill where water comes straight to your house. Where do you think the water goes? It goes in the crawl space, Right? That's where it's going to go. So in addition to having an odor, you have a crawl space that probably has a pretty significant mole problem down there. That would be my guess. And that actually could be the source of some of the odor, too. If it's permeating through the whole house, it actually could be coming maybe from the crawl space. What does it take to fix a crawl space? It's not super cheap. Right. When we're looking to buy a new house. And yes, there's always going to be something going on in a house. Right. The goal that I have when I'm doing, like a new home inspection with someone locally is we want to find a place where, if there are problems, they're localized into specific locations, they're not systemic that are impacting the whole house. Right. So what. What's something that's systemic? Crawl space is systemic, Right. Because your crawls under your whole house is coming up through the whole thing. Heating and air conditioning, systemic. It's your whole house. Right. If you've had a big flood that's taken up like a third of the house or something, that's something that's a big systemic problem. Right. What's. What's a localized problem? It's a leak under a sink. It's the water heater leaked. It's you know, something little, Right? Big problem. Roof issues, Right? That's a big problem. You have to replace an entire roof. It could be impacting multiple areas of the house, could be impacting the attic, right? So these are the types of things that we look for when we're looking for a new place. Understanding that something is going to come up, right? Unless you're buying brand new construction. And that's a conversation for another day. But new constructions can have their own issues. You know, sometimes there are, when they install the toilet, the toilet floods, right? So, like, nothing is perfect, but the younger the house, the less history for these things to happen. And if the things that have happened are more isolated and localized, then that's what we're targeting. And the remediation for that stuff will typically not be too expensive. And sometimes for those types of remediations, you can actually get credits from the buyer on those things because it's like they can see that is tied to a water issue. Right? But if you go through and you test the air conditioning system, the air conditioning system comes back and there's mycotoxins in it. And you tell the seller that they actually, you want a credit to replace your entire heating and air conditioning system. And maybe you have two of them or however many they're gonna tell you, go take a walk. They're like, are you kidding? Somebody else is gonna buy this place, they're not gonna care, right? So the other challenge is when there is a systemic problem in a new purchase that it's harder to get credits to fix it. So then you're buying a house in this market now at full price, probably, if not higher. Knowing that you then have to come in and spend a whole bunch of other money to fix all the problems that are in the house. Because you listed them out in the con list already, right? Don't do that to yourself. Don't do that to yourself. This isn't like buying the white car over the red car. This is a much bigger thing. Okay. So I hope that that was helpful. This was. This turned into an entire episode about explaining looking into a new house. But I think that it's important. You know, there's a lot of us that are looking for new places. And if we're not looking for it right now, we might be looking in the future. If right now we're in a place that we know is not a good fit for us, then maybe we do kind of want to look for a new place, but we're almost afraid to because we know that Everywhere has problems. And then the question is like, well, is it going to be any worse than I or any better than the place that I'm in now and why would I even look? And then you just stay where you are, you know? So it's worth looking. It's worth looking with the right guidance, the right tools, the right blueprint, all of that stuff. That stuff I'm going to give you guys. All right? I'm going to give it to you. I've been working on it for a very long time. I'm really excited to share it with you guys, and that's going to happen. Okay? So I hope that this was helpful in terms of how to think through the house process, the emotional part of it, the logical part of it, and trying to manage those rash decisions that we make and try to really think through what the most important piece of the new home is. Right? Because a lot of times the, you know, the folks in the Mole Finer community, if you're looking for a new home, you're looking for a reason, and typically it's because you're trying to get out of a mold situation, and then you're trying to get hopefully into a better situation where your body can heal a little better. So thanks so much for listening, everyone. We'll talk to you next time.

So that's it for today's show, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment and subscribe and give a rating wherever you get your podcasts. It'll help spread the word to those who really need it the most.