Matt Kelly explains how to check apartments or rentals for mold before moving in. He recommends (1) testing historical dust (ERMI) by looking in rarely cleaned spots (back of fridge, fan blades, vents), (2) performing a careful visual inspection with a flashlight—checking ceilings, baseboards, caulking, under sinks for water damage—and (3) spending an hour or two in the space to see if you react. He also warns that recent cleaning can mask problems, that leases are hard to exit, and that some rentals offer short-term guarantees to back out if problems arise.
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Foreign. Sarah has a million dollar question here and I'm glad I'm finally recording this one because a lot of people ask it how best to check apartments before moving in. So the best thing you can do when you're in mold, you know, my step number one is always get to clean air. Clean air matters. Healing can happen in some people without a single supplement just by getting in clean air. But all this goes wrong when where you're moving isn't clean air. So whether you're buying, renting, wherever you're going, you need to make your best attempt at making sure it's not a moldy nightmare. So how do you do that? I have my clients doing ermi. Okay. It's not always easy to to find historical dust though. If it was cleaned a week ago or two weeks ago, there's not enough time for new dust to land and all those common easy to access places. And for potential hidden mold and walls under the floor behind the shower, wherever to send those spores out to get caught there as well. So what I recommend I tell people to look in weird places. Try to find old dust. That's what you want. On top of the fridge, at the back of the fridge, on top of fan blades, even going inside register vents. Weird places don't look where the cleaners clean. Look beyond where they looked. Okay. Sometimes you've got to really think outside the box and really examine the place to do that, because that's where the good data is. It's not wiping on top of the door frames that was just cleaned two weeks ago. Because what can happen is that ermi, if it doesn't get historical dust to give you a good idea, can come back clean. But three months from then, that ERMI can look a whole lot different and you're probably locked into a lease. Now. It's not foolproof, you can't guarantee it, but it's one of our best ways of determining what's in that space. Old dust is key number two is you have to do a real good visual inspection. It costs you nothing. Takes some time. Bring a flashlight. Nope, don't have one. Bring a flashlight. Look everywhere. Look at every single ceiling for water stains. Look around all the baseboards, especially in the bathroom for water stains. Look along the tub in the shower. Are there any cracks in the caulking there? Because if there is, whoever lived there before getting out wet, that water's going down. You want to see perfect caulking there. Shine. Put your light sideways and lay it on the like this. Lay it on the Bottom of under the sinks. Okay. And shove it to the side and let it shine across the whole bottom of the cabinet and look for ripples there. Okay. That's a sign that water is laid there. And if the water made it to the back and went down the seam could be all mold underneath the vanity could be mold all up the back. There's all these little tips and tricks you can do, but you've got to spend time. That's my third thing talking about spending time. I know this isn't always an option, but I've had clients that were able to spend an hour or two in that space that they were considering renting. And. Okay, I'm thinking of one specifically. She ermied it, it came back, looked really good. I mean, every house, every place has mold, but it looked good. It looked like a place that would be easily managed and be able to heal in. She stayed, went back there, stayed an hour or two and she reacted. You know, her body told her that this place was not safe. She was a canary in the coal mine. She was having those symptoms start to flare up. And it made it clear it doesn't matter what the ERMI says because it wasn't picking up all the problems due to cleaning. Likely. Right. So there was a problem. She was able to stay and find out it wasn't an option. So there's three ideas to do to take if you can get. I know it's not always possible, but some renters offer guarantees so many days that you can back out of your lease. Those all always have priority because if you need to get out, if you start reacting a day, in a week in whatever you have illegal out. It's really hard to get out of leases. And even if you take a ERMI to them, they won't accept it. They need an air test and they're going to hire their own guy and they're going to come back and say there's no problem. And even if there is a problem, they're not going to spend money on fixing it for you. So it's tricky. It's hard. Those are some tips. I hope that helps.
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