Chinese Drywall Is It Everywhere Like Buyers Fear?

I was showing several houses last week to two different customers. In both cases, the houses were short sales. As with many short sales they shared several characteristics - abandoned, no electricity, missing some appliances and a distinctive odor hit you when you walked through the front door. Both clients had the same reaction, "That must be Chinese drywall".

First client did smell something. It was not defective drywall, it was mildew. Second house, same reaction from customer. Again, also not defective drywall. A barbeque grill was left in the laundry room. Smell was burnt charcoal. Two things happened on both of these houses that worry me. The first was that buyers think everything that looks or smells "different" is Chinese drywall.

On other showings, customers are pulling screwdrivers out to check under wall outlets for black ground wires. Others look at the disintegrating metal shower and bath fixtures, also a sign of possible defective drywall. The problem, these people are pulling information from the internet or "hearsay" from friends. The things they are looking at are possible signs of defective drywall, but they are also the sign of other things. I live in a county where many homes are on wells because the city water lines are not in their neighborhoods. I am not talking one or two but thousands of homes are on well water. In Florida, sulfur content is very high in the well water in many areas. My home for example is on well water but I am not in any danger of defective drywall. But, I have disintegrating water fixtures, some tarnished ground wires and a distinctive "bad egg" smell if I fall behind on tending to my well and softening equipment.

If you check back on my other blogs, you will see I have spent a lot of time researching defective drywall. It has almost become an obsession. Did you know there are over 100 wrong ways to remediate defective drywall? Did you know that solutions run the entire gamut of just seal the walls to knock the house down, replace all the drywall to replace anything with a porous nature, like wood, furniture and clothes. There are some developers trying to help but that will stop when their insurance stops. Other builders and developers say it is past warranty and it is now the homeowners problems. Homeowner's insurance, forget about it.

Over 26 states are affected and we need to work together on this. I will be posting some of my research later. Inspectors and Realtors, comment on what is happening in your area to standardize or remove this detriment.

Mike Cathell, Florida Future Realty, Inc. Cell: (239) 770-6250

Email: MikeCathell@FloridaFutureAgents.com