by Mary Wozniak
Florida homes tainted by defective Chinese drywall are popping up on Realtor.com at bargain-basement prices. Although it is not required by law, many brokers have readily adopted a new drywall disclosure form developed by the Florida Association of Realtors® to use in sales transactions.
There currently are nine drywall properties listed for sale on the site - all of them fairly new and for under $50,000 - but there also are questions about whether the low prices are worth the hassle the real estate could bring in the future.
It reportedly costs about $100,000 to clean up a property contaminated by bad drywall, which leaves an offensive smell, corrodes metal components in the home, and causes respiratory problems and other health troubles for occupants. Remediation typically involves gutting the home and replacing the affected materials, but it is not yet known if that is the final solution.
"What if they say every porous material in the home, including concrete slab, absorbed enough stuff to consider it a health risk," poses Jeff Tumbarello, president of the Southwest Florida Real Estate Investors Association. "Then what? Then you're done. (Investing in a Chinese drywall home is) just a big wild card. Somebody is going to look brilliant, somebody is going to look stupid. We just don't know who they are yet."
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=221337
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The demographics of the typical first-time homebuyer are changing these days. More and more women today can afford to purchase a property on their own to build up valuable equity and are no longer waiting to find a life partner before they pursue the financial and lifestyle benefits of home ownership. One in four buyers these days is a single female, and new home marketing is actually starting to reflect that. We may be ready to jump into the commitment of home ownership but not all of us are willing to give up our valuable free time to outdoor chores. Single girls tend to look for homes that require little or no maintenance with an option to plant container gardens. Sound familiar girls?