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I had a 5 on the house I recently sold. It was annoying but I gave the $1000 concession and let it go. It was a good thing. None of the other houses in the neighborhood have sold since even after dropping their prices below what I sold my house for. That was 6 months ago.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to respond. Fortunately the buyers accepted our counter and will deal with the radon themselves. I will stand on principle and not ask the seller of the home we are buying to mitigate unless it turns out the house was built on a uranium mine.
I can understand why most buyers are negotiating for mitigation given the general state of the market. But, given that both our transactions are happening in more of a sellers' market, there are bound to be less seller concessions. (I fully expect limited concessions from the seller of our house as well.)
I appreciate the quick replies. We will hear back today from our agent about how negotiations are going. I am not trying to be particularly difficult, I just feel like it doesn't make a lot of sense that the seller is liable for the mitigation of a gas that exists everywhere and has nothing to do with care and maintenance of the house. We are having a radon test done on the next house, but unless the number is unusually high, we will not ask the seller to mitigate and would probably choose to mitigate if and when we finish the basement.
I don't think we're being stingy with the buyer. We are paying for a new panel, some re-wiring, and significant plumbing upgrades. This radon thing just kinds of irritates me although it appears to be the accepted manner of dealing now. Perhaps we will offer to split the cost if the buyer says no to our current offer.
You may be cavalier about it, but did you know that radon is one of the leading causes of lung cancer? Why in the hell would anyone want to buy a house that have a better than average chance of giving them cancer, if it could be avoided? If I were your buyer, I'd be walking right now -- I paid a premium for your house, more than you asked, for God's sake, and now you are balking on radon? If I were buying a house with known mold, I'd have discounted the price to accommodate the necessary mold remediation. If I were buying a house with asbestos, you better believe it's not going to get top dollar. Why is radon any different?
Radon is NOT 'everywhere' -- many, many houses don't have the problem. A family whose home has radon levels of 4 pCi/l is exposed to approximately 35 times as much radiation as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would allow if that family was standing next to the fence of a radioactive waste site.
At this point, the radon is a known entity -- you will have to disclose it to any future buyer, and you can better believe that they will take that into account when they make their offer. I know it's irritating, and it's one more expense -- but don't lose sight of the forest for the trees: You have a sale, and a new home you are looking forward to. Don't screw it up by being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Keep in mind that the lower limit for a radon test is somewhat arbitrarily set. You are not magically safe on one side of the limit and magically doomed on the other.
I know the original post is 4+ years old but it's so ridiculous I feel like I have to respond to it . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by anne3616
We have agreed to fix the plumbing and electrical issues as we think that is only fair that we pass on the house with basic systems in good standing. However the buyer wants us to also pay for radon mitigation. The test was done in our unfinished basement (which is too low to be used as livable space) and the test came back at 4.1.
How is fixing plumbing and electrical items more important than mitigating a potentially deadly gas? Personally, I'd rather have a toilet that won't stop running or a light that won't turn on than lung cancer.
Also, how do you know that other parts of your house will not test just as high or even higher? Did you test every room? The radon is not just going to sit in one room of your house and not bother anyone. It's lighter than air and travels up. So, it's entering the rest of your house. Plus, it's really not your decision to make about what's safe and what's not. The EPA has drawn a line in the sand for us to use and you're on the wrong side of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anne3616
The house sold in 3 days for just a little over our list price and we have a very interested backup buyer who would pay the same purchase price. I would be inclined to be stubborn over not paying for radon except the house we are trying to buy also has a backup offer. I don't want to mess up the whole deal over a thousand dollars but I also feel like the livable areas of our home would not require mitigation. As a side note, I find it kind of weird that radon is a part of a real estate transaction at all.
I've never EVER seen a buyer not ask for a mitigation system (or at least money to install one) when a house tests high for radon. Real estate is local but in my area refusing to mitigate would never fly and you would have burned this deal over $900. Then you would have moved on to the next offer and burned that one when you refused to mitigate. In this area, it's commonly believed that mitigation is the responsibility of the seller just as it would be their responsibility to repair other defects that affect the safety and function of the property.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattew2014
Does anybody has a Radon system that stop working all the sudden.
Yup. As our friend from Denver said, it's probably just the fan went bad. The fans are running constantly so every so many years they burn out and need to be replaced. Call a mitigation company to do it. The repair shouldn't be a very expensive at all.
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