BACKSTORY. We bid on this house earlier in this year and were certain that we'd get it. There didn't seem to be much other interest. The house clearly needed a lot of work. There weren't really any "good" renovation surprises (like hardwood sleeping under carpeting). And, it didn't seem like folks were interested enough in putting the time and effort into restoring this diamond in the rough.
We were only about 1/2 of 1% apart in negotiations when the seller's agent told our agent that "the house is under contract" -- but not with us. We didn't even know about the other bidder! Oddly, the broker didn't even mention it as a way of getting us to up our bid.
In any case, the house was gone.
Cut to about a month later when we were still looking -- had already sold our house and were going to be homeless -- when my wife told me that 991EBL was back on the market. She found it. The seller's agent never came back to us to ask if we were still interested. We had to contact her!!
We did. We asked why the sale fell through. "Asbestos" is what my agent told us. We freaked out. Then we researched. Then we calmed down. Then we ran numbers.
Long story short, we bought for quite a bit less than our last offer. Fingers crossed -- a larger difference than it would take to "remediate" the problem.
ASIDE. If you have a home built in the 1950s or 1960s, you probably have asbestos in your home. This was one of the things that calmed us down. Since our price point suggested that all of our targets were going to be vintage 50s and 60s, if we didn't buy this pile of asbestos, we were just going to buy a different pile.
So, the basement tile (9"x9" vinyl tile) definitely contained asbestos as did the glue (what they call "mastic" or "cutback" in the biz). So, we knew were were paying for that. Here is that glorious space with most of the tile gone but the black mastic still awaiting "remediation"
This is the left half of the basement, after removing the plywood shelves seen below.
One day, this will be a glorious man cave, Laura's gym, and perhaps even an "in-law" suite. About 1600 sq ft of space, of which about 1400 is usable (i.e., not the stairs and not the mechanicals).
The pink, light blue, and yellow tiles in the bedrooms came back negative in an initial test. The mastic was <1%, which is non-regulated ACM (asbestos containing material). The report recommended further testing to determine with more accuracy what it contained, though. With respect to these, there is some uncertainty.
Earlier this week, I had those samples collected and sent for testing. Results should come back today. Hopefully, we'll also get negatives, so that our removal / demolition costs are low.
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