The home buyer must consider environmental issues when selecting a home. These issues include asbestos, lead, radon, mold and indoor air quality. They are more important to consider if the home you are thinking of buying is older, generally built before 1980, or if the buyer has young children or will have young children.

Insist on Complete Environmental Inspection Paragraphs

The home buyer should let the seller (and any realtor) know right away and certainly before you sign a contract, that you are both a serious buyer in terms of finances and are also serious about protecting your family from environmental issues. You don't want to find out a few years after your purchase that you must spend considerable money fixing an environmental problem and you don't want to find out after 10 or 20 years that you exposed your family to danger from unknown environmental issues. Let the seller know you will insist on specific and reasonable environment inspection paragraphs for which you are willing to pay but will insist on remediation if needed. Do not give in when the seller, an attorney or realtor says your inspection paragraphs are not "standard" as if standard boiler plate paragraphs are the best we can do. It is my opinion that "standard" inspection paragraphs do not protect the buyer. The buyer must also be willing to let the attorney do a good job. I have had clients that really didn't want me to do anything but rubber stamp a standard contract because they don't want anything to interfere with the sale or purchase of a home they had fallen in love with. To get a good contract with good inspection paragraphs you have to be willing to walk away from the purchase.

The home seller should also consider environmental issues before putting your home up for sale. Most contracts for purchase now include a certain number of inspection paragraphs. It is better for the home seller to have fixed problems that are likely to show up on inspections than to wait and have a potential buyer back out or submit their own repair costs.

The home is a special place for everyone. Put time and effort into this decision for the sake of yourself and your family.