Dear Esther: We are thinking about selling our home. We don’t have a radon removal system in our house. Will this get in the way of selling?
Part of selling a home is allowing the buyer the opportunity to hire professionals to conduct inspections. Your buyer will almost always hire a radon testing company to test for radon if you do not have a system in place. Usually, this involves placing a test monitor box in the basement of the home, which reads radon levels hourly for 48 hours. The average reading for that time period is used to determine if your home is safe.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is not recognized unless you test for it. It is formed by natural radioactive decay of uranium in rock, soil and water. Once produced, it moves through the ground to the air above. It is considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer in our country. Breathing it does not cause any short-term effects such as shortness of breath, coughing or headaches, but the risks to long term exposure can be great.
The EPA has determined that a radon level of 4.0 or higher is unsafe. Therefore, if levels are higher than 4.0 when your home is tested, your buyer will usually request that you, as the seller, hire someone to install a radon mitigation system. The cost for this system is about $1,000 and includes installing a pipe from below the basement floor through the roof with a motor that moves gases up and out.
Radon testing is one of the many steps in selling your home. A good agent will help you through the ins and outs of all of the steps until a sold sign is up and you’re packing and moving on.
If you have real estate questions, feel free to contact Esther Prosser, Stoltzfus Realtors, at 484-269-7153 or esther@stoltzfus.com.
