Hi! Need advice! I have a 35 yr old 2122sf split-level on clay soil on
the market for 120k, even though it's refurbished. We've had the
basement "finished" for many years, my dad put OSB board on the walls
basically when we bought it almost new in '76, and now we have new
carpet in there, it's a 450sf media room - I have not repainted it.
Someone viewing the home spotted a water stain on the painted OSB wall
where the boards meet and along a little bit of the baseboard. We had
a record-breaking torrential rain/flood here almost 2 months ago,
never a problem before now. My realtor is freaking out saying I need
to pay 8k to have the entire basement resealed fm the inside or else.
I am not thinking that is the way I want to go, as if I had the cash.
On the disclosure form I wrote "basement seems to have a water stain
on wall due to torrential rains of Spring 2009" which is true. In the
morning I'm sealing it and painting over it. I've no clue what I'm
doing, but I think I am going to bleach the mold (green and brown, not
black) put polyurathane on it, Kilz it then paint the entire room. No
home inspection has been done but an acquaintance who's an inspector
and a builder did look at it and told me it's a waterproofing thing
and that what I had on the disclosure form was fine and to go on and
fix it up without having it completely redone for 6k to 8k. A realtor
friend who owns a home construction business told me to do what I plan
and let someone else deal with it. What do you experts say I should
do? I can't afford this madness.

On Jun 18, 7:47*pm, Joy Ovington wrote:
Hi! Need advice! I have a 35 yr old 2122sf split-level on clay soil on
the market for 120k, even though it's refurbished. We've had the
basement "finished" for many years, my dad put OSB board on the walls
basically when we bought it almost new in '76, and now we have new
carpet in there, it's a 450sf media room - I have not repainted it.
Someone viewing the home spotted a water stain on the painted OSB wall
where the boards meet and along a little bit of the baseboard. We had
a record-breaking torrential rain/flood here almost 2 months ago,
never a problem before now. My realtor is freaking out saying I need
to pay 8k to have the entire basement resealed fm the inside or else.
I am not thinking that is the way I want to go, as if I had the cash.
On the disclosure form I wrote "basement seems to have a water stain
on wall due to torrential rains of Spring 2009" which is true. *In the
morning I'm sealing it and painting over it. *I've no clue what I'm
doing, but I think I am going to bleach the mold (green and brown, not
black) put polyurathane on it, Kilz it then paint the entire room. No
home inspection has been done but an acquaintance who's an inspector
and a builder did look at it and *told me it's a waterproofing thing
and that what I had on the disclosure form was fine and to go on and
fix it up without having it completely redone for 6k to 8k. A realtor
friend who owns a home construction business told me to do what I plan
and let someone else deal with it. What do you experts say I should
do? I can't afford this madness.

Do you have a dehumidifier down there, if not get one, basements are
damp and it should be lowered to around 60% humidity. Behind the
paneling is probably alot of mold, but you never thought of that and
know nothing [ or else you must disclose it and get in another mess].
Maybe some bleach is all you need. I would not worry if its a small
stain.

I would leave it as-is (don't even paint it) and disclose it on the form,
and just find a different buyer. Or even find a different realtor if you
have to. To me it doesn't make sense to spend any money at all to improve
something you want to sell in "as is" condition. Some buyers might be
really picky and others might not be so savvy to water issues and might not
even care about it much.

Joy Ovington wrote:
Hi! Need advice! I have a 35 yr old 2122sf split-level on clay soil on
the market for 120k, even though it's refurbished. We've had the
basement "finished" for many years, my dad put OSB board on the walls
basically when we bought it almost new in '76, and now we have new
carpet in there, it's a 450sf media room - I have not repainted it.
Someone viewing the home spotted a water stain on the painted OSB wall
where the boards meet and along a little bit of the baseboard. We had
a record-breaking torrential rain/flood here almost 2 months ago,
never a problem before now. My realtor is freaking out saying I need
to pay 8k to have the entire basement resealed fm the inside or else.
I am not thinking that is the way I want to go, as if I had the cash.
On the disclosure form I wrote "basement seems to have a water stain
on wall due to torrential rains of Spring 2009" which is true. In the
morning I'm sealing it and painting over it. I've no clue what I'm
doing, but I think I am going to bleach the mold (green and brown, not
black) put polyurathane on it, Kilz it then paint the entire room. No
home inspection has been done but an acquaintance who's an inspector
and a builder did look at it and told me it's a waterproofing thing
and that what I had on the disclosure form was fine and to go on and
fix it up without having it completely redone for 6k to 8k. A realtor
friend who owns a home construction business told me to do what I plan
and let someone else deal with it. What do you experts say I should
do? I can't afford this madness.

Your biggest problem is that your father used OSB, in those days it was
marketed at Aspenite. This, short of using particle board, is probably the
worst stuff you can use in a damp location such as a basement. It probably
has no vapor barrier nor insulation behind it - and - you don't want to know
much about it or you will have to disclose it. Paint it and let the owner
tear it all off if they want to renovate. Water stains can be caused by many
things and OSB will develop a water stain very easily, especially with a
clear finish. Paint it.

On Jun 19, 10:11*am, "EXT" wrote:
Joy Ovington wrote:
Hi! Need advice! I have a 35 yr old 2122sf split-level on clay soil on
the market for 120k, even though it's refurbished. We've had the
basement "finished" for many years, my dad put OSB board on the walls
basically when we bought it almost new in '76, and now we have new
carpet in there, it's a 450sf media room - I have not repainted it.
Someone viewing the home spotted a water stain on the painted OSB wall
where the boards meet and along a little bit of the baseboard. We had
a record-breaking torrential rain/flood here almost 2 months ago,
never a problem before now. My realtor is freaking out saying I need
to pay 8k to have the entire basement resealed fm the inside or else.
I am not thinking that is the way I want to go, as if I had the cash.
On the disclosure form I wrote "basement seems to have a water stain
on wall due to torrential rains of Spring 2009" which is true. *In the
morning I'm sealing it and painting over it. *I've no clue what I'm
doing, but I think I am going to bleach the mold (green and brown, not
black) put polyurathane on it, Kilz it then paint the entire room. No
home inspection has been done but an acquaintance who's an inspector
and a builder did look at it and *told me it's a waterproofing thing
and that what I had on the disclosure form was fine and to go on and
fix it up without having it completely redone for 6k to 8k. A realtor
friend who owns a home construction business told me to do what I plan
and let someone else deal with it. What do you experts say I should
do? I can't afford this madness.

Your biggest problem is that your father used OSB, in those days it was
marketed at Aspenite. This, short of using particle board, is probably the
worst stuff you can use in a damp location such as a basement. It probably
has no vapor barrier nor insulation behind it - and - you don't want to know
much about it or you will have to disclose it. Paint it and let the owner
tear it all off if they want to renovate. Water stains can be caused by many
things and OSB will develop a water stain very easily, especially with a
clear finish. Paint it.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thank you all for your kind advice! What I ended up doing, all things
considered (including that I am not selling the home "as is" at all
cuz I've renovated much of it - and the OSB was painted white), is
that first I poured bleach into any minute openings along the
baseboards and let that dry for a day with a fan on it. I also
scrubbed the slightly greenish mold stains till they were just water
spots. Then I used clear Liquid Nails Sealant in a tube fm Wal-Mart
and pushed it into the crack then smeared it with a putty knife about
2 feet up and 4 feet across. Then I got some WaterTite Waterproofing
paint from Zinsser tinted in the same color I was repainted the room
with (Shaker Beige, Ben Moore) and painted that spot 2X. Then I
painted the entire room after caulking it well with about 12 tubes.
The result is gorgeous, and there's no trace of anything whatsoever
where the stain was. Oh, and here's the kicker, my realtor refused to
accept that I wasn't hiring a specialist co. to redo the entire
basement (that would have cost me 6k-10k!), so she got her broker to
tell her they couldn't represent me. She was so rude about it, too, as
though she was personally offended – it was awful but I laid back and
let it roll out. When she went to my house to drop off my key and
remove her signs I'd asked her super-nicely to take care of, she left
the garage door completely open 4 inches for a day till I got there
and found out! I was livid but left well enough alone and moved on
since there'd been no theft. I then called the realtor I think I
should have gone with initially and he said the work done on that room
upped the value of the home a lot. I lightly touched upon the fact
that I have no idea what the waterproofing situation is in the
basement and he seemed non-concerned, saying the house would pass
inspection as far as he could tell. The thing is that I can always say
it was my mother's home and I don't know what she had done to it
(which is a truth even though I'm sure I know 95% of what she did due
to her records). I then cut some deals with some contractors and got a
lovely new roof with architectural shingles installed. Now if only we
could get folks to come view it. I had to get a very responsible
tenant wking here fm out of town to agree to stay M-Th and pay a few
hundred bucks to care-take the house and to cover utilities, saving
some for the upcoming insurance payment, etc. I won't lower the price
of the house and am content to let it sit till the right buyer comes
along...cuz at this point I'm making money on the house with the
tenant in it. I think there are some angels watching over the house.
Thanks again for your advice. I actually read it after I'd done all
this work on the house, and knowing I did ok after the fact makes me
feel I'm on the right track.

"Joy Ovington" wrote

Hi! Need advice! I have a 35 yr old 2122sf split-level on clay soil on
the market for 120k, even though it's refurbished. We've had the

The result is gorgeous, and there's no trace of anything whatsoever
where the stain was. Oh, and here's the kicker, my realtor refused to
accept that I wasn't hiring a specialist co. to redo the entire
basement (that would have cost me 6k-10k!), so she got her broker to
tell her they couldn't represent me. She was so rude about it, too, as

You are actually looking at the silver lining. You had a bad realtor. You
are much better off with a diiferent one.
I can smell that that one was in it only for the money, and was probably a
high pressure sort as well.

When you have a house with a known issue, it's ok to sell it 'as is' which
is what you are doing. Doesnt matter that you've done some renovations, it's
still 'as is'. That means, you are *not* fixing some known items (grin).
The way to handle that is to say 'I took the 8K off the price, so if you
want it fixed before buy, the price is 128,000.

Thats exactly how we handled things with the one we bought. Don and I are
handy. The realtor we used to find the house knew I'd grown up 'flipping
houses' as a kid for our income (Mom and us 3 kids). He kinda figured out I
wasnt joking when a walk outside the house of the foundations was step one
and many we never bothered to enter after that. One we waved off without
getting out of the car. He was a little confused as it looked lovely, then
I pointed out the roof. 'Pretty new shingles, wood under not replaced,
obvious sags, flashing done wrong around the fireplace so bad it was visible
from the street' etc.

After that, he grinned and took us to the one we bought. He said as far as
he knew, it was structurally sound but was a mix of lovely, strange, and
fixer upper.

So several known issues were discussed. We arranged for a professional to
come in and paint the ceilings (a nasty job we didnt want to hassle with)
and a gutter company to replace all gutters (plus 2 small pieces of wood
that was nominal along the gutter line and a few of the roof tiles). Total
cost of 2,000$ was *added* to the 81.5K house so we paid 83.5K The owner
didnt have the money to do these things and frankly, the house was worth
more than 81.5K 'as is' but he needed cash fast after a divorce so was
selling lightly under market value. We conversely didnt have the $ after
all the closing costs etc and knew it would be better to roll that with the
mortgage in our specific circumstances at the time.

It's a lovely home. It was then too. It's damage now is cosmetic after
renters and we are fixing the last of that. It's value is now 180K and even
in *this* market, realtors bug me as they want to sell it. Today it would
also go 'as is'. If it was something easy a person asked us to handle
first, we'd do it but if it was something big and difficult (we are older
now), the price would be contracted with them accepting which bid, then
added to the price of the house. See, the actual house is worth an eye
popping 215K but the area limits it to 180K. (It's neither good nor bad to
be the best house on the block or top type within the neighborhood, but I'm
the one who raises the value of the houses near me).

Thanks again for your advice. I actually read it after I'd done all
this work on the house, and knowing I did ok after the fact makes me
feel I'm on the right track.

You are. As long as you can make a profit just renting it, that's probably
for the best. If you do get another really bad rain, it'a actually not hard
to DIY the basement again.

Let us know if you want to know how. It would take too long for this post
but I'll add one more thing. If i were house hunting and that was the only
thing wrong? I might be mean enough (or cheap enough) to ask if you'd fix
it but if you said 'cant afford' I'd have looked close and either added 8K
to my offer then had it done, or just grinned and went 'fair enough' and
fixed it later myself.