May I quote you? "Heck no!"

She needs to let this one go.

Can someone give more info on black mould and why it's so bad?

Does it only occur in houses that are not insulated?

Some info on black mold - HERE.

" Its not pretty. Most rooms have obvious mold/mildew both near the
floor, and on the ceiling, in one room it even seems to be a fuzzy
growth sticking out about 1/4 in from the ceiling. The unfinished
basement has a small amount of standing water, even though it hasn't
rained in a couple of weeks."

That's not fixable ... except with gasoline and a match.

Tete_a_tete ... Any mold growth indicates unfixed moisture issues. Any mold will produce spores that people may be allergic to and will be damaging the wood and drywall integrity.

The TRULY NASTY "black mold", Stachybotrys, that actually releases toxic chemicals requires a constantly wet environment. It's actually pretty rare compared to the more common ones.

As someone buying, I really want to see them all, so I understand her asking questions. You never know until you look and maybe the fixes aren't too bad. But as someone who has bought enough times, I know which things aren't worth fixing (huge foundation issues (like the dining room is falling off the house, and the house is on a hill), water problems, etc.). Sounds like she's new at this!

I wouldn't say she is new at it. Since she owns a house in Florida that she lived in for a while, and was unable to sell when she moved to Virginia, which has been rented out (mostly) since then. She also owns a house elsewhere in Roanoke, VA, where she lived for a few years, that is leased out and supposedly the people leasing it will buy it as of October. She is now renting a place on a nearby farm that she mostly likes except the roof leaks and the owners handyman apparently isn't very handy, and hasn't been able to fix it.

I would say that she it seems she is not very good at it. Things that I would expect anyone who has bought or sold or owned a house seem like a complete surprise to her. I'm not even sure she has talked to a mortgage lender to obtain a pre-approval, and I'm not sure she should be looking at anything until the Roakoke house is actually settled for certain.

Just yesterday she asked me to was look at two other places with her. One of which was literally a block over from the mold house, which went on the market the day we were in the mold house. It is listed for a little more ($150K vs $135K for mold house), and is a little smaller, but it is cute, has a large flat yard, and it well built, with reasonably good mechanicals, and recently uncovered and refinished wood floors throughout.

The second place last night is less money, but is further out of town, smells of cat-urine and seemed to be originally built without a bathroom, (the only one is in a poorly built addition on the back of the house) and the listing notes something about being "... in the leaking underground storage tank buffer zone"

While we were driving (in three separate cars) to the second place I was thinking we shouldn't be wasting time driving there. That she and the agent should instead be writing up an offer on the cute house, because given the location, condition and price it would sell very quickly. When we got to the second house, the agent said she checked the MLS for the cute house again, and it was already listed as being under contract. Apparently the offer came in on Sunday, was accepted on Monday but the change wasn't reflected in the MLS until Tuesday.

After hearing that news, and deciding against the "leaking storage tank" place, she was back to considering the "mold house" wondering whether she could convince the bank that owns it to accept $70K instead of the $135K asking price, and then pay to have it knocked down and pay to have a new, small modular home built there. My magic eight ball says "signs point to No"

I doubt whether she can be decisive and determined enough to find and buy something that is reasonable and livable.