Is It Safe To Buy a Home With a Higher Radon Level?

It’s no secret that becoming a homeowner comes with a lot of responsibilities. There are many factors to consider when purchasing a house, and you shouldn’t take this investment lightly. Understanding your home inspection and test results is the best way to avoid any surprises. You may think high radon results automatically mean you shouldn’t buy the house, but that’s not always the case. Discover whether it is safe to buy a home with a higher radon level.

Understanding Radon Gas

Radon is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that occurs naturally when uranium in soil and rocks decays. Although it may not seem like a big deal, radon gas is one of the leading causes of lung cancer in the United States. Because your human senses can’t detect it and the health symptoms aren’t immediate, radon is nearly impossible to identify within a home. As a result, radon testing is a common step in the inspection process when buying a house.

Fixing High Levels

Believe it or not, radon occurs in every single state; therefore, nobody should put off testing. Although you may want to steer clear of any home that comes back with a higher radon level, it’s not always necessary. Even though radon is a serious matter, it often calls for a simple solution: radon mitigation. Radon mitigation systems are great additions to any home—even homes with extremely high radon readings can drop to an acceptable level.

Asking for a Seller Credit

If your radon test comes back any higher than 4 pCi/L, you must take action before going through with the purchase. Fortunately, you can ask for a seller credit to take care of the issue at hand. For instance, you can ask the seller to reduce the overall asking price to accommodate the estimated radon mitigation costs. Many sellers may be stubborn about accepting this, but your agent can remind them that they will likely run into the same issue with other potential buyers.

Now that you know whether or not it’s safe to buy a home with a higher radon level, you can move through the home-buying process with ease. Radon gas is a serious matter, but hiring a radon mitigation company in Bailey, CO, might be the key to bringing your home’s radon gas level down to acceptable safety standards.