Radon Alarms Bells For a Home Purchase in Kildeer Illinois.
One of my agents has a client relocating to our area. A home was found
and the home inspection and Radon tests ordered. After the minimum 48
hours for the Radon tests the report was delivered. A quick scan of the
report had my agent's eyes popping out of her head. There were 2
readings one for a slab location and the other for a basement location.
The readings were 16 and 41 respectively.She called me up to see what the highest reading I had ever had. I have seen many readings around the 5 to 9 range but nothing like this. One might be forgiven for thinking the equipment was wrong but when you read the monitors results over the 2 days it fluctuates and the highest number we had was 58.
Suffice to say the buyer did his homework, spoke to Radon specialists and decided to cancel his contract. I was so surprised I wanted to do a little homework and whilst Radon can be mitigated I had decided if I were him I would have canceled as well. The risk of lung cancer increases at an alarming rate if your Radon levels are high. Example: If you have a reading of 20 then you have a 3.6% chance of getting lug cancer. If you smoke it's even higher.
The recommended levels are 0 to 1.9, safe is 2 to 3.9, and everything else should be considered as a health risk. So do yourself a favor, when buying a home, have a Radon test, it is not something to be lightly brushed away as insignificant.
Contact:
Corinne Guest
Barrington, IL Realtor®/ Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686
More information can be found at my Barrington IL Real Estate website. Research all the villages of Barrington, Deer Park, Inverness and Tower Lakes. Search all the Barrington Homes For Sale with no registration required. Sign up for new listings by email.
Providing buyers agent real estate services in the communities of the Barrington Villages, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove and Kildeer.
Corinne Guest
Barrington, IL Realtor®/ Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686
More information can be found at my Barrington IL Real Estate website. Research all the villages of Barrington, Deer Park, Inverness and Tower Lakes. Search all the Barrington Homes For Sale with no registration required. Sign up for new listings by email.
Providing buyers agent real estate services in the communities of the Barrington Villages, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove and Kildeer.
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Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - *Radon Alarms Bells For a Home Purchase in Kildeer Illinois.*
Corinne Guest
Realtor & Managing Broker
Royal Advocate Realty, Barrington
Call today 847-363-3686 for real estate and relocation service.
Suburban Real Estate - Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, Long Grove
Corinne, Great Post. 16 and 41 I would have cancelled as well.
We always recommend testing before marketing. If the test is high the seller will have to mitigate anyway, might as well not lose and interested party over a high result.
John,
Most sellers here still do not see it as a problem, so they do not test before listing-maybe it's time they did.
Corrine, great info for us, that seems extremely high, and frightening statistic/percentage for lung cancer!!!
Hi Corinne ~ We have pretty high levels in Iowa, but I don't think I've heard of anything quite that high up to now. Buyers are nervous about radon so it's really only natural the buyer would cancel when they're that high.
The seller still needs to sell his house though. I'd like to have a radon specialist weigh in on this to see how effective the current radon mitigation systems are at those levels.
Good girl writing a post on your birthday. Happy Birthday to you! I have a client who is very dear to me with a birthday today too. (Not that that's so amazing, I'm sure there are others with a birthday today too.:-)
Corinne,
It is unfortunate that deal was lost due to radon. Before cancelling the purchase contract the buyer should have consulted a qualified radon mitigation specialist. In my experience (as a radon measurement professional in Colorado) that, with very, very few exceptions, any house can be mitigated.
Radon measurements of 16 and 41 are not unusual around here. In some parts of Colorado Springs it is unusual to have a radon test come in below 20. I did a radon test at one house where the average radon concentration was over 120 pCi/L. Some of the hourly measurements were near 150 pCi/L (but we only concern ourselves with the average, not the peak measurements). That house was mitigated and the radon concentration after mitigation was well below 3 pCi/L.
I would like to clarify one thing you said - "The recommended levels are 0 to 1.9, safe is 2 to 3.9, and everything else should be considered as a health risk." EPA set their Radon Action Level at 4.0 pCi/L. That does not mean that anything below that is "safe". The fact is no level of radon is safe. Due to natural fluctuations of radon concentrations in a house a short-term measurement of 3.9 is essentially no different than 4.1. When the radon measurement is close to 4.0 you should consider doing a long-term test.
4.0 pCi/L is no magic number. EPA had to pick a number for their Action Level and they selected 4.0. I have seen real estate agents dance with joy when a radon test came back at 3.9 and I have seen others become dejected when the results were 4.1. Is there really any difference between 3.9 and 4.1? Not really. But one is below the EPA Action Level and the other is above the EPA Action Level. Consider this analogy - Two smokers smoke about two packs a day. Smoker A smokes 39 cigarettes a day. Smoker B smokes 41 cigarettes a day. Is there really any difference in the risk of lung cancer between Smoker A and Smoker B?