Investing in or owning drug lab properties

[Just Information]

As a property owner, you are responsible for 100 percent of the clean up! Cleanups of labs are extremely resource-intensive and costly. The average cost of a cleanup is about $5,000. This is if you are lucky!

Clean Up (includes the insides and the outside of a building)

Air out the building

Removal of contaminated materials:
Carpets, carpet pads, Linoleum, drapes and blinds, air-filters, refrigerators, range, water heater, all tenant clothing and their furniture.

Removal needs to be to a site that accepts contaminated product.

All people that remove these items need to be specially trained and certified.

Surfaces: Extensive cleaning and replacement if the cooking occurred on those surfaces. After extensive wash down with bleach and other cleaners, seal walls and floors to seal in any contamination.

Ventilation systems: Furnaces and heaters will either need to be replaced or cleaned throughout all ductwork.

Plumbing: You might need to replace sinks, toilets and other accessible plumbing due to methamphetamine odors since meth residual was most likely deposited down the drains.

Repainting: Make sure the walls, ceilings and closets are cleaned, sealed and then painted.

Windows: Make sure they have been cleaned as well as the tracks. If the unit was especially heavily used, replace all of the windows. Doors in and outside need to be painted and door hardware needs to be washed down.

Exterior: Does the yard need to be cleaned up? Is there methamphetamine debris in the yard?

Most states required a certified industrial hygienist to approve of the clean up, and most states require a certificate of occupancy permit

Contact your state department of health for more information on this.

[eldorado]

Hell, You have to do all that with some regular tenants.
Especially if they snuck in an un-nuetered male cat.
It's amazing how filthy some people will live...

[Jeff Harris]

True Dat, Eldorado! My wife and I have been looking to buy a rental here in Kodiak and we are both amazed at how filthy some folks are. It's truely disgusting to get a wiff of God-knows-what inside these people's homes. It make me want to vomit at times. Cigarette smoke, pet odors, fried foods...the list goes on and on. If my house smelled like some of the places I've walked through in the past few weeks, I'd live in a tent outside...


-Jeff

[eldorado]

Oh how true.
I looked at a duplex here in town, There was a trail thru the kitchen? (I think).
The pantry was piled high to the ceiling with boxes.
This guy had 6 pizza boxes piled up next to the TV.

At my (soon to be apartments) This one tenant, who has been there for 5 years, has chained smoked and the brown tint has stained the "Maintaince free" Soffit where the air has landed outside his window.
When he leaves, EVERYTING is going to have to be replaced.

Both of us smoke, but we clean the walls, shampoo the carpet, wash the drapes, a couple times a year at least...It's a matter of personal self respect and hygeine.

I cant believe the utter filth that some slobs will live in.

Hell, I might as well clean up a Meth lab.

[Jeff Harris]

Here's another one, Eldo:
My wife and I did a walk-through last month at a place where a woman (heavy smoker) lived with her nephew (he doesn't smoke). When we walked in, there were no cigarettes burning nor did she light up at any time while we were there. Upon walking into the house, my throat closed up on its own and I found it nearly impossible to breath. My first instinct was to bolt back outside but I made myself calm down and breathe. There were many many walls inside that had what I thought was yellow wallpaper(over panelling, no less). That is, until I moved a picture and discovered that the wallpaper was actually white. I mean, bright white! This woman smoked so much that the wallpaper had turned a dark yellow. (It's the 1315 Madson property, Dan...) She wanted $205K for the place and after leaving, Holly and I decided that we couldn't justify giving her anymore than, maybe, $160K for the place. We just felt that it was going to cost about thirty thousand to get the nasty yellow wallpaper and the smell out of the place. Even after we got home, we both noticed that we smelled like we'd spent the evening in a smokey bar. It was in our hair and on our clothes. We both went and took showers to get the smell off us. As far as I know, it's still on the market...

[eldorado]

But see....
A smoker might not notice the smell or care -and pay the 205K.
With the exception of a cleaning charge or the fact that it's wallpaper over Paneling. Ugch! (redecorating fee)
What smoker would want wallpaper anyway??
Damn stink sponge.!!
A little story.
I had my hacienda for sale in Mexico.
It was all tile and stucco interior.
There was even an interior waterfall in an atrium-to assist in air purification.
The ex-time share washouts- exiled to Mexico, who called themselves real-estate agents, walked in one day and said
"Oh it smells like smoke" (excuse for not selling the home)
Err...Ahh... Excuse me, but YOU were here last night at the party with over 100 people and you were smoking yourselves.
I heard NOBODY complain about the smell.
People stop by daily and nobody complains.
(My only design error-was that I didnt install a revolving door)
Smokers and Non-smokers.
In fact, nobody has ever complained-except them.(again..More excuses)
And...The maid is due here tomorrow.
Mind you, I had 14-20 ft. Ceilings and it was winter
I had two dogs and three cats
The windows were temporarly closed that day
(Yes it does get cold in the mexican desert)
But the house is also cleaned top to bottom regularly.
I myself, cant stand stale cigarette odor, even though I smoke, But I CLEAN the house more regularly than a non-smoker...
You do so is you have any self respect and hygiene principals..
Point is..It might not matter to other people.
Everyones standards are different..
And..suprisingly, there are a lot of people out there that didnt buy into the AMA falsified propaganda reports about second hand smoke.
Contrary to media surveys, a lot of people still smoke.
But if your house is on the market, You should have the foresight to take extra precautions to accomidate lifestyle's of potential customers.
When selling a house that you have to live in until the sale..
1)You DO NOT let the walls go brown.
2)And you especially do not put wallpaper over paneling.-Dumbass
3)You clean and maintain the house more than you would normally do -to be preparred for a unexpected walk-thru.(no dishes/clothes left out-Etc.)
4) Remove personal photos and arrange/remove the furniture to accomidate a walk thru and make the rooms look bigger.
5) Decorate to look like home and gardens-live tidy-I do anyway
6) Dont put it down, put it away!!
7) If you have to repaint/redecorate -use white (nobody will ever complain about white and it makes the rooms look clean/bigger) Leave them an open pallet for their decorating taste.
8) Remove yourself from the walkthru..
9) Wash all windows and tapestries
10) Clean, Clean, Clean
It's amazing how some people live.
The intelligence level of John Q. Public ceases to amaze me.
Bunch of.Honyoucks...Geeze..

P.S. I ended up selling the house privatly to a "Cal-i-for-nian" non-smoker and she never mentioned any odor and was happy to buy the place. We smoked while we were signing the deal on the dining room table.

[Jeff Harris]

Excellent points! And what a beautiful home!

Definitely not a drug lab...

Thanks for the story!

[Debbie]

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