The Mortgage Guru

Q: We recently bought a house (after viewing it on a dark winter day) and were dismayed upon moving in to discover that the previous owners had left the walls permeated with cigarette smoke. We peeled off the wallpaper, but the smoke had crept in at the seams. After five coats of paint, the stains still show. And the fleas they left behind infected our cat. How can others avoid this sorry fate? — D.C., Lynnwood

A: Never buy a home without first having it inspected by a professional building inspector. You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you? A good building inspection costs about $350 to $450. I know that home buyers are often strapped for cash, especially if it is your first home, but paying for a home inspection is like paying for car insurance — nobody likes writing the check, but when an accident happens, you’re sure glad you have it. There is a state law that requires you to buy auto insurance when you buy a car, but unfortunately, no one forces you to hire a building inspector when you buy a home.

Most home buyers don’t realize they’ve made a mistake until it’s too late. A building inspector might have missed the fleas, but he certainly wouldn’t have missed the smoke-damaged paint. If you had made your purchase offer contingent upon your review and approval of a building inspection report, you would have had an opportunity to negotiate a solution to the smoke damage BEFORE closing on the transaction. Now, you’re stuck with the mess, inconvenience and expense of repainting the entire house.

Another point illustrated by your story is that you should always view a home more than once — especially in bright daylight — before finalizing a purchase agreement. It’s also a good idea to do a “walk-through” inspection of the house a day or two before the final closing date to make sure that it’s still in the condition that it was in when you made the purchase offer.

Incidentally, your letter is a perfect example of why many landlords like myself rent to non-smokers only. We’re not trying to make life miserable for smokers, we just don’t want the hassle and expense of cleaning up the smell and grime they leave behind. Painting contractors say that the only way to get rid of smoke stains on your wall is to cover them with a commercial stain-blocking product such as “KILZ.” As you said in your letter, no matter how many coats of paint you use, the stains will keep coming through until you use a stain blocker to hide them. When they paint a house that has been occupied by a heavy smoker, painting contractors will often “bag off” the entire house with plastic over the floors and windows and then spray the walls and ceiling with the stain block. This seals in the smell of the smoke, as well as the stains.

If you’re dealing with a small area, such as smoke lines left between wallpaper seams, you can buy small aerosol cans of stain block at paint stores or home improvement centers. Spray the stain block over the smoke stains, let it dry, then paint over it. That should solve your smoke problem.

As for the fleas, I’ve learned the hard way that any time a pet has been on the premises you should have the house professionally fumigated before you move in — no matter how clean the place looks. Fleas are very tiny and you usually don’t notice them until they are gnawing on your pet, or you.