Quick Summary: Mold is one of the most feared and litigated issues in real estate, making mold sampling a valuable add-on service for home inspectors. This article explores why some choose to offer home inspection mold detection, what investments are involved, and how to limit liability. It also covers the insurance endorsements you need to protect yourself when performing ancillary services like mold testing.
A possible health risk and a costly issue to fix, mold deters many potential home buyers away from otherwise great finds. Others who buy only to find mold later frequently look for someone to blame, leaving you, the inspector, with a sizable target on your back. Mold testing may help inspectors like you diminish that target and make some extra cash.
Do home inspectors look for mold? Traditionally, a standard home inspection may note visible mold growth. But it stops short of dedicated mold testing for home environments.
In this article, we explore why home inspectors choose to offer mold sampling and provide recommendations for home inspectors considering adding the service.
Section Summary: Mold is a fungus that grows in areas with high moisture levels.
Mold is a fungus that thrives in damp, poorly ventilated areas like bathrooms, basements, crawlspaces, and attics.
Does mold need water to grow? Yes, mold needs moisture to reproduce.
It starts as microscopic spores that float through the air to proliferate and take hold of organic materials like drywall, wood, insulation, carpet, and grout. Next, mold spores land on a surface, absorb water, swell in size, and spread across that surface.
In homes, mold often appears as discolored patches of black, green, gray, or white and gives off a musty odor. But while some mold is visible to the naked eye, it often grows behind walls, under flooring, above ceiling tiles, and in other out-of-sight places—making it tricky to identify. Home inspections for mold attempt to detect mold in homes, though they, too, have limitations.
Section Summary: Standard home inspections do not typically include mold testing. But inspectors can offer it as a separate ancillary service for extra revenue.
Does a home inspector check for mold? Is a mold inspection part of a home inspection? Does a home inspection include mold? These are some of the most common questions buyers and sellers ask. The short answer: not usually.
A standard home inspection is a visual assessment of the property’s condition. While a home inspector mold observation may be noted in a report if mold is visibly present, a standalone home inspection does not include air sampling for mold, surface swabbing, or lab analysis.
Can a home inspector detect mold that isn’t visible? Only if they’ve been specifically trained and contracted to do so, and only with the right equipment.
The distinction matters both professionally and legally. When clients ask, “Do home inspectors test for mold?,” inspectors who offer the ancillary service can say yes and charge accordingly. Those who haven’t should clearly communicate that home inspections and mold assessments are two separate services, and recommend the client hire a certified mold assessor if they have concerns.
Considering adding home inspection mold detection to your services? Keep reading for tips on how to add mold sampling to your standard inspections. And see our guide on standalone ancillary inspection services for more information on how to offer mold testing on its own.
Section Summary: Home inspectors add mold sampling for two key reasons: to protect clients from mold-related health risks and to meet growing consumer demand for mold evaluation.
When asked why they offer mold sampling, the home inspectors we interviewed said that they began offering the service to protect clients, meet demand, and increase revenue.
Section Summary: Indoor mold growth can threaten air quality and trigger health reactions that alarm buyers and sellers alike.
Are mold spores everywhere? Yes, mold exists in and out of every home. They travel through the air, entering properties on residents’ clothing, on the backs of pets, and by blowing straight through windows and doors.
“There’s never been a mold air quality test that we’ve done that didn’t have any mold,” said Rob Hopkin of ProTec Inspection Services in an article for The Washington Post. “Every house, every environment has mold spores.”
While there isn’t a practical way to eradicate all mold, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages homeowners to reduce indoor mold growth. This is crucial to preserving indoor air quality and combatting potential adverse health effects.
How mold affects people is largely up for debate.
There’s sufficient evidence that mold can lead to allergic reactions and respiratory symptoms like coughing and wheezing. Lawyers, physicians, and those who claim to experience mold-related illness describe a wide variety of ailments, including headaches, poor memory, abdominal issues, and depression.
While extreme health claims often lack scientific support, mold’s potential side effects are enough to spook home buyers into asking how to test for mold toxicity. For home inspectors, understanding the typical mold spore count in home environments and potential for negative health outcomes is key to offering home inspections for mold.
Section Summary: Consumer demand for mold testing is rising. Inspectors who offer the service position themselves as a convenient one-stop shop.
With many clients fearing mold’s side effects, some inspectors try to steer clear of mold as much as possible. Others see mold’s prevalence and clients’ interest as an investment opportunity.
Brian Thomas, president of A-Z Tech Home Inspections, Inc. in Pennsylvania, began to offer mold home inspections in direct response to client demand.
“We were being told, ‘My kids are allergic, I’m allergic, so we need to know if there’s mold in this house,’” Thomas said. “Visuals are one thing, but if you don’t do a mold air quality test, you’re not really doing anything with mold.”
By adding mold home inspections to its list of services, A-Z Tech acts as a one-stop shop for its clients so that, as its slogan promises, “one call does it all.”
Section Summary: Consumer demand for mold testing is rising, and inspectors who offer the service can capture additional revenue.
In addition to providing a valuable service, mold home inspections can expand your business income.
“A lot of times, a mold evaluation isn’t related to the sale of the home,” explained Robb Graham, president of the Professional Mold Inspection Institute (PMII) in South Dakota. “If someone gets water damage or has moisture issues, they’re not necessarily selling their home. Offering mold sampling allows you to do a similar type of service but for a different revenue stream.”
According to Home Advisor, for an estimated $150 in equipment and lab costs per screening, inspectors made a national average of $648 per mold inspection in 2020—a strong return on their investment.
“I’ve had my mold assessor license for years now and I can tell you that it is definitely worth getting. It is an extra source of income, even when we hit the slowest times of the year for home inspections,” shared Paul Lee of Caliber Home Inspections, LLC in Florida on the Home Inspectors Helping Home Inspectors Facebook group.
“Great add-on and very lucrative,” echoed retired inspector Tom Bartholetti in the InterNACHI Inspector Group on Facebook. “Almost every home has some sort of conducive condition for mold growth and opportunity!”
Section Summary: Getting into mold testing requires investments in four key areas: education, licensing, mold testing equipment, and proper insurance coverage through a mold endorsement.
Section Summary: Proper mold training improves the quality of your mold assessments, differentiates your business, and helps you manage risk—even in states that don’t require it.
Home inspector mold testing practitioners should take a dedicated course focused on mold detection and evaluation. The knowledge you gain can differentiate your business, improve your mold sampling methods and mold analysis, and reduce your risk of claims.
“If you’re going to start offering mold testing, I recommend you get well educated on performing mold inspections and not just the basic air sampling,” said Istvan Zsako of SMART Home Check in New Mexico on the InterNACHI Facebook group. “From a homebuyer or REALTOR’s perspective, taking a random air sample to determine that there is a mold problem without identifying the source or affected materials can throw a wrench into a transaction. Offering information about what is really going on in a little bit about what is affected will help people better understand the situation and find a solution.”
Most states do not require mold assessors to have a license. But some do,like Florida, Louisiana, New York, Texas, and Washington D.C. Other states, like Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Virginia, set standards practitioners must follow. Be sure to check your state laws to see if your area requires licensure and how to obtain it.
Mold sampling courses are often available through industry associations and training schools.
Industry Associations:
Training Schools:
Choose the best one for you based on your state requirements, interests, and budget.
Section Summary: There are two primary mold sampling methods: surface sampling and air sampling. Understanding both helps you choose the right tools and provide more accurate mold assessments.
How do home inspectors test for mold? There are four main ways home inspectors can test for mold: surface sampling, +bulk surface sampling, settled air sampling, and HVAC air sampling for mold. What mold testing equipment for home inspectors you purchase depends on the type of mold sample testing you conduct.
The following table compares basic sampling methods. Sampling supplies and procedures vary by manufacturer. Please follow your equipments’ sampling guides.
When performed correctly and analyzed by accredited mold testing laboratories, both forms of testing are reliable. Mold testing laboratories with reputations in the home inspection industry include: PRO-LAB, PriorityLab, Moldlab, and EMSL. Newer to the space is Sporecyte, who offers AI-powered mold analysis.
After samples are submitted, clients often ask, “How long do mold test results take?”
If you don’t need to send a mold sample to a lab, you may have answers in as little as 48 hours. If you do need to send a sample in for analysis, turnaround times vary by lab, but most provide results within a week. Some offer expedited turnaround in about two days at an additional cost.
Mold testing kits cost between $10 to $50 per sample with lab fees. Keep in mind you’ll need to do at least one control sample, then three to five indoor samples from suspect areas at each inspection. That’s how you get to the $150 per screening in Home Advisor’s estimate mentioned earlier.
Professional mold sampling pumps cost between $300 and $800. Higher end models have additional features, like lifetime calibration. If you’re just starting mold home inspections or you don’t perform them regularly, you may consider renting a mold sampling pump for a daily or monthly fee.
Section Summary: A mold endorsement adds critical coverage to your home inspection insurance policy, protecting you from the significant liability that can come with mold sampling.
An endorsement is a form that either modifies or adds coverage to your insurance policy.
Most home inspection insurance policies exclude additional services like mold sampling. This means the insurance company will not cover those additional services without an endorsement. So if you perform mold home inspections and want defense and indemnity for related claims, you’ll need to modify your existing policy with an insurance endorsement.
Securing mold inspection insurance through an endorsement is one of the most important risk management steps you can take.
For a mold endorsement, insurers typically charge a flat annual fee of around $150. (That’s the same average cost for one property’s mold sampling.) However, some insurance policies offered by other providers may give you mold coverage without an endorsement but with a sublimit.
Sublimits cap certain risks defined in your insurance policy, like additional services. In turn, they give you less coverage.
For example, say a home inspector purchases $1,000,000 / $1,000,000 in coverage with a $100,000 sublimit. That inspector receives only $100,000 per claim and per policy period for mold-related issues. This is particularly problematic in states like Florida, which require mold assessors to have at least a million in coverage.
Sublimits can potentially put your business out of compliance with licensing requirements. So, when choosing your mold inspection insurance coverage, be sure to take sublimits into account.
Section Summary: Mold claims are among the most frequent and expensive claims home inspectors face. But a combination of insurance coverage, proper communication, and documented advisements can significantly reduce your exposure.
Mold claims are common and costly, inspiring the adage “mold is gold” to become commonplace in the insurance industry. According to the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), the number of mold claims, including those against home inspectors, increased by more than 1,000 percent in some areas in 2004. Mold claims continue to be one of the most frequent claims we receive, and that doesn’t look to be changing.
Carrying mold inspection insurance through a mold endorsement is one of the most important things you can do to protect against mold-related claims. However, there are additional risk management techniques you can employ to safeguard your business, including setting expectations and having advisements.
Section Summary: Educating your clients about what mold testing can and cannot tell them is essential to preventing disputes and ensuring your mold test results are understood in the proper context.
In most states, home inspectors only have to report when they do or do not observe mold. Home inspectors offering mold assessments, however, should be able to provide much more. This means walking clients through mold swab test results, explaining findings in plain language, and clarifying what a mold assessment does and doesn’t conclude.
It’s important that your clients understand both mold and home inspections for mold. Making sure clients understand the inspection’s limitations will help them interpret its results realistically.
“Giving your clients a report from the mold lab isn’t going to mean anything to the client because they don’t know anything about the types of mold and what they mean,” Graham said. “You have to understand what the lab is doing, how to analyze its results, and how to give that information to the client in a meaningful manner.”
Explaining mold sampling limitations is another critical part of setting expectations. When ordering mold testing, clients often think you know how to detect mold everywhere. They think your mold analysis can confirm or rule out concealed water damage and active growth behind surfaces.
But just as your standard home inspections have limitations, so do your mold evaluations. Underscore that your inspections are non-invasive, and explain the limitations of moisture meters, thermal imaging, and mold sampling.
Another question clients often ask: Does mold go away on its own? Generally, no. Mold requires active remediation, especially if moisture sources aren’t addressed. So be sure your report encourages remediation when mold’s present.
Section Summary: An easy-to-see mold advisement in your pre-inspection agreement can help prevent meritless mold claims—even if you don’t offer mold testing.
What about inspectors who aren’t performing home inspections for mold, either because their clients opted out or because they’d prefer not to sample for mold? How do they prevent meritless mold claims?
Include an obvious mold advisement in your pre-inspection agreement. An advisement is a statement in your contract meant to bring attention to something important. In this case, your mold advisement is telling clients they aren’t getting a mold inspection.
It’s important to make this advisement obvious to decrease the chance that your client could overlook it. Few inspection clients read the entire pre-inspection agreement, so it’s essential you make any advisement stand out with boldface type or another color or font.
You may include advisements related to mold sampling in both your pre-inspection agreement and your report. Some inspectors have even included advisements in the footer of every page of their reports. It’s also smart to have the client initial any advisement to illustrate that they acknowledge and understand its terms.
Section Summary: If client demand, local market conditions, or a desire to expand your business are pointing toward mold testing, adding the service could be a smart move.
Is there a lot of public interest in mold sampling in your area? Do you feel you have a duty to protect your clients from mold-related illnesses? Are you looking for additional revenue sources and job security?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it may be time for your company to offer home inspection mold detection. But before you do, make sure you’re covered.
Mold inspection insurance in the form of an endorsement protects you from the significant liability that comes with mold sampling. Contact us to discuss getting the right coverage for your ancillary services.
This article was published in the ASHI Reporter in March 2021. See how this story appears in print below.
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