Former Meth Lab Home For Sale -- Just Don't Ask to Look Inside
The newly listed home at 2380 Crock Road in Loudon, Tenn., seems like a steal: Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and selling for only $8,500. But maybe not, if you consider that the home is a former meth lab.
In 2010, three men were arrested and sent to prison for using the house to produce methamphetamine. The men left the home a "hazardous environment," authorities told Knoxville TV station WATE-Channel 6, and it was quarantined by the Loudon County narcotics team.
"We categorized this property as Level 3 of contamination. Level 3 out of 4," Lt. Paul Curtis, narcotics director at the Loudon County Sheriff's Office, told WATE.
Unfortunately the Crock Road home is hardly a unique case: In 2012, Jonathan and Beth Hankins purchased a $36,000 "fixer upper" in Klamath Falls, Ore. that also turned out to be a former meth lab. After the family had already moved in, a test kit showed that the home carried meth residue at about 80 times the state's legal limit for acceptable levels -- after it had been cleaned. In a similar case in Suquamish, Wash., John and Jessie Bates discovered that the home they'd bought was completely saturated with toxic chemicals used for making meth and was "not fit" to live in.
According to Scientific American, the chemicals used in meth production are so highly toxic that they permeate "every inch of the room where the meth was cooked and beyond." According to experts, a home's carpet, walls, furniture and even air become toxic, and ingesting some the chemicals might cause "immediate death." (Serious but non-fatal effects on the inhabitants of meth homes can also include migraines, nosebleeds, mouth sores and even cancer.)
It's no surprise then, that the Crock Road home is being sold "interior sight unseen" -- meaning that potential buyers are prohibited from going inside the home prior to its sale. But according to Lt. Curtis, this practice is unconventional, particularly as Tennessee state law prohibits the sale of any property to the public without a proper cleaning and inspection.
Despite that, WATE reports that the home might have been sold as early as yesterday. (The property is also currently showing as "sold" on Realtor.com). If indeed the home was sold, the new owners --if they move in -- would join the estimated "millions" of Americans living in properties that were former meth labs, according to CNN Money.
See more about hazards in for-sale homes:
Realtor Discovers Explosives Inside Nashville Home for Sale
Mansion or Meth House? 'Flip Men' Want to Know
More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity homes.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
