I Bought a Glendale Property Without Testing for Lead and Asbestos. Here Is What It Cost Me.
Updated: Sep 6
I own and manage income property in Glendale through my firm, Glencore Associates. I underwrite carefully, I keep reserves, and I walk every building myself. And I still made the one mistake I now warn every buyer about: I closed on a property without testing it for lead and asbestos first.
What I did not know
The building was older, which in Glendale is most of the housing stock. I had the standard inspection done. It came back clean enough to proceed. What a standard inspection does not do, unless you specifically order it, is test for lead-based paint and asbestos-containing materials. Those require separate sampling by a certified inspector, sent to a lab. Nobody had told me that, and I did not think to ask.
I found out after closing, when repair work began. The kind of renovation that should have been a straightforward job turned into a stop-work situation the moment the materials were identified. Old paint layers tested positive for lead. Flooring, ceiling texture, and insulation around the building tested positive for asbestos. Every one of those materials was fine to live around undisturbed. None of them was fine to cut, sand, scrape, or demolish.
What it cost
The honest answer is a lot, and far more than the testing would have. Abatement has to be done by licensed contractors under containment, with air monitoring and proper disposal, and in California that is a regulated, documented process, not a handyman job. The repair work I had planned could not start until abatement was complete, so the property sat producing nothing while I paid for both. The schedule roughly doubled. The budget went well past the reserve I had set aside for the year.
If I had tested before closing, I would have had three options: negotiate the price down by the abatement cost, require the seller to remediate, or walk. Instead I had one option, which was to pay.
What I did about it
I did the abatement completely, not the minimum. Every identified material was removed or properly encapsulated by licensed crews, with clearance testing at the end. Then I did the renovation I had originally planned, on a building that was now safe to work on. Today the property is in the best condition of its life. It passed its city inspection cleanly, tenants have written clearance documentation on file, and I sleep fine. But I got there the expensive way.
What every buyer in Glendale should know
If the building was built before 1978, assume lead-based paint is present until a test says otherwise. Federal law requires sellers to disclose known lead hazards on pre-1978 housing, but "known" is the operative word. Most sellers have never tested either.
If the building was built before the mid-1980s, assume asbestos is possible in floor tile and mastic, popcorn and textured ceilings, drywall joint compound, pipe and duct insulation, roofing, and siding. It is not dangerous sitting there. It is dangerous the day someone takes a saw to it.
Order the tests during your inspection period. A certified lead and asbestos inspection on a small residential building costs a few hundred dollars and takes about a week for lab results. Against the cost of abatement, it is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
Make the result a condition of the deal. Positive results are not a reason to walk away from a good property. They are a reason to price it correctly and make the seller share the cost, which you can only do before you own it.
And if you already own an older building: test before any renovation, not after. Contractors working on pre-1978 housing are required to follow lead-safe practices, and disturbing asbestos without abatement exposes your tenants, your workers, and you.
I run a firm whose whole philosophy is that you should only own assets you can inspect. This was the one time I did not inspect deeply enough. The property is A-plus now. The lesson cost me more than the test ever would have.
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David Bellairian is the founder and CEO of Glencore Associates, a private investment and asset management firm in Los Angeles operating across public equities, physical gold, income real estate, a commercial vehicle fleet, and a core private portfolio. He is also the founder of AIDiscover, an AI-powered marketing and brand discovery agency. More at davidbellairian.com and on his newsletter at davidbellairian.substack.com.
This article is for general information and is not legal, financial, or environmental advice. Consult a certified inspector and a licensed abatement contractor for your property.
Originally published on David Bellairian's Substack.
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