While the housing crisis is easing, many foreclosed homes remain on the market. For a family or investor looking to buy, these homes are often a good buy.

However, there is a side effect of the foreclosure epidemic that many buyers discovered the hard way. Many of these homes remained on the market or were flipped and left unoccupied for a long time. These empty, unused structures provided a perfect incubation area for toxic mold. Some estimates find almost half of foreclosed homes to have some type of toxic mold problem. If you're on the market, perform a thorough and careful inspection with these issues in mind prior to pulling the trigger on that property.