Most Omaha sellers know they have to check a box about radon on the disclosure form. Most buyers know the test will happen sometime between the inspection and the appraisal. What neither side usually sees until the credit request lands is that the Omaha resale market is quietly split into two mitigation-cost tiers, and the dividing line is a single date in 2019.
If your home was permitted before September 1, 2019, radon is a negotiation. If it was permitted after, it is a fan installation. The dollar gap between those two outcomes is where most of the friction at the closing table actually lives.
That is the piece of the transaction the portal listings do not show, and it is worth understanding before you sign a listing agreement or write an offer.
The line that splits Omaha's resale inventory in two
Nebraska sits near the top of the country for indoor radon. 53 of Nebraska's 93 counties are in EPA Zone 1 for radon, the highest risk category, and the statewide average indoor radon level is 7.08 pCi/L, nearly double the EPA's action threshold. Douglas and Sarpy sit inside that zone. A long-running Omaha inspection firm reports that more than 50% of the homes that are tested in eastern Nebraska and Iowa have elevated levels of radon, which routinely falls at approximately 5.7 picocuries per liter, 1.7 pCi/L higher than the EPA recommended 4.0 pCi/L.
That is the backdrop. The transaction-relevant fact is what the Legislature did about it. Under section 76-3504, new construction built after September 1, 2019, in the State of Nebraska that is intended to be regularly occupied by people shall be built using radon resistant new construction. In practice that means a passive subslab depressurization system installed during construction, a minimum three-inch ABS or PVC vent pipe running from below the slab up through the roof, and an electrical circuit terminated in an approved box in the attic or other anticipated location of vent pipe fans so a fan can be added later.
Everything permitted before that date, which is the majority of Omaha's resale housing stock, does not have that rough-in.
What the disclosure form actually requires
Nebraska is not a caveat-emptor state on residential resale. Nebraska Revised Statutes § 76-2,120 requires sellers of residential real property to submit a written disclosure statement to buyers during real estate transactions. The form itself is the Nebraska Real Estate Commission's Seller Property Condition Disclosure Statement, and radon lives in Part II, Section B, the environmental conditions section.
A seller filling out that section is answering, from actual knowledge, four practical questions:
- Has radon ever been tested on the property, and if so, what were the results?
- Has a mitigation system been installed, and is it passive or active?
- Are prior test reports or mitigation invoices available to hand to the buyer?
- If the home was built after September 1, 2019, does the passive RRNC system remain intact and unmodified?
The seller must inform the buyer of the seller's knowledge of radon gas on the property and any radon mitigation that has been conducted, as well as the provision of copies of any radon tests that have been conducted on the property. A seller is not obligated to test before listing. But once a number exists, it does not disappear.
Real estate attorney guidance on the form is blunt on this point. First, the seller needs to tell the truth. If the roof leaks, disclose it. If the roof leaked in the past, but has been repaired, disclose it. If your realtor, or other advisor, recommends against disclosing a defect, ignore them.
The cost tiers, read against the disclosure
The reason the 2019 date matters at the closing table is that it determines which line item shows up in the buyer's repair request. Local Omaha pricing sits in a tight range.
| Scenario | Typical Omaha cost | What's happening |
|---|---|---|
| Professional radon test during inspection window | About $100 to $125 | Licensed measurement pro places a continuous monitor for 48 hours |
| Post-2019 build, elevated result | About $450 to $500 | A fan is added to the existing passive stub |
| Pre-2019 build, elevated result | About $1,000 to $1,500 | Full sub-slab depressurization system installed from scratch |
| Pre-2019 build with a walkout, crawl, or split foundation | Higher than $1,500 | Multiple suction points, sealed crawl membrane, additional pipe runs |
An Omaha radon guide puts the local numbers plainly: for most homes in the Omaha area, expect to spend about $1000 to $1500 for a radon mitigation system, and if you have an existing passive radon system in your home, the price to install a fan is usually around $500. Testing itself runs about $100 to $125.
So a post-2019 home in Papillion, Elkhorn, or the newer stretches of west Omaha that tests high is a roughly $500 concession. A 1990s ranch off Maple with the same reading is a $1,200 concession, sometimes more. Same test number, very different closing statement.
Where the negotiation actually lands
Buyers rarely test until they are already under contract, which means the radon result arrives inside the inspection response window. A few patterns worth knowing on either side of the deal:
Sellers who priced the home aggressively and are already at the top of their comps have very little room to absorb a full retrofit. On a pre-2019 home, the most defensible move is a pre-list radon test. A clean number under 4.0 pCi/L eliminates the line item before it gets negotiated. A high number gives the seller time to solicit two or three mitigation bids from licensed installers, which almost always beat the number a buyer's agent will request as a credit.
Buyers writing on a post-2019 home should ask, in the offer or the inspection response, whether the passive system is intact and whether the attic electrical stub was installed as required. When a builder cut that corner, the fan-only retrofit disappears and the home becomes a full-mitigation job. That is a real material fact and, under §76-2,120, one the seller should be answering honestly on the disclosure.
Buyers writing on a pre-2019 home should price the potential $1,000 to $1,500 line item into the offer rather than treating it as a repair-credit surprise. In an Omaha market where over the three months ending May 2026, home prices were up 5.0% compared to the same period last year, selling for a median price of $283K, and homes sell after 18 days on the market compared to 15 days last year, a credit request that reads as a surprise is a credit request that gets pushed back.
A short pre-list checklist for Omaha sellers
- Pull the certificate of occupancy or building permit date. Anything after September 1, 2019 should have the passive stub. Walk the basement and the attic and confirm it is there.
- Gather every prior radon test result, mitigation invoice, and installer warranty. Hand them to your agent before the SPCD is drafted.
- If you have never tested, order a licensed measurement before listing. A short-term monitor is a two-day exercise and a clarifying line on the disclosure.
- If the result is above 4.0 pCi/L, get two or three bids from licensed mitigators before you list. You control the cost when you control the timeline.
- On the SPCD, use "Do Not Know" honestly if you truly do not. Legal guidance on the form is that the form provides three boxes for each question, "Yes," "No," or "Do Not Know." Do Not Know is a real answer, not a dodge, but it shifts the testing burden to the buyer.
FAQ
Does Nebraska require a radon test before I sell? No. The statute requires disclosure of what the seller knows, not the generation of new information. Sellers are not required to test. But if a test has ever been performed, its result is disclosable.
Is the passive system in my post-2019 home actually doing anything? It is a rough-in, not a working mitigation system. Radon resistant new construction means construction that utilizes design elements and construction techniques that passively resist radon entry and prepare a building for an active postconstruction mitigation system. It reduces entry points and makes an active retrofit cheap. It does not guarantee a reading under 4.0.
We tested at 4.1 pCi/L. Is that a real problem? The EPA action level is 4.0 pCi/L. Under Nebraska licensing and the standards it references, that is the threshold at which mitigation is generally recommended. Whether it becomes a credit request is between the two agents. It is not a legal defect, but it is disclosable.
Does a mitigation system hurt resale value? In eastern Nebraska it tends to help. Buyers here are increasingly informed on radon, and an installed, warranted system with a recent post-mitigation test in the low 1s is a stronger position at the negotiating table than an untested basement.
Ready to run the numbers on your own Omaha sale?
If you are thinking about listing a home that predates the 2019 RRNC line, or evaluating an offer on a newer build where the passive system needs a closer look, that conversation is worth having before the inspection window, not during it. Robin Philips has closed enough Omaha and western Iowa transactions on both sides of that 2019 date to tell you, honestly and without pressure, what the radon line is likely to look like on your closing statement. Let's Connect.
