Selling a house on septic, a well, or acreage in Georgia

Once you are outside the towns, a lot of houses have no sewer line, no city water and more land than a suburban lot. None of that stops a sale. It does add questions that a city house never gets, and a sale goes more smoothly when you have answered them before a buyer asks.

The septic system

The system nobody sees is often the first thing a buyer’s inspector asks about.

• Pull the permit file. In Georgia, septic systems are permitted through the county environmental health office, which is part of the public health department. Ask for the file on your address. It may hold the original permit, a drawing showing where the tank and drain field are, and the system’s size. Many older houses have no file at all, and that is worth knowing too.
• Know the size. A system is sized for a number of bedrooms. If a bedroom has been added since the system was permitted, a buyer may ask whether the system still fits the house.
• Have it pumped and inspected. A pump-out lets the contractor see the tank’s condition, the baffles and whether wastewater is backing up from the drain field. Keep the receipt and the report.
• Know the warning signs. Soggy ground or unusually green grass over the drain field, slow drains throughout the house, and sewage smells outside all point to a system that is failing.

Georgia has no general rule requiring a septic inspection before every sale, but buyers and their lenders often ask for one. A failed drain field is expensive, and it is far better to learn about it before the house is under contract than during the inspection period.

The well

• Test the water. Buyers’ lenders commonly ask for a test, especially for bacteria. Your county extension office can arrange testing through the University of Georgia’s lab, and a private lab can do it too. A recent clean result is one less thing to wait for.
• Know the equipment. Note the pump’s age, the pressure tank, and any filter or treatment system, with the dates they were replaced.
• Know where the well is. Buyers will ask how far it is from the septic system. The permit file may show both.

The land

More land brings more questions. Most of the answers are already on record somewhere.

• Boundaries. Find your most recent survey. If there is none, or it is decades old, a buyer or their lender may order a new one. Fences and driveways that cross the line come up here.
• Access. Confirm the property touches a public road, or that there is a recorded easement to one. A shared gravel driveway with no written easement is a common problem on rural land.
• Easements. Power lines, pipelines and a neighbour’s right of way are usually recorded against the deed. The closing attorney’s title search will turn them up, but it helps to know ahead of time.
• Flood zone. Check the FEMA flood map for your parcel. Land along a creek may need flood insurance, which changes what a buyer can pay.
• Zoning and splitting. If a buyer might want to split off a lot, the county’s zoning and subdivision rules decide whether that is possible. Road frontage and minimum lot size usually decide it.
• Conservation use. If the land is in a conservation use covenant for a lower property tax assessment, find out before you sign anything. A sale can breach the covenant and trigger a penalty unless the buyer continues it. The county tax assessor’s office can tell you whether your parcel is enrolled and when the covenant ends.
• A manufactured home on the land. A mobile or manufactured home may be titled separately from the land, like a vehicle, unless it has been permanently attached and its title retired. The closing attorney will need to know which applies to yours.

Tell buyers what you know

Rural houses tend to have a history: a drain field that was moved, a well that was redrilled, a boundary a neighbour disputes. Tell buyers what you know. A problem disclosed up front gets priced in. A problem a buyer finds for themselves makes them wonder what else they have not been told, and that is when sales fall apart.

Where we fit

We buy houses on septic, on wells and on acreage around the corridor south of Atlanta, including ones where the system has failed or the paperwork is missing. We price what we find and do not need you to fix it first.