How To Buy Your Country Dream . . . .

Without Having A Nightmare!

Introduction

by Phil Hoover

Ever dreamed of having your own place in the country? Somewhere with fewer cars,

clean air, and friendly people? A place where you could go for peaceful walks

beneath a canopy of trees, hear the robins sing, and splash your feet in a cool

babbling stream?

If you're like most of us, you've done plenty of thinking about your country

dream. But you may not have a clue about how to make a wise decision when you're

finally ready to make your country dream come true.

The following five point check list will help you to ensure that your country

dream doesn't turn into your worst nightmare.

Water Supply

Sewage Disposal

Power and Telephone

Property Access

Property Boundaries

Water Issues

Water Supply

Few country properties offer the convenience of being hooked up to a municipal

(piped, treated) water supply. Therefore, you probably will be considering

properties that depend upon a well to supply drinking water.

We take drinking water for granted in most parts of the country, but you can't

automatically assume that all properties will have an adequate supply of good

water. When you have a well, you have to be concerned with both the quantity and

quality of water the well supplies. Both can be tested before you buy the property.

To test the output, or quantity of water the well produces, you can perform a well

discharge test. This is simply a test where a technician pumps water from the well

for a specified amount of time, usually three to four hours. This test can be done

with the existing pump in the well, or with a portable pump provided by the

technician. Most experts recommend using a high capacity pump that can pump

greater volumes of water than the well produces to get a true reading of the

gallons per minute of well discharge. For example, if you have a fifteen gallon

per minute well and use a ten gallon per minute pump for the test, you'll never

know the true capacity of your well.

Water Quality

The quality of the water the well produces is just as important as the quantity.

You can have two separate tests done to determine the quality of water that the

well produces.

The first is a potability test to verify that the water is safe for human

consumption. The main purpose of this test is to verify that the well contains no

contamination, and that the water is safe for human consumption. Many lenders

require such a test before they will lend on country property.

The second test is a mineral analysis, which provides information on iron,

sulphur, acid, hardness, and other characteristics of the water. It's not uncommon

to find well water that is high in acid, for example. This condition can result in

damage to copper plumbing, but can be treated by installing a neutralizing filter

in the water system. Hard water is also a common problem, and can be corrected

with the installation of a water softener.

Digging Your Own Well

If you're considering the purchase of a property without a proven water supply,

you'll have some difficult choices to make. You can go ahead and take a chance,

hoping that you'll find good water when you drill a well after completing your

purchase.

Or, you can drill a well before completing your purchase of the property. Many

country property buyers make their purchase offers contingent upon drilling a

satisfactory well, with the acceptable gallons per minute and quality of water

clearly specified in the contract. If you choose this strategy, plan to spend $20

or more per foot for drilling costs in most parts of the country, with no

guarantee that water will be found.

Those costs are negotiable between the buyer and seller, so plan to do some hard

bargaining.

After drilling a new well, you should get a copy of the well driller's report.

This document will show the types of soils encountered while drilling, the depth

of the well, the depth at which water was first observed, the gallons per minute

of water produced by the well, and other details.

You should realize that the gallons per minute noted on the report may not be an

accurate indication of the actual quantity of water your well can produce. There

are several reasons for this, including the fact that most well drillers test the

well discharge by blowing compressed air into the well to determine the amount of

water available. This common practice can result in a distorted reading. That's

why a well discharge test performed over a period of several hours will usually

provide a better indication of your well's output.

You also should realize that the cost of drilling the well is not the end of it.

You'll still need to install a pump and pressure system to deliver the water from

the well to the house. This can easily cost several thousand dollars, depending

upon the complexity of the system you choose.

Sewage Issues

Sewage Disposal

Throughout America, millions of city dwellers take for granted that they can flush

the toilet and everything in it will disappear into the sewer.

Country properties, however, usually dispose of sewage with a septic system.

Through a rather unsophisticated combination of a holding tank and perforated

pipes called leach lines, the sewage is absorbed (leached) into the ground.

As you might imagine, there are all kinds of ways for things to go wrong with such

a system. When your septic tank backs up, or your leach lines become plugged,

septic tanks are no fun. That's why it's a good idea to make sure the septic

system is working properly before you firmly commit to buying your country dream.

As with the water potability tests mentioned above, your lender may require a

septic system inspection and certification before lending on country property.

Septic Inspections

A septic system inspection usually includes a visual inspection of the area around

the system to look for obvious leaks. Such system failures are usually detected by

visual clues of seepage and the accompanying malodorous stench. The inspection

also should include pumping the contents from the tank and a visual inspection of

the inside of the septic tank after the pumping is completed. This inspection

should reveal any cracks or flaws in the tank itself. If the system is in good

working order, you should receive a written certification stating the results of

the inspection.

Installing a Septic System

If you're considering the purchase of vacant land, you should perform soils tests

to determine the feasibility of a septic system on the property. Those tests vary

from area to area, depending upon the requirements of the local public health

officials. If the land under consideration is located in an environmentally

sensitive area, such as near a year-round stream, plan to meet more even more

stringent requirements.

Soils tests will reveal what kind of soil you have at the depth where your septic

system will be placed. For a septic system to work, the soil must be capable of

absorbing the waste from your septic system. If the soil is too porous, or sandy,

waste materials will pass through too quickly for nature to purify them. The

opposite extreme, such as rocky soil or hardpan clay, will not permit waste

materials to pass through quickly enough to be purified. A happy medium is

necessary for a septic system to work effectively.

Most health officials will want to see the results of a percolation test, also

known as a "perc test," to verify the rate of absorption for the soils where you

intend to place your septic system prior to approving a building permit. A

percolation test usually consists of boring several holes with a power auger,

filling them with water, and observing the elapsed time for the water to be

absorbed into the ground.

Some health officials also may require a soil mantle test, done by digging a deep

trench with a backhoe tractor. By digging a trench several feet deep, health

officials can better examine the makeup and quality of subsurface soils and decide

how well your land will accommodate a septic system.

Whatever you do, check local governmental requirements for sewage disposal if the

property you're considering requires a septic system. To protect your own

interests, make your purchase offer contingent upon obtaining satisfactory soils

test results.

Power & Telephone

We've all grown accustomed to flicking a switch to turn on the lights and picking

up the phone to talk with someone miles away. But some parts of the country still

don't have such conveniences. You might think that you could do without such

conveniences and really get away from it all, but it's still a good idea to check

on what it would cost to hook up just in case you decide to do so later.

Most utility companies charge heavily to extend service to country properties.

It's not uncommon to hear of someone spending thousands of dollars to hook up to

power or phone. There are other considerations too, such as obtaining easements

across other adjoining properties for placement of poles and lines. If you can't

obtain the necessary easements from your new neighbors, you won't be able to bring

power in, even if you're willing to bear the costs.

If the property lacks power or phone, be certain that you can live without those

conveniences, or research the costs and details before you purchase the property.

Property Access

"There's a road to the property, so there must be access." This is the lament of

many a country property owner who didn't ask enough questions. Legal access to

your property is critically important. Without it, you are the proud owner of a

piece of landlocked, inaccessible property.

There are many types of access, some trouble free and many full of problems. The

most trouble free access is where the property adjoins a public road. With no

other properties between yours and a public road, few problems can arise.

The fun begins when you find that secluded piece of property, tucked away back on

a hill or in a scenic little valley with a stream, hundreds or even thousands of

feet from the main road. The access to such a piece of property will undoubtedly

be across other surrounding properties, and that's where you'll often encounter

access problems. To avoid such problems, verify that the property you are

purchasing has deeded access. In other words, the owners of the surrounding

properties have signed and recorded deeds granting access to your property.

If the property doesn't have deeded access, you may still have access because the

road to the property has been in continuous use for an extended period. This is

called prescriptive access, and varies according to the laws of each state.

Prescriptive access is unreliable, though, and you may find yourself in court

after you purchase the property if your neighbors decide they don't want you

crossing their property any longer.

After you've determined that you have access to the property, you need to ask

yourself "Who's going to maintain the road?" Unless you are the only one who owns

property on the road, you probably will need to share road maintenance expenses

with neighboring property owners. Is there a written road maintenance agreement?

Or do the owners just get together and share the costs and physical work of

maintaining the road? If there's a written maintenance agreement, get a copy of it

and study it.

Property Boundaries

"The back right corner? Well, it's down there by the crick in the hollow. The

corner stake's been gone for years, but I know it's there somewhere" says the

seller.

Sound like words you'd like to rely upon? What if the corner isn't where it should

be, and the house or barn on the property you're buying straddles the neighbor's

property line? What if your beautiful white board fence turns out to be on the

neighbor's property? Those are just a few reasons why you should have a licensed

surveyor identify the property corners before you finalize your purchase.

Many of the properties you may consider have probably been surveyed in the past.

If the property in question falls into this category, the surveyor's job will be

reduced to obtaining a copy of the recorded survey map at the county offices,

finding the existing property corners, and marking them with stakes and brightly-

colored flagging. If there is no recorded survey map, plan on additional expense

and time because the surveyor will need to do a complete survey from scratch and

set corner pins.

Despite the expense, it's a good idea to know clearly just where your property

corners are before you complete your purchase.

It's worth the trouble!

by Phil Hoover