Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Well water/ Septic System
Would you buy a house with these things, if everything else about it was your DREAM house? 3,500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, newish (1999), in ground pool, 1.5 acre fenced lot, etc. Foreclosure, so very cheap (to put it in perspective, $100K less than my current home, which is a 1,700 sq foot townhouse 20 minutes away).
Re: Well water/ Septic System
We have well and septic. It's the only option in this part of our county. It's not a big deal, really. Just have a good septic inspection to make sure the tank and such are in good condition. And well water is soooooo much tastier than city water. Once you go well, you won't want to drink city water ever again.
The only think you will need to budget for that you wouldn't need if you were on city water is a generator. You'll need a generator as soon as you move in, so that if you lose power you will still have a way to power your well pump (and septic pump, if you have one). I say this as the chick who lost power 2 weeks after moving in (and before we had gotten our generator). We didn't make it a high enough priority, so learn from our mistake.
Thank you for that tip!!! Also, where in Maryland are you? I'm in Philly now but grew up in Severna Park, outside of Annapolis.
My parents have lived in a house with well and septic since 1990. They don't own a generator. They always figure it out and feel like its a waste of money. They go to someone else's house to shower if they lose power and they keep jugs of water so they can flush the toilet. They only people I know on well/septic that keep a generator are those who have issues with their sump or sub pump (whatever its called) - some will have flooding in the basement without that working if the outage is due to snow or rain.
In our area, a lot of people with septics have to have them replaced to be up to code when selling. So that should be considered. With well water, you may want to have it tested. My parents have a water softener and Reverse Osmosis (water filtration) system in place. My dad works for a water company though, so they have more than some others do!
Otherwise, its a cheaper monthly maintenance. No water or sewer bills. But if it breaks or dries up, its a lot more costly to fix (I guess its similar with city water/sewer and the pipes and tie ins can break and need expensive fixes too).
When we were house hunting one of my requirements was that we have municipal water/sewer services.
We ended up building but within the area they serve.
I'm on well & septic - I'm in the country and it's pretty much par for the course. We're also in a water shed district for a major metropolitan area... the water is really tasty.
Make sure you have the mechanicals and the septic tank inspected, and check with your local DEP to make sure the size of the septic tank is sized to the code of the size of your house, and think ahead of any potential bathroom additions you may want to make and that the septic is big enough to handle those additions.
As to the generator, it's a good idea. You can survive without it if you suspect a storm ahead of time by filling up the bathtub for toilet water, and have a fireplace for heat source. You can also survive with a more basic manual generator rather than a massive & expensive automatic unit as long as you have a generator switch installed directly to the power panel as you can't plug in your well like you can most other mechanicals.
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