Property cant get water.

[Tony in Ohio]

I could use some help from you dry staters and rural guys on this one.

The subject is a new house, mostly complete, on 5 acres, with no city water available in the area. The homeowner built it himself and did a pretty good job but apparently did not check if the land would support a well. House gets about 3/4 finished and they sink a well but only get a quart a minute of salt water. I am still getting info but it appears that that is likely all it will ever get. He is finishing up anyhow and put in several large plastic holding tanks to have water trucked in. I can tell he was not expecting this because the biggest luxury item in the home is a multi person shower with side jets and all the other bells and whistles.m2:

Not having water is very uncommon in this area so I am looking for any insight or advice, (Other than the obvious "run" or "charge more" ) that will help me consider all the options a potential buyer might consider. and making the assumption that they can not find a place on the subject (or nearby land ) where they can sink a functional well.

I am starting with getting costs to ship the water in and discounting from there. I am also curious about retention ponds and cistern types of water collection and if they work for potable or at least cleaning type of water.

Don't worry about the secondary market, this is for a small private lender that advertises "we do weird loans" and trust me, they do. They just want to risk them appropriately.

 

[Mr Rex]

I suggest you and he dig deeper. (Self serving drum roll goes here).

 

[Jan Roseberry]

I had one near Huff Run, water was full of iron and sulfur from old mine run offs. Family of two and they went to the laundromat -- $3600 a year. They had a cistern (collected rain water) which was used for outside water.

 

[Metamorphic]

Call the county....probably the environmental health guys....they're usually the one's in charge of doing well inspections. They can usually give you a read on where's the nearest spot that has usable groundwater. They may even have a map with the permitted wells in the area placed on it and they may even have some boring log information. The local drilling companies might also have a good idea and some of the same resources; the good drilling companies usually develop their own resource like this to help them bid jobs. The cost to cure via buying rights and easements to a nearby well might be less than the c to c going to town for water. It might also be worth while to suggest they put the appraisal on hold while they hire a consulting geologist to get a local professional's opinion on the prospect of finding groundwater. It may just be a matter of going deeper, or perhaps not so deep, and with 5 acres to work with there's even a possibility of a different hydrologic system on the property.

 

[Walter Kirk]

How did the owner get a building permit without an identified source of water? Was a construction loan taken?

 

[TEL2002]

Tony, you might check with these 'swimmin pool water' trucks. maybe they deliver water to houses that have bad wells, and they may have some addresses for you.

Compare the cost of city water to the cost of trucked in water.

He probably should install a rain collection cistern as well as the trucked in stuff.

What about building a pond on the 5 acres. Quite a few houses in Medina county use their ponds as their source of water.

 

[Tony in Ohio]

Good stuff so far, Thanks,

I am trying to get some info from the lender on what kind of gealogical /hydrological survey he has had done, and trying to clear up the possibility of unpermited uses,I want to be well clear if he ends up getting stomped by enforcement. It is one of the easier areas as far as enforcement goes so I do not really have any worries, I just want to step softly at first.

Part of the loan is going for a small pond, which I think he may try to use as a water source, so I am trying to bone up on what they need to make them usable, I would assume a pump and filtration system as a minimum. even then Is it possible/economical to filter it enough to be potable water.

Glad to see some locals on here. I hope you are doing well (haha) Jan, and Terry. you wouldnt want to to send me any of those properties to use as comps, well, marketetability support, would you? Pretty please?

 

[Mike Boyd]

How will they fill the pond? Rainwater? Snow melt?

 

[Tony in Ohio]

Good question, it goes on the list.

Yes I suppose, but that does make it likely to have periods of unusability.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Heck, if Africans can drink it, you ought to toughen up soon. A little e coli never killed anybody...well, most people survive..

Trucked in water is the only option it appears. I would compare costs and adjust accordingly.