Oil tank leak negotiation

[Bharath Janakarajan]

Hello pros,

I am in contract to buy a short sale "as is" property in central Jersey. During inspection, we discovered there is an abandoned oil tank and soil contamination. The realtor is saying we can get a price adjustment but a soil delineation/ground water testing has to be carried out for me to come up with even a conservative number to protect me. The test costs around $4000 which I am not prepared to spend. The property has a lot of potential but would like to protect myself from possible extreme remediation. Any thoughts/ideas to make this deal work or should I walk away?

Thanks,

Bharath

[Ryan Watson]

even if it hasnt poisoned the water table, you'll have another 4 digit figure in digging out all of the dirt, chasing all the bad stuff down. Which has to be hauled to a landfill. If a test shows the contamination is deeper and wider then the first cut, then they keep digging untill its all gone, or most of it. It wont take long before you have 10,000 in a hole thats just got to be filled back in and covered up. If you ever wanted to expand the house on it you had better make sure the backfill meets compaction or it will render it useless. Ive seen them use compacted limestone for backfill of the remediation hole. I'd hate to see the bill for that job.