oil tank soil tests

[Solomon F.]

Just checked out a house owned by the bank, everything looked good. Only prob. I couldn't find the above ground oil tank. Well, that's because she was six feet under! I am considering doing a soil test and going ahead if it comes out clean. [I will include the cost of removal in my cost basis for the rehab]. How reliable are these tests? Is it possible it will come out clean but afterwards be a mess?

Also has anyone had success getting the bank to allow them to remove the tank before closing [and if there is leakage walking away from the deal]? 

[Matt Motil]

You can dig next to the tank and take samples. If there are issues, you will know about it. You most likely won't even need to run the samples to a lab to know you have issues with a leaking tank like that. Like @Account Closed said, once you start the remediation, you're committed one way or another so make sure you're prepared before you jump in. And typically the bank doesn't nothing to mitigate or remediate costs or issues.