What are the Pros and Cons of a Septic Tank?

[Jafeth Medina]

What are the pros and cons on investing in a new construction that has a well and septic tank. It’s not in city sewer. What are the long-term risks and costs?

[Johnny Hastings]

They have to be pumped out and inspected once in a while. In WI for most residential houses, it's every 2 years. It's not expensive, around $75. The state tracks it, so you get a card in the mail saying it's time to have it inspected. 

If it's old, there's risk that it's nearing the end of it's life. They tend to last upwards of 30 years, so it isn't often, but I have looked at old farm houses that needed new ones. 

Wells also have a valid life span. We had issues in our county with wells running dry because the city put up a new water tower, which pulled a ton of water from the water table, and then dozens of homes now had dry wells. Occasionally a well will have issues, the pump will go bad, a check valve down in the well will go bad, there's also a pressure system set up, here it's in the basement of the home usually, that can fail or hiccup on occasion as well. Older homes will have iron pipes feeding the water to the house from the well, and iron pipes taking the water to the septic system. Those rust out and corrode over time, then require replace. 

On the plus side, you don't ever have to pay for city water or sewer!

If you're considering purchasing, definitely write inspections of these into the contract!