Dealing with buried oil tanks in WNC

[Travis Provin]

Does anyone here have experience buying properties with buried, out of use oil tanks? I'm looking to purchase my first home to run as a househack and I am seeing a lot of properties in the western North Carolina area that have buried oil tanks. A lot of them are no longer in use but the tank is still present. Everything I have read on Bigger Pockets has me saying oil tanks are a hard NO and I ignore the property no matter what but with them being so common in this area I'm wondering if anyone on here has any experience. Seems like the most common approach is to include a contingency that the seller disposes of the tank and provides a clean bill of health on the soil.

[Trevor Richardson]

It’s common to, I hate to say it, ignore the tank. Depending on the age, if it was slurried or not, the tank may or may not have leaked. If there is contamination there is no way to know unless it’s drilled and sampled (phase 2) $5k-$10k. Because that opens up a ton of liability typically for the (seller) these are left to rest. It could be $10k or more to have it removed and remediated. Good luck having a seller accept that in a hot market where another buyer will ignore it.

If it really concerns you have a Phase 1 environmental survey done and ask the local environmental specialist what they would recommend.