Both sides
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
Most rural property in Maine is on a private well and a septic system. That is normal, it is fine, and it is not a reason to avoid a house.
Buying one without checking it properly is where people get hurt, and the checks are cheap compared with what they protect you from.
Yield. How many gallons per minute the well produces. A low yield is livable with the right setup and miserable without it.
Bacteria and nitrates. Standard, and nitrates matter more where there is agriculture nearby.
Arsenic and uranium. This is the Maine-specific one. Bedrock in parts of this state produces both, and neither has a taste, a smell or a colour. The only way to know is to test. Treatment systems exist and work.
The equipment. Pump age, pressure tank, and whether the well is drilled or dug, because a dug well behaves very differently in a dry summer.
Have the system located, pumped and inspected rather than taking anybody's word for its condition. Pull the permit history from the town and the state.
Check that the system is sized for the house as it is being sold. A system permitted for two bedrooms under a house marketed as four is a real problem, and it is more common than you would think after a finished basement or an addition.
Can a replacement system be sited on this lot?
If the answer is no, you are buying a house that cannot be fixed when the current system reaches the end of its life, and that will be hard to sell to the next person once they find out.
Small lots, ledge, high water table and proximity to water all constrain this. It is a soil test and a conversation with the local plumbing inspector, and it is worth every minute.
Essentially everywhere Emma works outside the city centres. Standish, Buxton and Hollis, Durham, Greene and Turner, Jefferson, Monmouth and the rural parts of Lisbon and Sabattus are all predominantly well and septic.
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
Wells, septic, oil tanks, lead and shoreland zoning. The questions Maine actually asks.
Including when the answer is that a house is not worth it, or that you should wait.
Yield in gallons per minute, bacteria, nitrates, and in Maine specifically arsenic and uranium. The bedrock in parts of the state produces both and neither has a taste, a smell or a colour. Testing is inexpensive. Treatment, if it is needed, is a known cost rather than a disaster, but you want it priced before you decide what the house is worth.
Have it located, pumped and inspected, and pull whatever permit history the town and the state hold. Age, type and the size of the leach field relative to the number of bedrooms all matter. A system sized for two bedrooms under a house now advertised as four is a problem you inherit.
That is the question that ends deals, and the one almost nobody asks. If the lot will not support a replacement system, you own a house that cannot be repaired when the current system fails and that will be difficult to sell. Establishing whether a replacement could be sited is worth doing before you are under contract.
It can. Some loan programmes require water testing and have standards the water must meet, and lenders will want to see that legal access and a functioning system exist. It is rarely an obstacle and it is often a timing issue, which is a reason to start early.
Tell Emma what you are trying to do and when. If the answer is that you should wait, she will say so.