Septic sewer and well water in NJ?

[Marc Paolella]

Originally Posted by AAVC

You are completely right. We've decided to back out. Then, we went to look at open houses and I got so demoralized... Very expensive, and not the right feel either - too big, too close to the neighbors, master bedroom where one can barely fit a bed (small, and many, many windows), etc. We are trying to stay in the town where we are leasing, so we don't have to move our kids to yet another school... They are teenagers, and this would be their 4th school in 4 yrs... Not good. So the options are limited - only so many house for sale in our price range. Looked at the contract yesterday, the options seem to be: either they fix the sewer, or we can back out of the deal. I will talk to my attorney tomorrow, to understand what our legal right are at this point... If nothing else, I wonder if we should negotiate a lower price for the house, deal with a "fixed" sewer for now, then try to connect to city serwer at some point... I don't know... I appreciate your comments.

If connecting to city sewer is a definite and certain future possibility, I might consider buying this with a repaired septic. But not if it depends on the town someday maybe expanding sewers to your area of the street. Budgets are going to be so tight for the next 10-15 years that I wouldn't want to depend on the town to do anything in the near future.

Maybe continue renting in the same town until the right house comes along. No point in rushing into what is already a known problem. And forget open houses, have your agent get you into every house in your range. If there is really nothing, just consider continuing to rent. The market is not improving anytime soon. Also look at stuff a little out of your range that has been on the market for a long time. Maybe somebody can be convinced to move their price into the top end on your range. You don't know until you try.

[AAVC]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

If connecting to city sewer is a definite and certain future possibility, I might consider buying this with a repaired septic. But not if it depends on the town someday maybe expanding sewers to your area of the street. Budgets are going to be so tight for the next 10-15 years that I wouldn't want to depend on the town to do anything in the near future.

Maybe continue renting in the same town until the right house comes along. No point in rushing into what is already a known problem. And forget open houses, have your agent get you into every house in your range. If there is really nothing, just consider continuing to rent. The market is not improving anytime soon. Also look at stuff a little out of your range that has been on the market for a long time. Maybe somebody can be convinced to move their price into the top end on your range. You don't know until you try.

Yes, the sewer is only a few houses down from this one, so that is a possibility. We'll have to see if they agree with fixing the septic. I've heard that one can not sell a house in NJ without a properly functioning septic, I hope that's true. If it is, they don't have a choice. If not, as you said, we'll continue to rent here. I completely agree with looking at homes priced higher and not selling... That's how we got a great deal on our first house, and this was the case for the one we are trying to buy now... Thank you for all your good advice.