A failed water test on a well property ends the loan.
Rural Kentucky property on a private well has to pass a water quality test for most financed purchases. When it does not, the buyer pool becomes cash only.
Sell the rural propertyWhat goes wrong with private wells
Bacterial contamination, usually coliform or E. coli, is the most common failure. Nitrates from agricultural runoff show up in farming areas. Iron, sulfur, and hardness affect usability without necessarily failing a test. And wells go dry or lose yield, particularly older shallow wells during a dry Kentucky summer.
Karst geology through much of the state means surface contamination can reach groundwater faster than in other regions, which is why bacterial results here can be unpredictable.
The financing requirement
Most loan programs require a satisfactory water quality test on a private well before closing, and some require specific setback distances between the well and the septic system. An older property where the two are too close together can fail on geometry alone, regardless of water quality.
Correcting that means drilling a new well or relocating a septic field, both of which are major expenses and both of which require permits.
Selling without solving it
We do not require a passing water test. If the well is dry, contaminated, or the setbacks are wrong, that is priced in rather than made your problem to fix first.
If public water is available at the road, say so. Connection is often cheaper than a new well and it materially changes what the property is worth to any future buyer.
Five questions. That is the whole thing.
We already know your situation from this page. Change it if it does not fit.
Question 1 of 5
What people ask about this
Do I need to test the water before selling to you?
No. If you have recent results, send them, because they reduce what we have to assume.
The well ran dry last summer. Does that end it?
No. Yield problems are a known rural condition. It affects the number and not the willingness.
What if the well and septic are too close together?
It is a common problem on older rural parcels and one of the more expensive to solve. We price for it.
Often it is more than one thing at once
Sell the rural property.
No cost, no obligation, and nobody shows up at your door unless you ask them to.