Barb Schlinker | Your Real Estate Voice
Barb Schlinker, Your Real Estate Voice of Colorado and Owner of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado teaches how to buy and sell homes in the Colorado Springs Market area. Barb helps people list and sell homes in a matter of days not weeks and usually, she can do that at 100% of the asking price. When Barb's team helps buyers in this hot market they are able to get the buyer their dream homes at their price over all the other competition. Barb's Real Estate Radio show with her host, Richard Randall, airs every Sunday at 4 pm on KVOR.
Barb Schlinker | Your Real Estate Voice
How To Pass Inspection for Septic and Sewer When Selling a Home
What are the rules when selling a home with a septic system?
- El Paso County and most counties in the area, except Teller county, require the septic system be inspected, brought up to code and cleaned if full prior to sale.
- That requires an application for a Transfer Acceptance Document
- In most cases it runs home sellers between $500-$750 to get that done plus the $55 transfer fee with the counter.
- That assumes all is well with the system.
What problems could arise with a septic system?
- The most common is the access to the tanks has to have risers on them that go above ground for easy access.
- If the leach field is not working properly, that is when things can get really expensive.
- Sometimes it is a small repair
- In most cases it requires an entirely new leach field and here is what has to happen before that...
- A soils test must be conducted and that takes at least 3-5 weeks
- If the soil requires and engineered system, the engineering work could take 1-2 months.
- Once the county gets the application, the county will, at times, put new requirements to upgrading the system causes more expenses.
- On two occasions in the past several months, I've had home sellers that were required to set aside over $35,000 to repair the septic system at closing..
- Then when the engineer report came back, the original estimate was doubled, leaving the home seller short with the 1 and 1/2 times the cost they put aside for the repair.
- My advice for home sellers with septic systems is to have it inspected before you put your home on the market.
What about sewer lines, why are they an issue with a home sale?
- Many agents are bringing a sewer scope person with them to the home inspection.
- If the home does not have a sewer clean out, I've seen inspectors pull off toilets and forget to replace the seal. We have to watch what they are doing, in most cases.
- If the sewer line is fractured or clogged, the may request a repair. Those repairs could run between $3000 to $10,000
- On two occasions, I have home buyers request a sewer line repair that was located way out in the middle of the street. I recommended the seller decline those requests and have them contact the city.
Its not a bad idea to ask a contractor to come out and scope the sewer line before you go on the market. We do not typically see issue with newer homes but often we will in older homes.
To contact Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado call 719 602 6200.