Country Living: The Hidden Costs & Savings

The rural exodus is real. As more families flee city living for country tranquility, they're encountering unfamiliar territory: well water and septic systems. This candid conversation tackles everything you need to know about the financial realities of rural utilities.

We dive deep into the numbers that matter. That initial sticker shock of $5,000-$10,000 for well drilling and another $3,000-$12,000 for septic installation might seem daunting, but the long-term math tells a different story. Our personal experience reveals how our water bills dropped by half after moving to the country, while our property taxes plummeted from over $1,000 to just $460 annually for 43 acres. The financial advantage becomes clear with a break-even point averaging 10 years compared to ever-increasing city utility costs.

Beyond dollars and cents, country living delivers freedom that city dwellers can only dream about. No municipal restrictions means you can raise chickens, practice target shooting on your property, or skip mowing without neighborhood complaints. However, responsibility shifts entirely to you—from occasional septic pumping to well maintenance when problems arise. We share real-world experiences pulling well pumps (a genuine workout!) and navigating rural infrastructure challenges, giving you the unfiltered truth about country living's pros and cons. Subscribe for our next episode where we'll tackle the crucial topic of mineral rights for rural property buyers.

Transcript

Introduction to Rural Home Considerations

Speaker 1 0:00

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Speaker 2 0:27

Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. This is Jim. Of course Laura is here.

Speaker 3 0:32

Hello everyone. How are you doing?

Speaker 2 0:34

The office, goddess. So we are seeing a lot of people moving outside of the city.

Speaker 1 0:42

Columbus.

Speaker 2 0:43

Dayton, cincinnati. Whatever they're moving out, they're going more toward the country.

Speaker 3 0:47

More rural settings?

Speaker 2 0:49

Yes, yes, and there are septic systems and well systems for Columbus within two steps. There are well septic systems there. Not very many, but they do exist. So what are the costs involved with that? Because some people are thinking hey, I'm going to build a house out in the country. I don't know anything about a septic system, I don't know anything about a well system.

Speaker 3 1:17

And it is a different mindset, it's a different mentality.

Septic System Costs & Maintenance

Speaker 2 1:20

It's different, but you need to know some of these costs up front. So that's what we're going to talk today, so let's go ahead and get right into that. So if you're building a house, you just don't hook up to the city sewer system, which the city and the builder had made, you have to pay for your septic system.

Speaker 3 1:39

To be put in by a separate person and then, depending on the county, you may need permits. There may be specific people that can do the installation of that. So like, for example, when we built here in Vinton County, there was a list of people that we could pick from, but our builder knew someone who was on the list and he recommended that guy, so we just went with him.

Speaker 2 2:03

Yeah, so you have that expense, but then you also have expenses where every year someone who was on the list and he recommended that guy, so we just went with him. Yeah, so you have that expense, but then also have expenses where every year well, not every year, but they should be pumped out every three to five years so that's a cost in that. Annual inspections I know down here in benton county they don't do not enforce annual inspections. What we've been told. They tell you, hey, you should do it, but nobody shows up.

Speaker 3 2:29

There's no enforcement.

Speaker 2 2:31

There's no enforcement at all.

Speaker 3 2:32

Well, it's a poor county. They don't have the ability to enforce a lot of that stuff.

Speaker 2 2:36

Correct, correct and then you've got repairs and replacement if you need to. Hopefully you never need to. But septic systems should be able to last you, you know 20 years easily with proper maintenance. Easily that's a long time. They get well maintenance as well. Um taxes. If you're going to do some country living there's like a country mouse city, mouse taxes are definitely lower in the country. You don't have the city, the sewer, um you don't have the what? What were our water bills in mechanicsburg, ohio?

Speaker 3 3:14

about 150 a month that is insane.

Speaker 2 3:17

what is our water bill now here in? We're in vincent county we get Jackson County water. What was our last water bill?

Speaker 3 3:26

75 bucks.

Speaker 2 3:28

So a half.

Speaker 3 3:29

It cut in half.

Speaker 2 3:31

Definitely cut in half, and there's three of us living here.

Speaker 3 3:36

And there's no sewer on that. There was also sewage on our Mechanicsburg water bill, but not here, because all we're getting from here is the water.

Speaker 2 3:43

Yeah, so that's another save. We'll do a comparison here is living in the country. You do not have this sewer tax, the sewer line, the tax for that. You do have the cost of putting in the septic system. So we're gonna look, we're gonna do a comparison with professor grock. Here is did the analysis already for us?

Speaker 3 4:04

You and your Professor Grock.

Speaker 2 4:06

Yeah, let's look at the initial cost for drilling a well, this thing here. They said $5,000 to $10,000 for drilling a well. I'm sure prices are all over the place. We've got some places that are just crazy amounts. So you pick who you want. Septic system $3,000 to like $ like twelve thousand dollars, I don't remember what we paid for ours?

Speaker 3 4:27

I think it was about ten, wasn't it? It was about ten it was about ten.

Speaker 2 4:30

We have a different way of assessing. That's supposed to be pretty nice. It's the chamber system instead of the typical leach field oh maybe that's another discussion. We'll talk about that so anyway so you got that. You got a sporadic cost every now and then for you know, maybe clean out the septic tank, maybe do something to the drain field. No monthly bills for your sewer or anything like that. None of that Water bills. So Grok, grok. Every US household water bill is $42 per month.

Speaker 3 5:11

I think Grok is on crack.

Speaker 2 5:12

Wow, $21 in Wisconsin, $105 per month in West Virginia. There's a huge variability in this. But then sewer bills, combined taxes, higher property taxes in the city, that's for sure. Higher property taxes in the city, that's for sure. You got a cost for connecting to city water, connecting to the city sewer, which your builder will just pass those on to you if you are building a house within city limits.

Speaker 3 5:43

Actually, we took care of setting up our water before the builder started and we had that all run. I think it was $5,000 for the deposit for ours.

Speaker 2 5:53

For the water.

Speaker 3 5:54

For the water, for them to run the line and get everything run up.

Speaker 2 5:57

Well, we're like 900 feet from the road where they had to make the connection. No.

Speaker 3 6:03

I was talking about the water. So from the water company I think it was five grand and that wasn't including the running the lineup. That was another person that did that they just put the the cap there oh, it wasn't that much. No, it was like no, it was like 2000 oh, it's 2000 yeah 2000 hookup and then the pipe coming all the way up so maybe I'm thinking of like everything together, then maybe that could be, that could be so then vietnam, what country I mean?

Speaker 2 6:31

you just don't have that, the taxes at all. So listen, you got short term. Long term, like your typical short-term costs are putting in the septic, hooking up the water we're just gonna have that anyway in the city or putting in a well.

Speaker 3 6:45

You're also if you're out in the country versus the city and you're drilling a well. You're also, if you're out in the country versus the city and you're drilling a well, you're going to want to test that water at least that first year, like every quarter, like every change of season, because you want to see, like, how the rain patterns impact. That. So include a couple hundred bucks.

Speaker 2 7:05

At this point. This is talking about setting it up.

Break-Even Analysis for Rural Living

Speaker 3 7:08

Well, that's still part of setting it up. You should always take a water test when it's done so that it's good you should. Most people won't do it, but you should, you should, you should.

Speaker 2 7:25

You also should save at least 10% of your income a month. It's kind of hard to do nowadays too, for people Well, they don't plan well. So if you install a new well and septic system, let's say that costs you between $8,400 and $22,000. With the savings that you will have in no water or sewage bills, your break-even even point five to 15 years, compared to city utility costs which are never going to go away well, they will increase and they will increase, they will as did ours like when we first moved into mechanicsburg.

Speaker 2 8:04

Our initial bill like minimum bill was like 46 bucks period yeah, well, that's because, as far as I know, the city didn't manage things well.

Speaker 3 8:12

That's why they had to jack it up so much, because the shitty plumbing that they have they were told that they had to jack it up by the epa because they had not listened to said epa and had to do a bunch of upgrades. And that was why the stuff jacked up, because the epa told them they didn't have a choice laura.

Speaker 2 8:30

Laura was on their village council there and that's information that was publicly known but not publicly shared readily yeah.

Speaker 1 8:40

Because that's the way they did things.

Speaker 2 8:42

But anyway, that's a whole different story.

Speaker 3 8:45

That's a whole other podcast.

Speaker 2 8:47

Yeah, so your break-even, this is called right now on the average 10 years is your break-even. This is called right now on the average 10 years is your is your break-even point because you have to do more up up front cost right building the place.

Speaker 2 9:01

So there's some pros living on a well and septic out in the country is. You don't have any monthly bills, you lower taxes, you're independent from some of the municipal systems. You may even have better taste in water because you're not having. Maybe you're one of those people who are against fluoride. You don't like a whole bunch of chlorine being put into your water because I know. I remember in some place like McHenryburg or now, the water just smelled like chlorine while I'm taking a shower.

Speaker 3 9:31

Yeah, it was not pretty.

Pros and Cons of Well/Septic vs City

Speaker 2 9:33

And you're breathing in that chlorine I'm like, don't like that. So the cons of out in the country is you could have some sporadic high repair costs. Your maintenance responsibility is completely on you. You could have the risk of the well getting contaminated or drying up, which that's not very common because we've had plenty of rain. But if you're using your water wisely and not running it constantly, it should not be an issue. The pros, if you're in the city for the water sewer is low maintenance, predictable bills.

Speaker 3 10:14

Until that yearly increase comes in, wow, and then you're predictable again and you could predict it's going to go up a few percentage every year.

Speaker 2 10:23

You have less risk of a system failure. It is treated with fluoride and chlorine, which is kind of the side of the fence here. On that one, that's even an issue you will have a con for. City water is higher reoccurring costs, rate hikes, your vulnerable citywide issues. Remember when I was like, hey, guess what? You can't drink the water you have to boil your water.

Speaker 3 10:47

We had that in Mechanicsburg a couple times.

Speaker 2 10:50

Well, yeah, you come home or you decide to go out the front door and you see the sticker, the little message, and you go like, oh, Well, crap. Thanks for freaking telling me you got that going on.

Speaker 3 11:02

Now I will also say so. I grew up in the country on a well and in school in grade school not in high school, but in grade school, like one through six we were given fluoride tablets in the morning. That was part of our morning routine. We'd say the Pledge of Allegiance, we'd get our fluoride tablets, we'd start the day Okay. Now I didn't, because I always got sick off of Florida.

Speaker 2 11:26

Was that before or after you had your hunter safety class?

Speaker 3 11:30

That was before Hunter safety. I needed to graduate.

Speaker 2 11:33

That is how rural Laura was.

Speaker 3 11:37

You know what?

Speaker 2 11:38

But I don't hold that against you, buddy. I do like to remind you of that. So the conclusion from Professor Grock is living in a country with a well and septic system is generally cheaper than city living with municipal water and sewer bills, Mainly due to the absence of monthly utility bills and the lower property taxes. What are our taxes here? This is just the land. They haven't caught up to the house being on here yet. I don't believe, but our, our property taxes were like 460 dollars, something like that four or five hundred bucks for 43 acres yes that's insanely cheap compared to arabia.

Speaker 3 12:24

Well, our property taxes and mechanics burg were easily twice that.

Speaker 2 12:29

Oh, easily, easily, twice Easily Because it was over $1,000.

Speaker 3 12:33

It was $1,000 something.

Speaker 2 12:34

And I'm sure that's going up every single year.

Speaker 3 12:36

Yep, it is.

Speaker 2 12:37

Now the city does give you predictable bills and minimum maintenance Because there's a problem with the country. It's like every now and then your well is gonna go dry it's not gonna work. It could. It's probably because the pump finally goes out or you did not do any maintenance to it and clean that filter and slow it down.

Property Tax Advantages & Conclusion

Speaker 2 12:56

Let me tell you, pulling that pump is a freaking pain in the butt yeah especially if it's deep one, because you got to pull that up by hand well, most of them are probably gonna be I don't know 200 feet deep around here. It kind of depends where you're at how deep they're gonna go. So the the pump itself two hundred dollars yeah, two hundred dollars, so you could spend an afternoon pulling that up. Do something that's only cost you two hundred dollars if you pay somebody to do that it's gonna be a lot more expensive.

Speaker 2 13:23

I don't, really don't know. A thousand dollars, they should easily double I don't know, typically they double, triple the cost of the of the materials.

Speaker 3 13:29

But this that is labor intensive and heavy to pull you, you need to have more than one person helping you pull, because you're going to get to the point where your arms are just like I can't do this anymore and you need to swap off, and that you have to do that and you're going to need more than one person to help pull. And then then you just let it sit there and y'all collapse and go, okay, that's done, so, let's get this finished at some point. And then you have to lower it back down, which is its own level of insanity, because you can't just drop it. You got to take care of it, you've got to be a controlled descent, so yeah, so, all, so, yeah.

Speaker 2 14:08

So all this, these numbers that Grodd came up for us, is you save money living out in the country? You do? And we've noticed some things are cheaper out here as well, Like go to Mama Rini's good little place here in MacArthur it was. It's not expensive when we.

Speaker 3 14:27

No for food.

Speaker 2 14:28

No, it's not expensive. When we no for food, no, it's not expensive at all. Um, car repair we know we got some good deals with some car. Some car repair is so anyway, there's a lot of bonuses. But they don't mention that because grok just looked at all the numbers and did all the math for me and everything. But the one thing you do get is you don't have a city person coming up and telling you what to do what you can't do on your property. I mean, earlier today I felt like going shooting, so I took the ATV a little bit further back on the property, did some shooting so the dogs wouldn't hear you, so the dogs wouldn't hear you.

Speaker 2 15:09

So the dogs wouldn't hear me because the dogs freak out. But that's it, do what I want. We got chickens. There's no city person go, hey, you can't have a rooster here and you're only limited to five. I'm like nope, we'll have 50 chickens if we want.

Speaker 3 15:23

Nobody telling me when I have to mow my grass.

Speaker 2 15:25

I do not, I can just mow it whenever I want to. Correct, but I do not want 50 chickens. We got like seven now.

Speaker 3 15:32

And I'm going to get five more, and that's enough.

Speaker 2 15:35

That should be plenty. Yes A dozen would be plenty. Yes, yes, it will.

Speaker 3 15:39

So, anyway.

Speaker 2 15:40

So there's a math. If you have somebody who is, if you're a real estate agent and you have somebody looking about moving to the country building, send me a message. I'll get you all the grok information here.

Speaker 3 15:58

I will share that with you. There's also some other things that you have to think about if they're moving to the country Just off the top of my head. The one that's the most important is to have all the mineral rights to the property.

Speaker 2 16:12

And that could be another podcast that we'll talk about. Let's talk about that next, All right, Thank you everybody. Bye guys. All right, bye-bye.

Speaker 4 16:20

You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts to get new, fresh episodes. For more, please follow us on Instagram, twitter and Facebook, or visit the website of the best Ohio home inspection company at homeinspectionsinohiocom or jimtroffcom. That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H and click on podcast. Until next time, learn and go do stuff.