City Water but No Sewer: Hidden Utility Gaps on Land Deals

Land Investing
1

Ran records on a parcel in Parker, Texas a few weeks back for a buyer who was close to closing.

City address. Inside city limits. Inside the City of Parker’s water CCN, number 10207, so the water was real. He had been assuming city services the whole way through and nobody had corrected him.

The parcel was in no sewer CCN at all. Not a different provider, not sewer coming in 2027. None. Septic or nothing, on a deal he had already priced assuming he would tie into a main.

The part I keep thinking about is that nothing in the listing was wrong. The address was a city address. The water was city water. There just isn’t a line on the form that says and also you are paying for a septic system. His agent didn’t lie to him and probably didn’t know either.

What got me is that water and sewer are mapped as two completely separate service areas in Texas, and people treat utility coverage as one thing. You can sit inside one and outside the other and the map looks fine either way unless you pull both.

Curious what everyone else’s version of this is. What killed a deal for you that wasn’t on any checklist you were running at the time?

2

My version of this is on the Missouri side: a lot with a city address and city water, but the sewer was a private lagoon the seller never mentioned, and the lot would not perc for a conventional septic either. The listing said public water, which was true, and said nothing about sewer at all, which was also technically true. The buyer only found out because the lender’s appraiser flagged it. Now I pull water and sewer separately on every parcel, in writing, from the provider, and I ask the seller’s agent a direct question: what kind of sewer, and when was it last serviced? If the answer is vague, that is the answer. Your point about the forms is right - there is no line for it, so you have to make your own line.