Water Well Or City Water? (How do you know?)

Due Diligence
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How do you find out weather or not what kind of water services are available on the property if the previous owner doesn't know?

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Thing I try include:

- Reach out to neighboring / area property owners - particularly the one's whos property appear to have houses or buildings.

- If the property is in a city limits - call the city water department

- If the property is in an HOA, call the HOA or property manager office

- if none of the above, Google "Rural water district" or "Water Association" or "Water Supply" + "[county name] County [state]"


Karl

2 Likes
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@karljames Great thank you ill reach out! Thanks you for the tip!

1 Like
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@karljames has your answer. Another creative approach was mentioned in this thread as well, though it's probably not a necessary step if you follow Karl's advice.

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@ramrodd Call the City to find out who provides the water utility service. I had that same question, and asking additional questions got me (what I believe may be) some valuable info that many might not consider.

I spoke to the City employee asking which company handles the water supply. He told me that the City handles the service and water is available to the address in question. Great, cool, end of the research, right?

You don’t necessarily need to spend too much time getting details. I figured, “great, this parcel has water available for no additional hookup fee”… Until he told me that they tell the residents NOT TO DRINK THE WATER! Whoa! What? Yeah, it’s okay for washing, showering, irrigation, etc., BUT DON’T DRINK IT. He told me that residents of this area have their drinking water hauled in. I dug deeper into this and finally found out that there is already a plan in place, and funded for a new well that will provide, fresh, clean, drinking water within 3 years.

So, first I thought DO NOT BUY HERE, but now I think, BUY NOW before the values go up due to the new, clean water supply.

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Karl mentioned several great steps...

But the simplest is to simply ask the seller.

A thirty second conversation can save a lot of time. In most cases they know, or already researched it.