Curious - what is the "traditional" procedure in YOUR area for selling vacant land in a rural area where there is no sewer system?

Is the seller generally expected to pay for the tests to verify that the land will support a septic system?

Does the buyer have to pay for that?

I know that often this can be negotiated (seller pays up front, gets reimbursed either in full or partially at closing for the cost, and sometimes the seller flat out refuses and the buyer has to suck it up and pay for it or find another property.)

I'm asking for an "in general" scenario.

I've recently made my own rule: Property must have a current or very recent passing perc test before I will list it. Saves a lot of frustration when you have a deal going that's dependent on a passing perc test and not everyone is being cooperative....

Most of the time in my area, the offer is made contingent upon the buyer being able to get a septic permit that the buyer pays for. It is negotiable, but most sellers do not want to pay for it.

I like your rule and would have to say it is pretty good headache prevention. May have to start using the same policy. Very similar to a pre-listing inspection for preventing last minutes deal killers.

The septic permit is not as bad as the perc test which can cost a few hundred bucks.

Right now I'm upset with myself for deviating from my rule! What a nuisance! Never again will I list a piece of vacant land, don't care if it's oceanfront...unless it has a valid perc/ soil drainage test! UGH! It's just NOT worth it!

Sometimes the parcel will support a waste water disposal system . . . . but not in a location convenient to where the Buyer wants to build.

The larger the parcel, the more likely it is that there are multiple building sites . . . . so unless the Seller can read the mind of the Future Unknown Buyer, he have spent his money doing a Perc Test in the wrong location.

And while some soils might support the waste water disposal from a 3 bedroom home, the Buyer might want to engineer a system that's going to accommodate a larger home.

So it's often a "Catch 22" . . . . you don't know if it will perc where the future buyer wants to build until you know who the future buyer is and what he wants to build and where he wants to build it.

Sometimes Sellers do a cheap Perc Test in a place that's just convenient to do a perc test . . . . but not where anyone would really want to build . . . . and that might help to market the property; then the Buyer can do a more elaborate Perc Test where it might actually bear a relationship to where he might intend to build.

Sellers don't like to hear that "Yes, it's true that you spent good money on your Perc Test and Septic Design . . . . but you wasted your money because you did it in the Wrong Place." I've had to carry that message more than once.

PS: Make sure Test Results convey with the property. Some Site Technicians, hungry for work, are now refusing to pass such data along to new Owners without getting a commitment for more work . . . . or being paid a 2nd time for their original effort.

Vermont, most of what I'm dealing with are small half acre lots in associations. There is not much choice as to where to put what.

Larger parcels of land is different...I guess I should have specified my rules better.

Okay, then never mind. Maybe we're too "rural" for a comparison.

The On-Site Potable Water and Sewage Disposal Regulations that Governor Howard Dean left Vermont with, pretty much rendered ½ Acres Lots "undevelopable". On a lot that's a mere 150' X 150' (or 100' X 200') you simply cannot install both a Water Well and a Septic System and meet the necessary set-backs (typically 100' in all directions) for them from your property lines, your neighbors' Wells and Leach Fields, or to isolate them from one another on your own property.

Once you finish working with your protractor on the map of a small parcel, and mark off these isolation distances, you'll discover that there's not much land left over that could be developed . . . . and that's BEFORE you study the underlying soils or conduct a perc test. Our Regs also call for you to engineer a secondary, or replacement, leach field for when the 1st one fails. That pretty much guaranteed that your small lot was worthless for any development.

All you can do is hope that some day a Municipal Water Line or a Sanitary Sewer, OR BOTH, will one day be installed to allow you to do something with such a small lot. That's a little doubtful in this century.

But being as rural as we are, there really aren't very many ½ Acre Lots sitting around. Had there been, Howard would not have been able to push this form of confiscation through our Legislature . . . . but there weren't very many people around who were awake while that Ox was being gored.

They call this the "Green Mountain State", and along with that name comes a high water table. High water tables and perc tests don't fit together very well. I have sold parcels containing 100 Acres of good looking land, up the side of a well drained hillside . . . . but where we could find only three (3) tiny little areas that would perc and could be developed. That happened to be okay for that particular Buyer; but would have been ridiculous for most.

So, as it is anywhere else, "Buyer Beware !" Maybe even a little more so here than elsewhere; but that's also part of what will keep us "Rural".

If the half acre doesn't perc and you can't build on it the seller needs to realize they made a huge mistake and sell it cheap one of the adjoining parcels. They will be the only ones most likely interested in it for usable land.

Is the land flat,or gently rolling, or falling off a cliff??

It sounds like the seller didn't do research and buy right in the beginning.

In my case the issue isn't so much the perc test but the payment of said item. Not only that but getting the darn thing COMPLETED....the people who get paid whether or not the property sells are often the least motivated to get it done in a timely manner. *thunks head on desk*

That said, every single time I've had a listing w/ vacant land requiring a perc test, everyone involved is up in arms over paying for the darn thing even though I educate them all about the realities beforehand. We had one where the seller agreed to do it ahead of time but only if the buyer reimbursed him if it passed. That's reasonable, but the buyer was snippy over it saying if the seller was offering it as a building lot then he better prove that it's buildable....oy....but he paid for it anyway, reluctantly...drama, drama, drama...real estate is dramatic enough without more of it over poop systems.

I just don't want to be bothered with the drama of it all anymore. If it's not on community sewer, tough...get someone else to list it. LOL

Mine is the half acre, Super - I think Vermont was talking about a much larger parcel.