Letter to the Editor

Realtor speaks about septic tanks

Leo,

Congrats on your septic inspections article. While I understand the possible environmental consequences, I am very concerned about the adverse effect these inspections would have especially on Bella Vista.

To start -- the inspection fee would be between $250 and $350. If the tank could not be found and they have to flush a transmitter, there would be an additional cost of about $100.

OK -- from a real estate standpoint, adding such fees to the costs of a lower priced home would cause serious problem to buyers and sellers. If the buyer agreed to pay for this, they would be paying perhaps $450 in addition to their home inspection of maybe $300 +/- all for home they may never own. In many cases they would have to ask the seller to pay for the septic inspection.

Now to the galvanized septic tank issue. Unless the tank has been replaced, most of the homes built in Bella Vista before 1986 or so would have a galvanized tank. It is pretty much assured that those galvanized tanks, which canNOT be pumped because they collapse, would in most cases not pass the proposed tank inspection. So after spending $250-$450, the home owner would be facing a $2500 +/- charge to replace the septic tank with a new plastic one.

Given that a lot of the pre 1986 homes in Bella Vista are in the under $75,000 sale price range, imagine that transfer then having to take on an additional $3,000 in expenses. That yields a sale that cannot probably go through -- would the appraiser magically appraise the house for $3,000 more because of a new septic tank ?

The unintended consequence could easily be that many more of these older homes would be abandoned because they could not be sold. And what of the numbers of those homes already under foreclosure -- the bank or HUD will not do such repairs, but the buyer would most likely not be able to add the price of those repairs to the cost of the home because it will not appraise. And most lenders will not escrow funds for repairs done after closing -- and bank owned or HUD properties cannot be worked on before they are owned. So those properties would be caught in financial and practical limbo, unable to be sold and unable to be bought.

Extending public sewer into those areas would only exacerbate the issue as that would add $6,000 - $8,000 on to the sale price of the home, making the issues discussed above even more dire for anyone owning those older less expensive homes.

Hmm, a conundrum.

Linda LloydBella Vista, Ark.