Assume they have a back up battery on the pump. 
Fine, as long as there’s electricity to keep the pumping the schidtt uphill. The system can be a bit finicky I guess.
We went to see them, and since it was an hour and half away we decided to stay the night so the kids could visit, etc. It seems that having 8 people in the house instead of 4 required changing some settings since they kept getting some kind of holding tank warning.
Some other friends bought a house with a septic system. They needed to have it serviced and were told that the system had aged out and needed replacement, but that company wouldn’t work on the system since a concrete driveway had been poured between the tank and drain field.
Just two of many reasons I won’t buy a house that’s not connected to a sewer system.
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Where I live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, we also have several of these companies and in my experience they are “Bottom Feeders”… They go on a walk thru of your home (no inspection required…) and they find every little thing and blow it up to some huge repair…
My subdivision has about 500-homes in it and they generally are assessed at $400,000 up to $1,000,000 and they almost all sell for at least 5% more than the assessed value.
Over the last couple of years, several elderly couples, or the surviving spouse, decided to take advantage of these quick sales to downsize their homes. Not one of them was offered more than 60% of the assessed value. All declined the low-ball offers…
Ultimately, they sold their homes “As Is…” Two of them received upwards of 90% of the assessed value and a bidding war brought the third one up to the assessed value.
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Late 80’s we built our starter home for less than $90000 . We are still in it .
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Amy Scott (of ‘Marketplace’) reported on a couple who sold their Baltimore row house for $70K to a ‘WE BUY HOMES!’ purchaser, who re-sold it for $175K after doing nothing to fix it up: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2023/04/28/whos-the-we-behind-those-we-buy-houses-signs
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/business/economic-divide-spending-inflation-jobs.html Has the market split between those who can pay a lot and the most of us?
Chavez and Cabean knew what they were getting into when they sold their row home. They could have done the work to get city approval for a sale. Repainting would likely have met the lead paint requirements. Lead paint does not have to be removed, but does need to be completely covered. It seems like they did enough background work to know that. They just didn’t care for the hassle and sold low.
Here is some perspective. the ATP of new vehicles in the U.S. was $49,740 in December of 2024. So, ATP has risen about 0.6% in the last 10 months. The group who posted the data the story uses, wrote that the ATP change this past period is “…aligned with the long-term average of ATP inflation.” ATP was $49,057 in December of 2022. The most commonly purchased vehicle for personal use (Compact Crossover) is $37,719. Compact Car ATP is $26,947.
I’ve known many people over the years who bought way more car/truck than they need and gotten themselves into DEEP financial trouble because of it
The ones in the most dire circumstances were the ones who CHOSE to trade in their not yet paid-off vehicles and “roll that” into a new one
After a few times doing that, they had to declare bankruptcy
I ALWAYS pay cash
My dad said if you can’t pay the full price of the car immediately, you can’t afford it
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Sounds like they ignored the good advice “If you’ve dug yourself a hole, stop digging!”
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Really saw that happen a lot back during the 70’s gas crisis. People had bought these huge trucks (at least by 70’s standards) with an EPA rating of no more than 12mpg. Never hauled anything. All they really needed was a vehicle the size of a Pinto or Vega. I remember one small car lot having well over 20 1-2 year of these trucks on their lots. It got so bad that dealers stopped taking them in trade because they couldn’t get rid of them.
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And now, those 1970s trucks are worth boku bucks in running condition…not that I’d want one. In fact, 1980s Toyota pickups routinely sell for more than they cost new, with well over 200,000 miles!
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Covering up lead paint can be a complicated and an expensive option….
To cover up lead paint on old buildings; yes you need to use encapsulation, a method that seals the lead paint with a special, durable coating like an epoxy, polymer, or cement-type product.
You have to prepare the surface by cleaning it thoroughly, then apply a high-quality, lead-blocking primer, followed by the encapsulant (special paint that is an elastomeric barrier to seal and block dangerous lead-based dust from entering the air…) itself, and finally a durable topcoat for maximum protection…
All expensive and time consuming. Many contractors speed up the work and cut the costs by simply installing new drywall over the old wall.
I saw on some home fit-it show years ago a municipality only requires the first 4-feet to be lead encapsulated and the contractor only installed a single sheet of drywall around the rooms and then installed chair rail or other trim to set it off… (cheap is as cheap does…)
We looked at used 1/2 ton trucks around 2009 and a local dealership was discounting heavily. Wanted all the big v8 trucks gone. Was tempted but changed our mind on the boat it would be towing.
Co worker about 15yrs ago would go from a 4cyl compact to a V8 trucj and complain about the fuel cost. Probably traded every 6mo_1yr before her folks gave her a used T100 and paid off the loans. Really she needled to stop driving by car dealerships.
Moved to North Dakota for thevoil boom but at last report was still buying bad trucks. Tried a Lr freelander at one point.
When I bought my Buick Regal I had to go across the street to their Chevy dealer to finish the paperwork. Another buyer was there with me. He was trading in his Silverado that was running poorly and buying another loaded Silverado. He lamented that he owed a lot on the old truck but had to have a new one. I kept quiet but figured he was not very good with money.
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She ended the streak with a 08 focus coupe that she boght even not really liking 5. Her parents paid off the lans and gave her a decent Toyota T100 paid for before they moved to nodak.
12yrs is short term ownership for us. Most bought new and kept up to 22yrs.
Not a lot of them left. Here in the Northeast, many rotted away within a few years. And there were THOUSANDS sold for scrap metal and crushed because no one could afford to keep them.
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I’ve been kind of a contrarian. I just do what I want regardless of the latest scares or fads. About 1978 we went looking for a small car for my wife to commute to classes in. All the small cars were way over priced due to the gas costs. We ran across a big ole Lincoln at a low price. Rode like a dream and we bought it. Our liberal neighbor called it our pimpmobile compared to his little Saab. So what? It was a great car and a few years later traded it for more than we paid for it.
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$105K worth of hassle?