Inspecting rural homes will  involve several system reports not usually required in urban or suburban sales.  In addition to the items discussed in our other articles about home inspections (wood destroying pest, whole house, heating and air, chimney, roof etc.) rural properties typically require corner or boundary marking, septic, well, and possibly others.

In our area of northern California, Placer and Nevada counties,these inspections are usually paid for by the seller.

Usually.
On some sales, however, especially foreclosures and short sales, the lender or owner will not (or cannot) incur the expenses.

Ideally, these additional rural inspections should be conducted before the property goes on the market.  Please refer to our complete examination of this tactic in our article Pre-Inspections by the Sellers

If, however, these inspections become the responsibility of the buyer, they should be conducted in the order from least to most expensive.  I’ll include a couple of the inspections that are also advisable for urban homes in order to present an overview of the sequence.

$125-200     Wood destroying pest

$200-400     Corner marking

$350-500     Whole house inspection

$400-500     Well test for yield and bacterial contamination

$50-250      Mineral test on the well water (if appropriate)

$600-800     Septic pumping , leach field test, septic tank inspection.  You should also check our our article “Professor Poop’s Effluent Exam–25 Questions” for a detailed discussion on septic system tests.

The total bill for rural inspections (not including the pest or whole house) is $1250-$1950.