July 10, 2025 • 16 mins
The rural exodus is real. As more families flee city living for country tranquility, they're encountering unfamiliar territory: well water and septic systems. This candid conversation tackles everything you need to know about the financial realities of rural utilities.
We dive deep into the numbers that matter. That initial sticker shock of $5,000-$10,000 for well drilling and another $3,000-$12,000 for septic installation might seem daunting, but the long-term math tells a different story. Our personal experience reveals how our water bills dropped by half after moving to the country, while our property taxes plummeted from over $1,000 to just $460 annually for 43 acres. The financial advantage becomes clear with a break-even point averaging 10 years compared to ever-increasing city utility costs.
Beyond dollars and cents, country living delivers freedom that city dwellers can only dream about. No municipal restrictions means you can raise chickens, practice target shooting on your property, or skip mowing without neighborhood complaints. However, responsibility shifts entirely to you—from occasional septic pumping to well maintenance when problems arise. We share real-world experiences pulling well pumps (a genuine workout!) and navigating rural infrastructure challenges, giving you the unfiltered truth about country living's pros and cons. Subscribe for our next episode where we'll tackle the crucial topic of mineral rights for rural property buyers.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection, you
really can't go wrong.
(00:21):
Visit homeinspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out in
Ohio podcast.
This is Jim.
Of course Laura is here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The office, goddess.
So we are seeing a lot ofpeople moving outside of the
city.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Columbus.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Dayton, cincinnati.
Whatever they're moving out,they're going more toward the
country.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
More rural settings?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, yes, and there are septic systems and well
systems for Columbus within twosteps.
There are well septic systemsthere.
Not very many, but they doexist.
So what are the costs involvedwith that?
Because some people arethinking hey, I'm going to build
(01:09):
a house out in the country.
I don't know anything about aseptic system, I don't know
anything about a well system.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And it is a different mindset, it's a different
mentality.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's different, but you need to know some of these
costs up front.
So that's what we're going totalk today, so let's go ahead
and get right into that.
So if you're building a house,you just don't hook up to the
city sewer system, which thecity and the builder had made,
you have to pay for your septicsystem.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
To be put in by a separate person and then,
depending on the county, you mayneed permits.
There may be specific peoplethat can do the installation of
that.
So like, for example, when webuilt here in Vinton County,
there was a list of people thatwe could pick from, but our
builder knew someone who was onthe list and he recommended that
(02:03):
guy, so we just went with him.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, so you have that expense, but then you also
have expenses where every yearsomeone who was on the list and
he recommended that guy, so wejust went with him.
Yeah, so you have that expense,but then also have expenses
where every year well, not everyyear, but they should be pumped
out every three to five yearsso that's a cost in that.
Annual inspections I know downhere in benton county they don't
do not enforce annualinspections.
What we've been told.
(02:24):
They tell you, hey, you shoulddo it, but nobody shows up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
There's no enforcement.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
There's no enforcement at all.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, it's a poor county.
They don't have the ability toenforce a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Correct, correct and then you've got repairs and
replacement if you need to.
Hopefully you never need to.
But septic systems should beable to last you, you know 20
years easily with propermaintenance.
Easily that's a long time.
They get well maintenance aswell.
Um taxes.
If you're going to do somecountry living there's like a
(02:56):
country mouse city, mouse taxesare definitely lower in the
country.
You don't have the city, thesewer, um you don't have the
what?
What were our water bills inmechanicsburg, ohio?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
about 150 a month that is insane.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
what is our water bill now here in?
We're in vincent county we getJackson County water.
What was our last water bill?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
75 bucks.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So a half.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It cut in half.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Definitely cut in half, and there's three of us
living here.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And there's no sewer on that.
There was also sewage on ourMechanicsburg water bill, but
not here, because all we'regetting from here is the water.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, so that's another save.
We'll do a comparison here isliving in the country.
You do not have this sewer tax,the sewer line, the tax for
that.
You do have the cost of puttingin the septic system.
So we're gonna look, we'regonna do a comparison with
professor grock.
Here is did the analysisalready for us?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
You and your Professor Grock.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, let's look at the initial cost for drilling a
well, this thing here.
They said $5,000 to $10,000 fordrilling a well.
I'm sure prices are all overthe place.
We've got some places that arejust crazy amounts.
So you pick who you want.
Septic system $3,000 to like $like twelve thousand dollars, I
don't remember what we paid forours?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I think it was about ten, wasn't it?
It was about ten it was aboutten.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We have a different way of assessing.
That's supposed to be prettynice.
It's the chamber system insteadof the typical leach field oh
maybe that's another discussion.
We'll talk about that so anywayso you got that.
You got a sporadic cost everynow and then for you know, maybe
clean out the septic tank,maybe do something to the drain
(04:54):
field.
No monthly bills for your seweror anything like that.
None of that Water bills.
So Grok, grok.
Every US household water billis $42 per month.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I think Grok is on crack.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Wow, $21 in Wisconsin , $105 per month in West
Virginia.
There's a huge variability inthis.
But then sewer bills, combinedtaxes, higher property taxes in
the city, that's for sure.
Higher property taxes in thecity, that's for sure.
You got a cost for connectingto city water, connecting to the
(05:34):
city sewer, which your builderwill just pass those on to you
if you are building a housewithin city limits.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Actually, we took care of setting up our water
before the builder started andwe had that all run.
I think it was $5,000 for thedeposit for ours.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
For the water.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
For the water, for them to run the line and get
everything run up.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, we're like 900 feet from the road where they
had to make the connection.
No.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I was talking about the water.
So from the water company Ithink it was five grand and that
wasn't including the runningthe lineup.
That was another person thatdid that they just put the the
cap there oh, it wasn't thatmuch.
No, it was like no, it was like2000 oh, it's 2000 yeah 2000
hookup and then the pipe comingall the way up so maybe I'm
(06:23):
thinking of like everythingtogether, then maybe that could
be, that could be so thenvietnam, what country I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
you just don't have that, the taxes at all.
So listen, you got short term.
Long term, like your typicalshort-term costs are putting in
the septic, hooking up the waterwe're just gonna have that
anyway in the city or putting ina well.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
You're also if you're out in the country versus the
city and you're drilling a well.
You're also, if you're out inthe country versus the city and
you're drilling a well, you'regoing to want to test that water
at least that first year, likeevery quarter, like every change
of season, because you want tosee, like, how the rain patterns
impact.
That.
So include a couple hundredbucks.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
At this point.
This is talking about settingit up.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, that's still part of setting it up.
You should always take a watertest when it's done so that it's
good you should.
Most people won't do it, butyou should, you should, you
should.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You also should save at least 10% of your income a
month.
It's kind of hard to donowadays too, for people Well,
they don't plan well.
So if you install a new welland septic system, let's say
that costs you between $8,400and $22,000.
With the savings that you willhave in no water or sewage bills
(07:49):
, your break-even even pointfive to 15 years, compared to
city utility costs which arenever going to go away well,
they will increase and they willincrease, they will as did ours
like when we first moved intomechanicsburg.
Our initial bill like minimumbill was like 46 bucks period
(08:09):
yeah, well, that's because, asfar as I know, the city didn't
manage things well.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That's why they had to jack it up so much, because
the shitty plumbing that theyhave they were told that they
had to jack it up by the epabecause they had not listened to
said epa and had to do a bunchof upgrades.
And that was why the stuffjacked up, because the epa told
them they didn't have a choicelaura.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Laura was on their village council there and that's
information that was publiclyknown but not publicly shared
readily yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Because that's the way they did things.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
But anyway, that's a whole different story.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
That's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, so your break-even, this is called right
now on the average 10 years isyour break-even.
This is called right now on theaverage 10 years is your is
your break-even point becauseyou have to do more up up front
cost right building the place.
So there's some pros living on awell and septic out in the
(09:07):
country is.
You don't have any monthlybills, you lower taxes, you're
independent from some of themunicipal systems.
You may even have better tastein water because you're not
having.
Maybe you're one of thosepeople who are against fluoride.
You don't like a whole bunch ofchlorine being put into your
water because I know.
I remember in some place likeMcHenryburg or now, the water
(09:29):
just smelled like chlorine whileI'm taking a shower.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, it was not pretty.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And you're breathing in that chlorine I'm like, don't
like that.
So the cons of out in thecountry is you could have some
sporadic high repair costs.
Your maintenance responsibilityis completely on you.
You could have the risk of thewell getting contaminated or
drying up, which that's not verycommon because we've had plenty
(09:58):
of rain.
But if you're using your waterwisely and not running it
constantly, it should not be anissue.
The pros, if you're in the cityfor the water sewer is low
maintenance, predictable bills.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Until that yearly increase comes in, wow, and then
you're predictable again andyou could predict it's going to
go up a few percentage everyyear.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You have less risk of a system failure.
It is treated with fluoride andchlorine, which is kind of the
side of the fence here.
On that one, that's even anissue you will have a con for.
City water is higherreoccurring costs, rate hikes,
your vulnerable citywide issues.
Remember when I was like, hey,guess what?
(10:44):
You can't drink the water youhave to boil your water.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We had that in Mechanicsburg a couple times.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, yeah, you come home or you decide to go out the
front door and you see thesticker, the little message, and
you go like, oh, Well, crap.
Thanks for freaking telling meyou got that going on.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Now I will also say so.
I grew up in the country on awell and in school in grade
school not in high school, butin grade school, like one
through six we were givenfluoride tablets in the morning.
That was part of our morningroutine.
We'd say the Pledge ofAllegiance, we'd get our
fluoride tablets, we'd start theday Okay.
(11:23):
Now I didn't, because I alwaysgot sick off of Florida.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Was that before or after you had your hunter safety
class?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That was before Hunter safety.
I needed to graduate.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That is how rural Laura was.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
But I don't hold that against you, buddy.
I do like to remind you of that.
So the conclusion fromProfessor Grock is living in a
country with a well and septicsystem is generally cheaper than
city living with municipalwater and sewer bills, Mainly
due to the absence of monthlyutility bills and the lower
(12:00):
property taxes.
What are our taxes here?
This is just the land.
They haven't caught up to thehouse being on here yet.
I don't believe, but our, ourproperty taxes were like 460
dollars, something like thatfour or five hundred bucks for
43 acres yes that's insanelycheap compared to arabia.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, our property taxes and mechanics burg were
easily twice that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Oh, easily, easily, twice Easily Because it was over
$1,000.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It was $1,000 something.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And I'm sure that's going up every single year.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yep, it is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Now the city does give you predictable bills and
minimum maintenance Becausethere's a problem with the
country.
It's like every now and thenyour well is gonna go dry it's
not gonna work.
It could.
It's probably because the pumpfinally goes out or you did not
do any maintenance to it andclean that filter and slow it
down.
Let me tell you, pulling thatpump is a freaking pain in the
(13:00):
butt yeah especially if it'sdeep one, because you got to
pull that up by hand well, mostof them are probably gonna be I
don't know 200 feet deep aroundhere.
It kind of depends where you'reat how deep they're gonna go.
So the the pump itself twohundred dollars yeah, two
hundred dollars, so you couldspend an afternoon pulling that
up.
Do something that's only costyou two hundred dollars if you
(13:20):
pay somebody to do that it'sgonna be a lot more expensive.
I don't, really don't know.
A thousand dollars, they shouldeasily double I don't know,
typically they double, triplethe cost of the of the materials
.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
But this that is labor intensive and heavy to
pull you, you need to have morethan one person helping you pull
, because you're going to get tothe point where your arms are
just like I can't do thisanymore and you need to swap off
, and that you have to do thatand you're going to need more
than one person to help pull.
And then then you just let itsit there and y'all collapse and
(13:49):
go, okay, that's done, so,let's get this finished at some
point.
And then you have to lower itback down, which is its own
level of insanity, because youcan't just drop it.
You got to take care of it,you've got to be a controlled
descent, so yeah, so, all, so,yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So all this, these numbers that Grodd came up for
us, is you save money living outin the country?
You do?
And we've noticed some thingsare cheaper out here as well,
Like go to Mama Rini's goodlittle place here in MacArthur
it was.
It's not expensive when we.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No for food.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
No, it's not expensive.
When we no for food, no, it'snot expensive at all.
Um, car repair we know we gotsome good deals with some car.
Some car repair is so anyway,there's a lot of bonuses.
But they don't mention thatbecause grok just looked at all
the numbers and did all the mathfor me and everything.
But the one thing you do get isyou don't have a city person
(14:53):
coming up and telling you whatto do what you can't do on your
property.
I mean, earlier today I feltlike going shooting, so I took
the ATV a little bit furtherback on the property, did some
shooting so the dogs wouldn'thear you, so the dogs wouldn't
hear you.
So the dogs wouldn't hear mebecause the dogs freak out.
But that's it, do what I want.
(15:14):
We got chickens.
There's no city person go, hey,you can't have a rooster here
and you're only limited to five.
I'm like nope, we'll have 50chickens if we want.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Nobody telling me when I have to mow my grass.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I do not, I can just mow it whenever I want to.
Correct, but I do not want 50chickens.
We got like seven now.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
And I'm going to get five more, and that's enough.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That should be plenty .
Yes A dozen would be plenty.
Yes, yes, it will.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So, anyway.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So there's a math.
If you have somebody who is, ifyou're a real estate agent and
you have somebody looking aboutmoving to the country building,
send me a message.
I'll get you all the grokinformation here.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
I will share that with you.
There's also some other thingsthat you have to think about if
they're moving to the countryJust off the top of my head.
The one that's the mostimportant is to have all the
mineral rights to the property.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And that could be another podcast that we'll talk
about.
Let's talk about that next, Allright, Thank you everybody.
Bye guys.
All right, bye-bye.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
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(16:42):
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That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection, you
really can't go wrong.
(00:21):
Visit homeinspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out in
Ohio podcast.
This is Jim.
Of course Laura is here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The office, goddess.
So we are seeing a lot ofpeople moving outside of the
city.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Columbus.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Dayton, cincinnati.
Whatever they're moving out,they're going more toward the
country.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
More rural settings?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, yes, and there are septic systems and well
systems for Columbus within twosteps.
There are well septic systemsthere.
Not very many, but they doexist.
So what are the costs involvedwith that?
Because some people arethinking hey, I'm going to build
(01:09):
a house out in the country.
I don't know anything about aseptic system, I don't know
anything about a well system.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And it is a different mindset, it's a different
mentality.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's different, but you need to know some of these
costs up front.
So that's what we're going totalk today, so let's go ahead
and get right into that.
So if you're building a house,you just don't hook up to the
city sewer system, which thecity and the builder had made,
you have to pay for your septicsystem.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
To be put in by a separate person and then,
depending on the county, you mayneed permits.
There may be specific peoplethat can do the installation of
that.
So like, for example, when webuilt here in Vinton County,
there was a list of people thatwe could pick from, but our
builder knew someone who was onthe list and he recommended that
(02:03):
guy, so we just went with him.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, so you have that expense, but then you also
have expenses where every yearsomeone who was on the list and
he recommended that guy, so wejust went with him.
Yeah, so you have that expense,but then also have expenses
where every year well, not everyyear, but they should be pumped
out every three to five yearsso that's a cost in that.
Annual inspections I know downhere in benton county they don't
do not enforce annualinspections.
What we've been told.
(02:24):
They tell you, hey, you shoulddo it, but nobody shows up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
There's no enforcement.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
There's no enforcement at all.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, it's a poor county.
They don't have the ability toenforce a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Correct, correct and then you've got repairs and
replacement if you need to.
Hopefully you never need to.
But septic systems should beable to last you, you know 20
years easily with propermaintenance.
Easily that's a long time.
They get well maintenance aswell.
Um taxes.
If you're going to do somecountry living there's like a
(02:56):
country mouse city, mouse taxesare definitely lower in the
country.
You don't have the city, thesewer, um you don't have the
what?
What were our water bills inmechanicsburg, ohio?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
about 150 a month that is insane.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
what is our water bill now here in?
We're in vincent county we getJackson County water.
What was our last water bill?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
75 bucks.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So a half.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It cut in half.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Definitely cut in half, and there's three of us
living here.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And there's no sewer on that.
There was also sewage on ourMechanicsburg water bill, but
not here, because all we'regetting from here is the water.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, so that's another save.
We'll do a comparison here isliving in the country.
You do not have this sewer tax,the sewer line, the tax for
that.
You do have the cost of puttingin the septic system.
So we're gonna look, we'regonna do a comparison with
professor grock.
Here is did the analysisalready for us?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
You and your Professor Grock.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, let's look at the initial cost for drilling a
well, this thing here.
They said $5,000 to $10,000 fordrilling a well.
I'm sure prices are all overthe place.
We've got some places that arejust crazy amounts.
So you pick who you want.
Septic system $3,000 to like $like twelve thousand dollars, I
don't remember what we paid forours?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I think it was about ten, wasn't it?
It was about ten it was aboutten.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We have a different way of assessing.
That's supposed to be prettynice.
It's the chamber system insteadof the typical leach field oh
maybe that's another discussion.
We'll talk about that so anywayso you got that.
You got a sporadic cost everynow and then for you know, maybe
clean out the septic tank,maybe do something to the drain
(04:54):
field.
No monthly bills for your seweror anything like that.
None of that Water bills.
So Grok, grok.
Every US household water billis $42 per month.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I think Grok is on crack.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Wow, $21 in Wisconsin , $105 per month in West
Virginia.
There's a huge variability inthis.
But then sewer bills, combinedtaxes, higher property taxes in
the city, that's for sure.
Higher property taxes in thecity, that's for sure.
You got a cost for connectingto city water, connecting to the
(05:34):
city sewer, which your builderwill just pass those on to you
if you are building a housewithin city limits.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Actually, we took care of setting up our water
before the builder started andwe had that all run.
I think it was $5,000 for thedeposit for ours.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
For the water.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
For the water, for them to run the line and get
everything run up.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, we're like 900 feet from the road where they
had to make the connection.
No.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I was talking about the water.
So from the water company Ithink it was five grand and that
wasn't including the runningthe lineup.
That was another person thatdid that they just put the the
cap there oh, it wasn't thatmuch.
No, it was like no, it was like2000 oh, it's 2000 yeah 2000
hookup and then the pipe comingall the way up so maybe I'm
(06:23):
thinking of like everythingtogether, then maybe that could
be, that could be so thenvietnam, what country I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
you just don't have that, the taxes at all.
So listen, you got short term.
Long term, like your typicalshort-term costs are putting in
the septic, hooking up the waterwe're just gonna have that
anyway in the city or putting ina well.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
You're also if you're out in the country versus the
city and you're drilling a well.
You're also, if you're out inthe country versus the city and
you're drilling a well, you'regoing to want to test that water
at least that first year, likeevery quarter, like every change
of season, because you want tosee, like, how the rain patterns
impact.
That.
So include a couple hundredbucks.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
At this point.
This is talking about settingit up.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, that's still part of setting it up.
You should always take a watertest when it's done so that it's
good you should.
Most people won't do it, butyou should, you should, you
should.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You also should save at least 10% of your income a
month.
It's kind of hard to donowadays too, for people Well,
they don't plan well.
So if you install a new welland septic system, let's say
that costs you between $8,400and $22,000.
With the savings that you willhave in no water or sewage bills
(07:49):
, your break-even even pointfive to 15 years, compared to
city utility costs which arenever going to go away well,
they will increase and they willincrease, they will as did ours
like when we first moved intomechanicsburg.
Our initial bill like minimumbill was like 46 bucks period
(08:09):
yeah, well, that's because, asfar as I know, the city didn't
manage things well.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That's why they had to jack it up so much, because
the shitty plumbing that theyhave they were told that they
had to jack it up by the epabecause they had not listened to
said epa and had to do a bunchof upgrades.
And that was why the stuffjacked up, because the epa told
them they didn't have a choicelaura.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Laura was on their village council there and that's
information that was publiclyknown but not publicly shared
readily yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Because that's the way they did things.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
But anyway, that's a whole different story.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
That's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, so your break-even, this is called right
now on the average 10 years isyour break-even.
This is called right now on theaverage 10 years is your is
your break-even point becauseyou have to do more up up front
cost right building the place.
So there's some pros living on awell and septic out in the
(09:07):
country is.
You don't have any monthlybills, you lower taxes, you're
independent from some of themunicipal systems.
You may even have better tastein water because you're not
having.
Maybe you're one of thosepeople who are against fluoride.
You don't like a whole bunch ofchlorine being put into your
water because I know.
I remember in some place likeMcHenryburg or now, the water
(09:29):
just smelled like chlorine whileI'm taking a shower.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, it was not pretty.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And you're breathing in that chlorine I'm like, don't
like that.
So the cons of out in thecountry is you could have some
sporadic high repair costs.
Your maintenance responsibilityis completely on you.
You could have the risk of thewell getting contaminated or
drying up, which that's not verycommon because we've had plenty
(09:58):
of rain.
But if you're using your waterwisely and not running it
constantly, it should not be anissue.
The pros, if you're in the cityfor the water sewer is low
maintenance, predictable bills.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Until that yearly increase comes in, wow, and then
you're predictable again andyou could predict it's going to
go up a few percentage everyyear.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You have less risk of a system failure.
It is treated with fluoride andchlorine, which is kind of the
side of the fence here.
On that one, that's even anissue you will have a con for.
City water is higherreoccurring costs, rate hikes,
your vulnerable citywide issues.
Remember when I was like, hey,guess what?
(10:44):
You can't drink the water youhave to boil your water.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We had that in Mechanicsburg a couple times.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, yeah, you come home or you decide to go out the
front door and you see thesticker, the little message, and
you go like, oh, Well, crap.
Thanks for freaking telling meyou got that going on.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Now I will also say so.
I grew up in the country on awell and in school in grade
school not in high school, butin grade school, like one
through six we were givenfluoride tablets in the morning.
That was part of our morningroutine.
We'd say the Pledge ofAllegiance, we'd get our
fluoride tablets, we'd start theday Okay.
(11:23):
Now I didn't, because I alwaysgot sick off of Florida.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Was that before or after you had your hunter safety
class?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That was before Hunter safety.
I needed to graduate.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That is how rural Laura was.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
But I don't hold that against you, buddy.
I do like to remind you of that.
So the conclusion fromProfessor Grock is living in a
country with a well and septicsystem is generally cheaper than
city living with municipalwater and sewer bills, Mainly
due to the absence of monthlyutility bills and the lower
(12:00):
property taxes.
What are our taxes here?
This is just the land.
They haven't caught up to thehouse being on here yet.
I don't believe, but our, ourproperty taxes were like 460
dollars, something like thatfour or five hundred bucks for
43 acres yes that's insanelycheap compared to arabia.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, our property taxes and mechanics burg were
easily twice that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Oh, easily, easily, twice Easily Because it was over
$1,000.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It was $1,000 something.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And I'm sure that's going up every single year.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yep, it is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Now the city does give you predictable bills and
minimum maintenance Becausethere's a problem with the
country.
It's like every now and thenyour well is gonna go dry it's
not gonna work.
It could.
It's probably because the pumpfinally goes out or you did not
do any maintenance to it andclean that filter and slow it
down.
Let me tell you, pulling thatpump is a freaking pain in the
(13:00):
butt yeah especially if it'sdeep one, because you got to
pull that up by hand well, mostof them are probably gonna be I
don't know 200 feet deep aroundhere.
It kind of depends where you'reat how deep they're gonna go.
So the the pump itself twohundred dollars yeah, two
hundred dollars, so you couldspend an afternoon pulling that
up.
Do something that's only costyou two hundred dollars if you
(13:20):
pay somebody to do that it'sgonna be a lot more expensive.
I don't, really don't know.
A thousand dollars, they shouldeasily double I don't know,
typically they double, triplethe cost of the of the materials
.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
But this that is labor intensive and heavy to
pull you, you need to have morethan one person helping you pull
, because you're going to get tothe point where your arms are
just like I can't do thisanymore and you need to swap off
, and that you have to do thatand you're going to need more
than one person to help pull.
And then then you just let itsit there and y'all collapse and
(13:49):
go, okay, that's done, so,let's get this finished at some
point.
And then you have to lower itback down, which is its own
level of insanity, because youcan't just drop it.
You got to take care of it,you've got to be a controlled
descent, so yeah, so, all, so,yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So all this, these numbers that Grodd came up for
us, is you save money living outin the country?
You do?
And we've noticed some thingsare cheaper out here as well,
Like go to Mama Rini's goodlittle place here in MacArthur
it was.
It's not expensive when we.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No for food.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
No, it's not expensive.
When we no for food, no, it'snot expensive at all.
Um, car repair we know we gotsome good deals with some car.
Some car repair is so anyway,there's a lot of bonuses.
But they don't mention thatbecause grok just looked at all
the numbers and did all the mathfor me and everything.
But the one thing you do get isyou don't have a city person
(14:53):
coming up and telling you whatto do what you can't do on your
property.
I mean, earlier today I feltlike going shooting, so I took
the ATV a little bit furtherback on the property, did some
shooting so the dogs wouldn'thear you, so the dogs wouldn't
hear you.
So the dogs wouldn't hear mebecause the dogs freak out.
But that's it, do what I want.
(15:14):
We got chickens.
There's no city person go, hey,you can't have a rooster here
and you're only limited to five.
I'm like nope, we'll have 50chickens if we want.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Nobody telling me when I have to mow my grass.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I do not, I can just mow it whenever I want to.
Correct, but I do not want 50chickens.
We got like seven now.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
And I'm going to get five more, and that's enough.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That should be plenty .
Yes A dozen would be plenty.
Yes, yes, it will.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So, anyway.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So there's a math.
If you have somebody who is, ifyou're a real estate agent and
you have somebody looking aboutmoving to the country building,
send me a message.
I'll get you all the grokinformation here.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
I will share that with you.
There's also some other thingsthat you have to think about if
they're moving to the countryJust off the top of my head.
The one that's the mostimportant is to have all the
mineral rights to the property.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And that could be another podcast that we'll talk
about.
Let's talk about that next, Allright, Thank you everybody.
Bye guys.
All right, bye-bye.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
or visit the website of thebest Ohio home inspection
(16:42):
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
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