A well water test comes back positive for E. coli, and instead of getting guidance, the buyer gets silence. That’s the moment we know something is broken, not with the buyer’s questions, but with the way some deals get handled. We talk through what E. coli in a private well can mean for your health, why you should never brush it off, and what kind of support you should expect from the professionals you’re paying to protect you in a home purchase.
We also dig into the practical side of well ownership that many “city water” buyers don’t see coming. We explain why one test is rarely the whole story, how quarterly testing during the first year helps you build a baseline, and how nearby land use like farms, fertilizers, and seasonal rain can affect water quality. The goal is not to panic, it’s to get clear data, take the right corrective steps, and confirm the fix with follow up testing.
Then we get blunt about ethics. If someone tries to downplay a bad report or, worse, change it, that’s not just shady, it can put people at risk. We share what we look for in a thorough home inspection company, what makes an agent trustworthy, and why you should walk away when your safety questions get ignored. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a home buyer, and leave us a review so more people know what to ask before they sign.
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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Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Course listings...
Episode Transcript
Hello, hello, hello, Jim and Laura.
SPEAKER_02 (00:03):
Hello, this is Laura.
SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Alright, so Laura, you had a story about this other
day.
So the topic is subject and wellbasics.
What city folk don't understandor expect.
SPEAKER_02 (00:14):
It's a lot of stuff.
Like it's crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
We ever hear city folk?
I think a country mouse.
SPEAKER_02 (00:19):
And city mouse, I guess I do too.
SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
And how I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
Like the mentalities were completely different.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Yeah, well, was the city mouse freaked out about in
the country?
But then the country mouse wasreally freaked out by the city,
all the noise and everything.
SPEAKER_02 (00:35):
All the noise and the cat that kept running around
and trying to eat her cousin.
And she was just like, I'm kindof done with this.
I'm done with the mice.
SPEAKER_01 (00:43):
Which, which, and I and the cats.
You're gonna remember that Italked about this for years.
I wanted to do a version ofthat.
City agent and country.
SPEAKER_02 (00:51):
I know we've talked it.
We I I want to do that.
I'm gonna work on that one.
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
So I think I think it'd be good.
Yes, yes, and nobody knowseverything.
SPEAKER_02 (01:02):
No, no, you can't.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
So so Lord, give us a story.
SPEAKER_02 (01:05):
You had um So I got a call from Amy, and she's Amy
Amy Amy in our office.
If you know us, you know Amybecause she's she's my savior.
SPEAKER_01 (01:16):
She's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02 (01:18):
So um Amy said, Hey, this guy has a question about a
well water test, and his homeinspector and his agent aren't
talking to him.
And I'm like, Okay, did we dothe inspection?
And she's like, No.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
That's shitty service.
SPEAKER_02 (01:32):
So that's that that's very shitty service.
So I call the guy because I'm II grew up on well water.
I I've been around the block atime or two with that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:40):
You're the country mouse.
SPEAKER_02 (01:41):
I'm the country mouse.
So I gave him a call and he wasconcerned because when he got
his water test back, it testedpositive for both forms of E.
coli.
So he's freaking out.
And he's like, How do I get ridof this?
blah, blah, blah.
Like they never told himanything about shocking the
(02:03):
well.
Like they they flat out justrefused to talk to him.
He's like, he couldn't even gethis home inspector to call him
back.
The agents had stopped callinghim back all because he was
asking questions about the wellwater.
And you know, let's berealistic.
You're drinking the water, youneed to know that it's healthy
(02:23):
and that it's good for you, andthat it's not gonna make you or
your kids sick.
If it has E.
coli in it, you're gonna getsick.
SPEAKER_01 (02:31):
Like that that's oh, you you can get deathly sick.
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
You can get deathly sick.
So for people to not call thisguy back was freaking
ridiculous.
So he and I talked for about ahalf an hour.
I gave him all the scoop on, youknow, like testing and then
testing every quarter so that hehad an idea of like a baseline.
SPEAKER_01 (02:49):
No, no, is that is that testing the water for for
every quarter for the firstyear?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:54):
And then so what I told him was I'm like, you know,
I I can't talk to anythingbecause I didn't see the
property.
But the philosophy behindtesting every quarter is let's
say you've got a farm near youand they're spraying fertilizers
or they're doing pesticides orthey're doing something, you
need to know how that's going toimpact your water.
So by testing every quarter, youhave an idea of what the levels
(03:17):
are and you get yourself abaseline.
Plus, if you've already had E.
coli in it, you don't know howthat happened.
Like it could have just been,you know, like a lot of rain and
your well is low and it got intoyour well.
I don't know.
Once again, I'm not there to seeit.
I can't tell you, but you needto look at these things and kind
of figure out what's going on.
(03:38):
Does your well head need raise?
Does it, you know, blah, blah,blah?
So we we had a nice littlediscussion and I sent him on his
merry way.
But long story short, likeeverybody failed this man.
SPEAKER_01 (03:54):
And that's crazy.
SPEAKER_02 (03:55):
And he paid them, like he paid them for a service,
and they still blew him off.
Now, I have no clue who the homeinspection company was.
I didn't ask, didn't think thatwas any of my business.
No clue who his agent was or whothe listing agent was.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
But I would like people that's sad.
I would like to know who thatinspection company is because if
it's a single uh inspector, youknow, single man operation,
we're never hiring the guy.
SPEAKER_02 (04:21):
Yeah, oh, that's true.
SPEAKER_01 (04:23):
Because we we have standards.
SPEAKER_02 (04:27):
But I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (04:28):
You could, you could.
SPEAKER_02 (04:29):
Yeah.
But I I mean, you know, it'sit's ridiculous.
If you're paying for a service,you need to get that service and
you need to get that support.
If you have questions, by God,if I don't know the answer, I'll
find it out for you and or I'lldirect you to someone who who
does know it.
SPEAKER_01 (04:46):
Now, this this reminds me that so the agents,
both agents would not talk tothem to go on the water quality.
SPEAKER_02 (04:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:53):
And they know it's bad.
SPEAKER_02 (04:55):
Well, yeah, they had the report.
SPEAKER_01 (04:56):
And it's and okay.
This reminds me of we had anagent one time call us because
the well water had E.
coli on it, right?
Yes.
Also E.
coli.
SPEAKER_02 (05:08):
He didn't call us first, Jim.
He called the lab.
SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
He called the water testing lab and asked them to
remove E.
coli information.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
First of all, they were like, we cannot talk to you
without permission from the homeinspection company.
SPEAKER_01 (05:26):
And that was from the lab.
And that was from the company.
The lab refused to talk to thereal estate agent.
SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
He went ballistic and was, I've never had a lab
tell me that in 30 years ofdoing business and blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, and so on andso forth.
And I'm like, you know what?
That lab is a that that labreport is a part of the
(05:50):
transaction.
It cannot be changed because itis what it is.
If you take that off and yourclients don't realize that, you
could be killing them.
And what you are doing iscompletely unethical.
And I did tell him thatactually, because I've known him
for a few years.
And I'm like, no, you can't justchange this crap.
SPEAKER_01 (06:13):
No, you said crap, and it was E.
coli in the water.
unknown (06:16):
I didn't even realize that.
SPEAKER_00 (06:18):
Habitation investigation is the way to go.
For a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to mold to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go both.
(06:39):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
So, but the service has to be good.
If you don't know if you knowsomething, you don't know.
That's fine.
You research, you figure thatout.
But for the real estate agentswho have a fiduciary
responsibility to help take careof them to blow him off.
And I don't know.
(07:05):
See now it's both agents wherethe agents talk to each other
and go, hey, don't just we don'twant this deal blown.
You need this deal to gothrough, which we have heard
agents say, Hey, I need thisdeal to go through because I
can't pay my mortgage or my rentor whatever payment was coming
up.
There's some unethical stuffgoing on there.
SPEAKER_02 (07:24):
But that's that's not the point.
You want a company who will doright by you, who is here for
you.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
And if obviously that none of those people wore
that something, yeah, somethingwas definitely either unethical
or maybe one person was onvacation.
I'm hoping not in REC.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
That's not what he said.
He said they refused to talk tohim.
SPEAKER_01 (07:45):
See, and that's the case.
Personally, I would have notbought the house.
I wouldn't know.
What else do they know they'renot willing to tell me about?
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Well, and if you're not if you're my agent and I'm
paying you a commission torepresent me and do right by me,
and you're not even returning mycall about a simple water test,
I'm done.
I'm not only am I not buyingthis house, I'm not buying
anything from you because atthis point I don't trust you.
And I'm using the homeinspection company that took a
(08:19):
half an hour out of their day toexplain well water to me when
she didn't have to.
SPEAKER_01 (08:24):
Yeah, yeah.
The buyer wasn't even our clientand we're helping them out.
So which remind what tells me,because this is this little
segue that you just got me intoif you are a home buyer and you
don't know what home inspectionor I'm sorry, what real estate
agent to use, call me.
Call us.
Call habitation investigation.
We know which agents areethical, and we know some that
(08:48):
we had are very questionableethics at times, and then
there's a bunch of that we justdon't know.
But we can steer you, like I sayyou hey, I'm looking at these
two or three agents.
Is there any of this any ofthese that you would prefer to
use or to remove?
And we could help you narrowthat down to uh just uh one or
(09:12):
two that we can that we don'thave that kind of history of
being uh unethical.
SPEAKER_02 (09:17):
Let's let's be realistic about this.
Here we have let's say 17,000inspections we do a year on
average, okay?
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Wait, 1700.
SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
I'm sorry, 1700.
I said 17,000.
So we have about 1700 a year.
So that's 1,700 clients thatwe've worked with on a yearly
basis, and we hear about theirlisting agent, about the buyer's
agent, and all the crap thatthey do and all the crap that
they pull.
And we've been doing this for 24years almost.
(09:50):
So please call your local homeinspection company.
I don't care what state you'rein.
Make sure you've got one that'sgot good reviews because you
don't want one that's in anagent's pocket.
You want one that has a goodreputation for being thorough,
for being honest, for havingintegrity, because that's who
they're going to give you aspart of their, you know, agents
(10:11):
that they work with that aregood and reputable.
SPEAKER_01 (10:14):
Well, I can tell you who's not on our list for as far
as agents go.
It's the agents that never callus to do inspection for their
buyers, but as soon as theirfamily member is buying a house,
we get the call.
We get the call to do theinspection for their kid.
Yeah.
Well their family member.
But no, no, they they don't wantus inspection for their buyer.
That's because some agentsbecause some agents don't like
(10:36):
super thorough reports.
SPEAKER_02 (10:38):
That's because some agents don't know how to talk to
their clients and explain what'sgoing on, and this is common.
SPEAKER_01 (10:45):
Yeah.
Well, we have a class, it'sonline, it's a YouTube video
online, of course, and it's tohelp home buyers know what to
expect from the home inspection.
That way, when you see a homeinspection report, maybe for the
first time ever seeing one, youdon't freak out over common
small issues.
(11:06):
And that seems to be a thingthat some real estate agents
they I don't know, they have ahard time wrapping their head
around that.
Yeah, there's yeah, there's anumber of like safety issues,
but the safety issues are likemissing cover plates.
Those are like 30 cents apiece,and you put them on, that's it.
They freak out, they don'tunderstand how to handle uh
(11:27):
little issues.
And you you need a homeinspection that can help you,
and you need a real estate agentthat wants you to know good
information and a lot ofinformation who's who's not
going to not stab you in theback, but uh ignore you and your
concern.
So call habitation investigationfor our recommendations for real
(11:48):
estate agents.
Give us give us a couple agentsyou're thinking about, and we
will help you narrow it down.
Or maybe maybe we have nothingon in any of those agents, and
we'll go and we'll tell you.
And we'll tell you, don't knowany of them.
All right, I think that's it.
SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (12:01):
All right, thank you, everybody.
Bye bye.
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