VA Loan Requirements for Wells

I’m using a VA loan. I just bought a home with a well. What do I gotta be aware of? My name’s Evan Kaufman, your VA loan originator. So if you’re purchasing a home and it has a well on the property, you want to be aware there are some requirements potentially from the VA.

Now, the big thing to understand is that really the VA is most interested if you have a well on the property if it’s the primary source for water on it. So like if you’re not hooked up to city or even if you’re hooked up to city water or our water or somewhere else, but the well is the primary source of drinking water on the property, that’s when the VA is interested.

If it’s a well that’s watering the ground, etc., that you’re not drinking from, then most likely you’re fine. That’s not anything you gotta overly worry about. You might want to still have it inspected and checked out on your own to make sure it’s okay, but the VA requires a well inspection if it’s the primary source of water for a property.

And now when you get that done, they’re looking for things like nitrates, E. coli, a few other things that just could be issues with the well. Now, if it pops up that one of those things comes back positive, then the thing is you gotta make sure that that’s taken care of and retested again to make sure the drinking water is okay.

This all kind of goes back to the whole premise of the VA not necessarily inspecting homes but making sure they’re habitable. So when they go through that appraisal process, they’re not inspecting things but they’re making sure that everything is habitable, windows all open, that the home isn’t caving in on itself; otherwise, they’re going to call some things out.

So same thing with the well, they want to see, ‘Hey, let give us that well inspection and let’s make sure that everything’s clear on that. And if it’s not, we want to have that taken care of.’

And I’ll say from my past experience, I’ve been a real estate agent when usually selling homes and dealing with wells, being an owner that’s had to deal with those, and then also being a lender that deals with wells, it’s important to make sure that those wells are clean and taken care of before you purchase it from a seller, especially if it’s your primary source of water.

So that’s the deal with VA loans and wells. If it’s your primary source of water, meaning you’re using it to drink on the property, then the VA loan is most likely requiring that well inspection to make sure that there’s no issues with bacteria or whatnot in the well. And if there is, you need to make sure you get it taken care of and make sure that you give a test back that shows that it’s all okay.

My name is Evan Kaufman, and your VA loan originator. Hope this helps you go out there and win a home with a VA loan. Take care.