Buying a Home with a Well: What to Check Before You Close

There is something wonderful about a house that makes its own water. Out here in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristos, plenty of the homes we sell rely on a well rather than city service, and most buyers who grew up on municipal water have never had a reason to think about where their water comes from at all. A well changes that. It is a small, quiet system doing important work, and it deserves a closer look than most buyers give it.

The first thing worth understanding is that a well permit is not a blank check for how you use water. Colorado issues different types of permits depending on the size of the parcel and the intended use. A household-use-only permit, common on parcels under thirty five acres, generally covers water for inside the home and not much else. A domestic-use permit on a larger parcel can allow for a bit more, including a small amount of irrigation. If your plans include a garden, a few animals, or filling a stock tank, it is worth checking what the specific permit on that property actually allows before you count on it. I pull that record through the Colorado Division of Water Resources so we know exactly what we are working with.

From there, the well itself gets its own inspection, separate from the general home inspection, covering both how much water it produces and how clean that water is. Loans backed by USDA, VA, and FHA typically require both, so this tends to happen naturally as part of financing. Results normally come back in less than a week, so it is worth scheduling early rather than leaving for the last minute. I also check how far the well sits from the septic system, since state guidelines call for real separation between the two, and that distance is not always what you would assume on an older rural property.

Colorado sellers are required to disclose what they know about a well's type, age, depth, and maintenance history, which gives us a helpful starting point. From there, the permit check and the well testing round out the picture, all handled within the timeline your contract already allows for due diligence.

A well is one of those systems that quietly makes or breaks daily life on a rural property, and it deserves the same attention as the roof or the foundation. If you are looking at a property anywhere from Westcliffe to the Wet Mountain Valley, I am happy to walk through what a specific well can tell us, permit and all, well before you need to make any decisions about it.