[johnsjmc]

I grew up in a home with a septic tank. and have owned 2 myself. The first one I bought had a sudden tank failure.The steel tank originally installed in 1946 had a baffle at the outlet to prevent solids from the sludge cap getting into the leaching field. The baffle rusted out and the sludge filled the bed. The whole system needed to be replaced. Here I needed to truck in several dump trucks of certified soil( sand to allow fast drainage0 to allow the new bed to fit on my residential lawn. The system could have been saved if we had replaced the tank before the baffle broke but finding it before failure would be just luck. The second home I bought with a little more care. The sleazy real estate agent offered to have the tank pumped out as a house warming gift. Ha Ha I insisted on being there when it was serviced. Despite it being a concrete tank the bed was also ruined, but because of infrequent maintenance not specific breakdown like my earlier steel tank. This time the pumping company knew there was a problem as soon as opening because the liquid level was too high, if I wasn't there I would have not discovered the ruined system until several weeks later when it refilled and wouldn't empty. The seller lowered the price equal to 75% of the lowest bid for a complete system replacement. ($18000). This time I had plenty of land 3 A. but had to move the bed to be over 100 ft from our well.
I wouldn,t be afraid of a septic system but they need to be pumped out about every 5 yrs around here .They also need to be inspected by someone who knows whats going on at time of purchase. I would even try to get a seller to warranty them after sale if possible.