Why is it important to get a home inspection before buying? During the inspection of our future home, it was discovered that the septic system's leech bed (approximate age: 30 years) was completely toasted and the septic tank's baffles had worn away due to age. What that meant was that the septic system was teetering on the edge of regurgitating raw sewage back into the house, which we were informed, could happen at any moment.

As an aside, our septic inspector was amazing. He legitimately seemed to love his job, was fearless in doing it, and spent about 45 minutes explaining to us the intricacies how a septic system worked. I now know more about septic systems that I do about some aspects of my own job.

Based on the results of the inspection, we made our offer on the home conditional on the seller replacing the septic system with something that would not run the risk of filling our basement with raw sewage. And while the additional work ended up delaying our closing date by a week or so, it was worth the wait.

My one minor quibble with the new leech bed is that the contractor could have done a little better job of backfilling soil, reseeding and laying down hay. I know they're septic system contractors and not landscapers, but look at the picture below. I think they dumped hay into a large pile and let the wind blow it around a little. Also, it had been raining for about a week straight, so there were some pretty significant ruts left in other parts of the yard from where they brought the machinery in and out of the yard.

A Mound of Dirt Covering a New Leech Bed, 2005

Note: I've since filled in the ruts and reseeded that area, but that's a story for another day.