The five checks
Run them as one coordinated effort during your inspection period:
- The log — pull the state record for age, depth, and construction.
- Flow test — a professional, sustained-draw test, ideally in dry season.
- Quality panel — Oregon’s standard trio (bacteria, nitrate, arsenic) at minimum; sellers are required to test at sale, and buyers should verify.
- Pump & pressure inspection — age and condition of the pump, tank, and controls; these are the components that actually fail.
- Wellhead & seal — proper cap, casing height, grading, and separation from contamination sources.
Turning findings into negotiation
Each check produces either confidence or a number — a pump nearing end-of-life, a treatment need, a repair. Numbers negotiate; mysteries do not. Sequenced early, well diligence routinely pays for itself in the deal.
I coordinate this whole stack with local well professionals as a standard part of representing buyers on rural property — it is not extra out here; it is the job.
Local rule of thumb: Budget the well checks like an insurance premium on everything else you are spending.