Soil disclosures a quagmire for area real estate agents
Realtors say they have enough pages of disclosures to give potential home buyers, handing them more pages about soil disclosures would scare them away from investing in Pahrump...The ordinance requires the seller of a parcel to disclose to the buyer about a 2004 study that identified large areas of Pahrump Valley where moisture-sensitive soils are present that may be subject to expansion, hydro-collapse or subsidence. It requires the seller to tell the buyer whether a geo-technical report has been prepared for their property. It also requires informing buyers that the Pahrump Valley is in an "overdraft" situation, causing the water table to drop an average of one foot per year.  Related information: Foundation Problems, a Growing Problem

Soil disclosures a quagmire for area real estate agents  

By MARK WAITE
PVT

Realtors say they have enough pages of disclosures to give potential home buyers, handing them more pages about soil disclosures would scare them away from investing in Pahrump.

Members of the real estate industry recently had an animated workshop with County Commissioner Patricia Cox and Planner Dan Frankovich in a back room at the Bob Ruud Community Center, where two or three people were often trying to speak at once about their objections to the Nye County soil disclosure ordinance.

Realtors said the responsibility for obtaining a soil disclosure report should be up to builders or the individual homeowner.

Cox agreed to submit a more condensed version of the ordinance than the one county commissioners passed June 21. Realtors said they were caught unaware of the ordinance.

Home buyers would be able to sign a waiver stating they were informed of soil conditions and recommendations to hire a geo-technical engineer, but not be required to get a soils test, she said.

"They're not engineers. How can they be required to disclose everything?" Cox said afterwards.

Cox herself had a failed leach field at her home because her septic system was installed improperly. She remedied the problem by notifying the contractor's board and getting the contractor to fix the problem.

But Frankovich said the ordinance could address problems like those of a woman who walked in his office, who had a crack in her wall from a bad foundation.

"There's plenty of lawyers in town. They'd be happy to sue for that lady," Bobby Clark, of Century 21 Realty told him.

Nye County planners hope the soil disclosure ordinance would resolve disputes on construction problems due to poor soils without homeowners having to go to court.

The ordinance requires the seller of a parcel to disclose to the buyer about a 2004 study that identified large areas of Pahrump Valley where moisture-sensitive soils are present that may be subject to expansion, hydro-collapse or subsidence.

It requires the seller to tell the buyer whether a geo-technical report has been prepared for their property. It also requires informing buyers that the Pahrump Valley is in an "overdraft" situation, causing the water table to drop an average of one foot per year.

"If you read this, it's so scary, I wouldn't buy here," said Paula Glidden from the Land Office.

Glidden said the soil disclosures would only be of interest when it comes time to build a house, not at the time of sale.

Norma Jean Opatik, from One Stop Realty, said there should be a waiver when selling homes to people who just want it for an investment.

"It is the builder's responsibility to do the soil report," Opatik said.

Renee West, of LaDuke Realty, said individual buyers should have the choice whether they want to have a soil inspection.

But Cox said a given buyer might not have bought the property if he knew the soil was bad. She said some land purchasers don't know enough to request a soils report.

When one Pahrump real estate agent said he was told by an engineer he could build anywhere in the valley, Nye County Hydrologist Tom Buqo replied that a property owner could build a home on bad soil but it could cost an extra $50,000 to $75,000.

Glidden said real estate people wouldn't be qualified to answer questions about a soils report. That would require a geo-technical expert.

"You're asking realtors to step out of their area of expertise and become engineers," said Renee West of LaDuke Realty. "You're asking us to become somebody we cannot be."

Realtor Barbara Buchanon, from NU Land Office, said a smart builder would perform a soils report before constructing a house.

West said it's an individual buyer's choice if he wants to have a soils inspection.

Karen Spalding, of Spalding Real Estate and Spalding Construction, said there's a part of Pahrump Valley where she won't build.

But it took five to six years before she found out. Even so, after she convinced someone not to build on a lot, 30 days later someone else closed a sale on that property.

Opatik asked whether the soil disclosure can "run with the land" when the property is sold again later. Frankovich said a soils report is good for one year, the same period for which a building permit is valid.

A companion ordinance passed by the county commission requires foundations to be built at least five feet from a fault, fissure or subsidence feature.

Buqo said he was out surveying fissures and was startled to find homes going up right around them.

"They're getting ready to pour concrete on property sitting right on a fissure," he said.

Donna Lamm, from Provenza Realty, a member of a water task force, questioned Buqo's predictions that many of the wells in Pahrump Valley drilled 140 to 160 feet deep will go dry by 2030 or 2040 due to the dropping water table. She said no one knows what will happen with the recharge of the aquifer under Pahrump.

"You can't get in the business of predicting in 30 years because you don't know," Lamm said.

Buqo recalled the storm of protest six years ago when he first spoke about the danger of subsidence from a sinking water table.

"Unless we get more water in this valley and allow it to stabilize (the water table), this water decline is going to continue," Buqo said.

"You know how frustrating it is to be talking about water, and we have all these subdivisions coming in?" Spalding asked.

"Pahrump is not going to run out of water. However having said that, with an overdraft, Pahrump is going to pay the consequences for the water table," he said.

Those consequences include more subsidence problems in the future, having to sink deeper wells and higher water treatment costs for the poorer water quality at deeper depths, Buqo said. He said the forecast is for 150,000 people to be living in Pahrump Valley at full build-out in 2050.

Spalding suggested well drillers be required to meet regulations in the ordinance. It recommends wells be drilled at least 100 feet below the top of the water table so they won't have to be drilled deeper.

But Opatik said, with the Nevada Test Site, the brothels and the gaming, "How many times are we going to warn these people not to buy in Pahrump?"

Glidden added, "At some point there has to be some responsibility of the buyer to look into this."

Cox said the disclosure ordinance affects property sales that hadn't closed as of this past Sept. 11.

Then there was the question of whether out of town agents would disclose.

"Agents out there who don't know what's going on are going to find out in a hurry," said Carrick "Bat" Masterson, a member of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission and active in the real estate industry. He said of the ordinance, "It's a benefit to us because we're disclosing it."

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2006/Nov-08-Wed-2006/news/10681540.html