Selling a House with an Oil Tank

Common situation, home is circa 1920 and uses natural gas for heat, but home was once heated with oil from an Underground Storage Tank (UST).    The owner is aware of the oil tank but considered it an after thought.  Property was either bought knowing the tank was present or possibly a family home where the father took care of the tank.     In some situations, the inground tank is even in use and the property is still purchased. 

Fast forward to the present, the home is for sale with the tank in the ground.  The seller really doesn't want to do anything with the tank, either because money is tight or the most common reason, they do not want to find a problem meaning a tank leak.  So owner  tries to sell the home with the tank. or an "as is" sale with an oil tank.   This can make buyers think what else does the seller know that is wrong with the house? 

We talk to buyers and sellers and we can tell you without hesitation, ignoring the oil tank, meaning doing nothing about the oil tank will hurt your ability to sell the home.  People won't proceed with the sale knowing there is a tank.  The few brave souls, who might proceed with the sale, typically back out once they gather more knowledge of the risk associated with oil tanks.  You see as a tractions with an oil tank proceeds, buyers educate themselves on the issue. 

Best advice when selling a home with an oil tank, is to just remove and test the tank, every buyer wants the tank taken care of as an issue.   Mortgage and insurance also have issue with inground tanks.   Could you find a mortgage company and insurance that won't care, maybe, but they are the exception not the rule.

The buyer's attorney will no doubt recommend the tank be removed and if you are selling the home with a tank as your attorney who should be unbiased what they would want you to do if you were buying a house with an oil tank?   99% of the time they are going to say remove it.  The other 1%, well you know attorneys. 

What is the advantage of removing the tank sooner than later?  Well removing the tank removes it as an issue.  If it leaks, know that every state allows a permissible amount of oil to remain in the ground, so a leak doesn't necessarily mean remediation.  Also many, many tanks get removed without issue (meaning no leaks) but you don't hear about them.   Oil tanks can stagnate a sale, we often have to see a transaction fall apart 3 times before the owner realizes the tank is halting the sale and it needs to be removed.  So removing the tank will not hurt the transaction.  Please note that even if the tank leaks, the buyer likely still wants to buy your home, they have invested a considerable amount of time and monies to buy the home so removing a tank obstacle and doing so in a timely fashion will help keep the sale on track.