Most Hillsborough closings never touch a septic inspector or a certified water lab. The township runs on sewer, buyers assume that's the default, and listings move through diligence without a single soil test. Then a seller signs a contract on a five-acre parcel near Long Hill Road, or off the back side of Zion, and the transaction turns into a different animal entirely.
The friction is not the well or the septic. Well-built systems on properly graded lots close every week in Somerset County. The friction is a small set of local procedural rules that quietly decide whether a July contract still closes in September. Sellers who learn those rules early keep their timeline. Sellers who learn them at inspection lose two to six weeks and often a chunk of the sale price.
