We always insist on tasting the water (we usually buy a house with a well). Flush all toilets and run water at the same time (checks out water pressure). I have made a habit of asking the realtor is there is anything about this propery that he has not disclosed...such as, any complaints of ghosts, any murder or suicide (one house had had a suicide "but it's all cleaned up now" and I just could not handle that), drug dealers in the neghborhood, landfills nearby). Found one property that had a landfill close, we were told not to worry about it. Later discovered that the covered landfill (it was all grassy and looked like a park)that had been intended for soccer fields was so contaminated that they could not let children play on it. And our water supply would have been from that area. Needless to say, we did not buy the house.