The one thing I would want to know is why they have one and has the area ever flooded? Is it in a floodplain? I have actually never heard of a sump pump when a house doesn’t have a basement. Maybe the city demands every house have one?

Thank you for you advice. The house is not in a floodplain and they are stating that it was installed because of the recent heavy rains. I've only heard of a sump pump being in a basement as well and the city doesn't require one for every house.

I wish I knew more to help you. Hopefully someone more familiar will chime in.

I am not in a flood plain either. However, most houses here are built on crawl spaces, and many people put in a sump pump in that crawl space, as a just in case thing. It is fairly common to have one. I dont, but, my house is up on a slight hill so drainage is excellent. I would ask the owners why its there, and it could be that they are just overly cautious people, but, all in all, it isnt a bad thing to have. A broken pipe is always a possibility, and a sump pump could save a whole lot of damage and clean up. If house has good drainage, etc, I would consider the sump a plus. My last house didnt have one either, and we did have a water pipe break, and a bunch of water got all over. Since there is heavyweight plastic on the ground in a crawl space, that water just sits, and disappears very slowly. We were wishing we had a sump pump, so we could have dried it out a lot quicker.

You want to know where to pumped water is going...