Have someone do a analysis of your water so you know what you need.
I highly recommend getting a filter as well as a softener. Ours removes a lot of iron from our water, and is very noticeable when I have forgotten to change it.
Bringing this back up as we need to be investigating these things quickly. I don't want to say more for fear of jinxing things in the works right now. But would love to know what @slowG decided to do.