St. Louis Real Estate - Building Inspection - Termites

TERMITE INSPECTIONS FOR REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS by Harry Morrell, Allied Building Inspections LLC

A full building inspection for a house involved in a Real Estate transaction does not necessarily mean that a termite inspection is included. Inspectors must have a special license in the state of Missouri to inspect for termites. It is true that inspectors will call out wood structural components that have been damaged by termites, whether the damage is significant or just minor. However, observing and reporting termite presence will not generally occur if a full termite inspection is not included with the building inspection. Keep mind that when a buyer orders and schedules an inspection for a house they bought, their inspector will deliver them a report describing the conditions of the major structural and mechanical components of the house only.

When the buyers order a termite inspection as well, they should expect an additional fee, and a little more time for the inspector completing both the building and termite inspection. Having your home inspector provide you with the termite inspection is recommended for several reasons. Eliminating and coordinating two companies to provide you two separate inspections, a more objective report; the home inspector has no interest in treating the home for termites. The home inspector’s thinking is that if the home has termites, treatment is recommended. If no evidence of termites is found, there is no recommendation for treatment. Some pest control contractors may fudge just a little and say treatment is recommended when old or inactive evidence is present. Most home inspectors fee will be reasonable since they are there already doing a full building inspection.

Remember that a real estate transaction inspection is visual only. The same rules are applicable to termite inspections, remember, VISUAL ONLY!, no destructive testing or pulling walls apart. This does mean that termites can be present in your home and the inspector can give you a report saying that no termites were found. Don’t panic over this. Termites can be in your home for up to a year and do very little or minimal damage. Most times this damage does not require any repair at all. When termites stay in your house for any length of time, their colony expands and their numbers grow. The likely hood of trace evidence of termites during this time is high. Shelter tubes, fras, or droppings, and even runs in the dry wall begin to appear. Body parts and wings from swarm activity are found as well. Regular inspections are strongly recommended after you buy the house.

There are ways to ensure that it is highly unlikely that no termites at all are present when you buy your house. Destructive testing, bore scopes, termite sniffing dogs, and thermal imaging cameras are now used for termite detection. These inspections are very pricey and still can offer no absolute positive guarantee that no termites exist in your home, and are generally not recommended or even allowed for a real estate inspection. Remember, this is not your house yet and most owners are not going to allow inspectors to pull their house apart looking for termites.

The bottom line is this. Always get a termite inspection included in with your building inspection. Talk to your inspector about the current conditions of the house and if there are any conducive conditions that will attract termites to the house. Know all the available treatment options, and what to look for as a home owner during the year and seasons. And above all, don’t panic when you hear the words, TERMITE PRESENCE. The professionals will know how to deal with the problem.

Harry Morrell can be reached at harrymorrell@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 10:21 am and is filed under Building Inspection News, First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.