If there is information disclosed to you regarding termites on the property, don’t let your realtor make it seem like it is no big deal. This is true whether the sellers disclose that they have had termites and/or if your inspector finds evidence of termite damage or infestation. Not because you can’t get rid or termites – you can. You can also repair damage to anything they might have chewed on too.
The bigger issue, assuming that the active termite problem has been fully addressed, will come later for you when YOU have to complete your sellers disclosure and answer YES to the questions about the home ever having had termites. There is no question that seeing a Yes to any part of that section will cause at least some buyers to either pass on buying your property or to offer less money for it versus a house that does not have any termite history.
It is impossible to totally quantify exactly what having the Yes to termites on your disclosure might mean. But you can’t argue that it means nothing. Our realtor glossed right over the fact that the home we bought had had termites and currently had an active termite baiting system installed all around it. We used a special termite inspector as part of our inspections too (recommended by our realtor) and he found no evidence of active termites.
Turns out, we did have active termites. The second inspector we hired, after we realized how much our original inspector had missed, found evidence of live termites (and even bagged a few for us). In the end, we fixed the massive water problem that was creating an environment that was super attractive to termites and have not seen any evidence of termite presence or activity since doing that. We still have the baiting system going though, both to be sure that any termites that might approach the house have somewhere else to go and also so that we can show when we have to disclose everything that we fixed the problem and have documentation that it never came back.
So, don’t let your realtor make you think termites are “no biggie”. And, do your own research on termite/pest inspectors. Look them up on sites like Angie’s List or Home Advisor or even Yelp to see what people say about the quality of their service. Choose an inspector that does not have any bad reviews that talk specifically about them missing evidence of termites (or other insect pests)!