Buying a home in MoCo with small area of termite damage (new construction, inspector)

[au18]

Hi folks,

So after a long process my husband and I are close to closing on a house, but during inspection the pest inspector founds signs of termite damage in the basement joists and dead termites. No active infestations or evidence of previous treatment. The sellers did not disclose any problems with termites so who knows how long this problem has been there. The sellers are offering to pay for a subterranean treatment and fix the basement joists but I'm concerned about hidden damage.

How prevalent are termites in MoCo, should we just walk away and lose our deposit? Is it worth the risk - we don't love the home *that* much. Does it hurt a property's resale value, now that there is a known history of termites?


Thank you for your responses as we don't have any experiences with termites. We just sold our current home and were lookIng forward to moving before the holidays but this may halt the entire process.

[Iggier]

Termites are endemic in most areas of MoCo. It's more likely a home had a prior, or even current termite infestation at some point than not. Do not pull out of your contract yet. Termites can cause significant structural damage if untreated and hidden damage can be located via acoustic and infrared testing. Insist upon this and if there is no additional damage, take the seller's offer for the treatment (presumably termiticide injection-type) and joist repair.

[bufflove]

Have a termite inspection. It's impossible for us or you to judge how bad the situation is. Leave it to a professional and their opinion.

[bufflove]

And if the issue is inspected and found to be not active or is active and remediated then it won't have to be disclosed when you go to sell, I'd assume, but your agent can confirm that for you.

[au18]

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it. How realistic is to ask the sellers to let us look behind the walls? I want to be sure as possible that we're buying a money pit.

Are we asking too much or should we just assume the risk?


Thanks!

[bufflove]

I don't think the termite inspection would be very invasive, but the pest co. could answer that better than I. I'd think it reasonable to demand the sellers allow whatever the termite inspector requires to conduct his assessment.

[au18]

Thank you all! I appreciate your responses!

[UserName14289]

Originally Posted by au18

Hi folks,

So after a long process my husband and I are close to closing on a house, but during inspection the pest inspector founds signs of termite damage in the basement joists and dead termites. No active infestations or evidence of previous treatment. The sellers did not disclose any problems with termites so who knows how long this problem has been there. The sellers are offering to pay for a subterranean treatment and fix the basement joists but I'm concerned about hidden damage.

How prevalent are termites in MoCo, should we just walk away and lose our deposit? Is it worth the risk - we don't love the home *that* much. Does it hurt a property's resale value, now that there is a known history of termites?

Thank you for your responses as we don't have any experiences with termites. We just sold our current home and were lookIng forward to moving before the holidays but this may halt the entire process.

I can't speak from personal experience with termites in MD, as none of my homes here had them, for some reason (knock on wood). However, one of my homes we purchased in CA did have termites. When I was informed, I was horrified and ready to back out of the deal. However, many people that had no interest either way in whether we bought that house said that termites were literally inevitable in anything other than soulless new construction (which I didn't want), especially given our proximity to the beach. The home was treated and we had zero troubles.

My one bit of advice would be, after the seller has corrected the issue, bring in your own inspector to ensure that all the work was done properly.

[tw71]

For what it's worth, I agree as well. I've owned 3 homes over the years, and 2 of those three had termite issues in the past. The pest control companies make a lot of money on this stuff, so you can count on their commercials giving you the worst case scenarios. In reality, there are usually certain things that cause a house to get termites in the first place -- such as wood touching soil. (Culprits to look out for here include crawlspaces where somebody might have built the structure so wood supports make direct contact with the ground, or old homes with stone cellars where support beams that used to sit on the edges of the stone walls wind up touching soil as the foundation settles or shifts slightly, over the years.)

If you rectify those problems (often a matter of pouring a concrete footing for the wood to rest on) as well as make sure there are no active termites eating up the wood, you're probably good.

As far as I can tell, it either takes a really bad infestation, or a lot of time for termites to tear up your house enough to make it structurally unsound. Most cases I've seen where termites were found, the treatment killed them promptly, and any damage they did was minor enough not to even warrant any repairs. (EG. My parent's garage had them once, but they didn't bore out any more of the wood framework than you might do yourself with a drill bit as you hung things up on the walls. They saw a little sawdust in corners, which prompted getting the inspection and treatment done, and that was that.)

[UserName14289]

Originally Posted by tw71

For what it's worth, I agree as well. I've owned 3 homes over the years, and 2 of those three had termite issues in the past. The pest control companies make a lot of money on this stuff, so you can count on their commercials giving you the worst case scenarios. In reality, there are usually certain things that cause a house to get termites in the first place -- such as wood touching soil. (Culprits to look out for here include crawlspaces where somebody might have built the structure so wood supports make direct contact with the ground, or old homes with stone cellars where support beams that used to sit on the edges of the stone walls wind up touching soil as the foundation settles or shifts slightly, over the years.)

If you rectify those problems (often a matter of pouring a concrete footing for the wood to rest on) as well as make sure there are no active termites eating up the wood, you're probably good.

As far as I can tell, it either takes a really bad infestation, or a lot of time for termites to tear up your house enough to make it structurally unsound. Most cases I've seen where termites were found, the treatment killed them promptly, and any damage they did was minor enough not to even warrant any repairs. (EG. My parent's garage had them once, but they didn't bore out any more of the wood framework than you might do yourself with a drill bit as you hung things up on the walls. They saw a little sawdust in corners, which prompted getting the inspection and treatment done, and that was that.)

Yes, for ours, the owners weren't very smart and put 2' tall built-up flower beds (complete with automatic sprinklers *in* the beds) right up against the house.