Termites are a common problem here in Southern California and a good number of homes have issues that need to be addressed when the home is sold. Banks seems to get kinda squirrelly about lending money on a home that has termite issues. Go figure.
The reality is that having a termite inspection here is as important as having a home inspection (officially called a wood destroying pest inspection) and will likely be mandatory per your lender.
The normal protocol for buyers is to request that the seller:
(1) provide a Pest Control Report, generally done by the company of the seller's choosing, and
(2) pay for certain work to be done to correct specific conditions including "active infestation or infection (Section1)" which are spelled out in the report.
Conditions "likely to lead to infestation or infection (Section 2)" are normally considered the buyer's responsibility.
We even have an official form, the Wood Destroying Pest Inspection and Allocation of Cost Addendum (known as the WPA) to request this, or it can simply be incorporated into the appropriate section, paragraph 4A, on the Offer to Purchase Form (our RPA).
In many cases of infestation, the pest control company will recommend tenting in order to eradicate those little buggers. I am not a termite expert and there may be other options available, so ask if it's important to you. But it may be up to the seller not the buyer to decide.
You can't typically tent a condo because, well, it's attached to other properties. More on that another time.
Assuming tenting and fumigation is to be done in order to obtain the clearance for your lender before closing, here's briefly what happens (the VIDEO provides some more explanation).
- Home must be vacated for 48 hours
- Property is enclosed in a large tent by the pest control company
- Chemicals are used inside the tent to get rid of termites
- Tent is removed and termite company provides a clearance report after inspection.
Keep in mind that for short sales and REOs, this procedure is generally different, since the lender will often not pay for the termite work to be done, and maybe not even the inspection (although there are companies that will do free inspections). So unless you are a cash buyer where this is not required (but obviously still a prudent thing to do), you WILL have to pay for this yourself.
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