Above grade / before the sign goes in
Selling a House With Termite History
Old termite damage does not doom your sale. An undocumented surprise on inspection week absolutely can. Sequence beats secrecy every time.
What kills deals
Not history. Discovery.
Buyers and lenders here are used to termite history. What blows up contracts is evidence surfacing for the first time on the buyer inspection, with no paperwork and ten days left.
What actually blows up a contract
Given the termite pressure in coastal Virginia, an enormous share of older Hampton Roads homes have some termite history: a treatment in the nineties, a repaired sill, old mud tube scars on a pier. Buyers and lenders around here are used to it. What blows up contracts is not history, it is discovery, when evidence surfaces for the first time during the buyer inspection with no paperwork and no explanation, ten days before closing.
Sequence beats secrecy. Every time, in every market.
Order of operations
The seller playbook
Four moves, in this order. Doing them out of order is how sellers end up negotiating from the losing side of a photograph.
- 01 While you still own the timeline
Inspect before you list
A pre-listing termite inspection tells you exactly what the buyer inspector will find, while you still control the timeline and the contractor choice.
- 02 Records convert evidence into a story
Gather the paper
Old treatment records, guarantee documents, and repair invoices convert scary evidence into a maintenance story. A transferable re-treatment guarantee is a genuine selling point, so say so in the listing.
- 03 Documentation, not demolition
Fix what is active, document what is not
Live activity needs treatment before it needs discussion. Inactive old evidence needs documentation, not demolition, and tearing it out destroys the record an inspector would have read.
- 04 Follow your obligations and your agent
Disclose cleanly
Virginia sellers should follow their disclosure obligations and their agent advice. Practically, a documented, treated history reads as a cared-for house, and buyers respond to it that way.
Start with a pre-listing termite inspection, treat anything active, and keep your re-treatment guarantee paperwork on top of the stack.
Grade level
The buyer inspector is going to end up down here. The only question is whether your folder gets there first.
How the report frames it
The NPMA-33 separates live activity, previous evidence, and visible damage. Sellers win when the report can check previous evidence alongside a folder of records, and when any damage line points to a completed, invoiced repair. Our repair crew closes that loop constantly for sellers: scope the damage the report found, fix it, photograph it, and hand the settlement file what it needs.
If the house lists next month
Breathe, then sequence: inspection first to establish what is active, treatment if anything is, repairs priced from the same visit, and paperwork assembled as the work completes. We run this exact sequence for Hampton Roads sellers on listing timelines, and the houses close. Call 757-583-4444 and tell us the listing date; the plan builds itself backward from there.
End of the descent
Selling soon? Inspect before you list.
Same-day appointments are often available across Hampton Roads. Call or send the form and we will confirm your time window.
Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM. Licensed and insured in Virginia.