Above grade / the punch list
What Fails a VA Loan Termite Inspection
Six findings hold up VA funding again and again. Every one is clearable, and most clear faster than buyers fear.
Nothing fails, exactly
The report does not fail houses. It flags conditions.
Six of those conditions hold up funding in this market. Each one has a known path to clear, and lead time is the only thing that really varies.
VA loans dominate Hampton Roads closings, and in Virginia every one of them needs a clear wood destroying insect report before funding. The form is the NPMA-33, the inspector job is to record what is visible, and the lender job is to refuse surprises. When a report comes back with findings, the deal is not dead. It has a punch list.
The report does not fail houses. It flags conditions, and conditions get fixed.
Grade level
Five of the six get written down here, under the floor, where the inspector is on his back with a light.
Findings register
The six that actually hold up funding
With what each one takes to clear. Red markers are the ones lenders will not accept an explanation for.
- 01 Never waved through
Live termite activity
Active mud tubes, live workers in a sill, swarmers inside the house. This is the finding lenders never wave through.
To clear it: a liquid treatment, then an updated report reflecting the treatment. Once the contract settles who pays, that is usually a matter of days.
- 02 Paperwork can clear it
Old infestation, no record of treatment
Abandoned tubes and empty galleries with zero live termites still get written up. Without documentation that the house was ever treated, most lenders want a treatment or a pest control operator evaluation before funding.
If the seller can produce prior treatment paperwork, that sometimes clears it on paper alone.
- 03 Longest lead time on the page
Visible damage nobody repaired
Chewed sills, soft subfloor, a joist that crumbles at the screwdriver. The report notes the damage; the lender wants it repaired or evaluated by a qualified contractor.
Repair plus re-inspection is the standard path, and this is the finding with the longest lead time, so price it first.
- 04 The sleeper finding here
Wood decay fungus and rot
Not an insect, but inspectors note visible fungus damage and VA appraisers flag rot on their own. In a market built over damp crawl spaces, this is the sleeper finding.
Clearing it means treating the fungus, correcting the moisture behind it, and repairing wood that has lost integrity.
- 05 Cheapest items on the page
Conducive conditions
Wood to soil contact, cellulose debris under the house, standing water, moisture readings past the 20 percent line. These get listed even with no termites present, and some lenders press on them.
The upside: they are usually the cheapest items on the page. Correct the condition, document it, move on.
- 06 Rarer, same logic
The other wood destroyers
Powderpost beetles in the joists, carpenter ants in a wet sill, carpenter bees drilling the deck header. Rarer in closings than termites, same logic: evaluation, treatment where activity is live, and repair wherever the wood has lost real strength.
Back at the table
Triage for a PCS closing
Count backward from the closing date. Lenders typically want the report dated within 30 to 90 days of closing, so ordering an inspection five months out buys you nothing. Order the WDI inspection as soon as the closing date is realistic, then leave room to act on it.
If findings come back, sequence by lead time. Treatment can typically be scheduled within days. Structural repair is the long pole, so get that estimate the day the report lands, not the week before closing. The updated or re-inspection report follows the work and closes the loop with the lender. One more lever worth knowing: since a 2022 VA policy change, the buyer is allowed to pay for the termite inspection, so a PCS buyer on a clock no longer has to wait for the seller to get around to ordering it.
If you are the agent on this file
You already know the pattern: the WDI is ordered late, the findings are ordinary, and the panic is optional. Our realtor page covers turnaround and how we handle report questions from underwriters. For the buyer eye view of the whole process, start with the VA loan termite inspection walkthrough. And when the file is genuinely on fire, call 757-583-4444 and say so.
End of the descent
Closing date already on the calendar?
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.