The buyer usually pays for the termite inspection, because the buyer orders the report and the report belongs to the buyer. Three things can move that cost to the seller: what the purchase contract says, what the local real estate custom is, and which loan program the buyer is using. One of those three has changed recently, and most articles on this topic have not caught up. The Department of Veterans Affairs used to bar the veteran from paying the wood-destroying pest inspection fee. That rule was replaced in 2022. Below we work through who pays by custom, who pays by loan type, what Missouri requires, how the cost gets negotiated, who covers treatment when termites turn up, and what the inspection itself actually involves.
Who Pays for a Termite Inspection, the Buyer or the Seller?
The buyer pays for a termite inspection in most residential transactions, and the reasoning is the same reasoning that applies to every other inspection in a real estate deal. The buyer hires the inspector, sets the timing, and receives the report as a private document. Documents written for one party are paid for by that party, which keeps the inspector independent of the seller and the listing agent.
Independence is also why the default rarely flips without a reason. The three reasons it does flip are the purchase contract, which can assign the cost to either side as a negotiated term, local real estate custom, which varies sharply by region, and the loan program, which sometimes makes the report mandatory and therefore makes payment a bargaining chip. A buyer who schedules a termite inspection alongside the general inspection usually ends up paying for both on the same day.
Inspection results drive real money regardless of who wrote the check. Industry survey data shows 46% of buyers use inspection findings to negotiate, closing an average of $14,000 below the list price, and 86% of inspections reveal at least one issue needing attention. The National Association of REALTORS® reports that 77% of homes are inspected before a purchase is finalized.
Who Traditionally Pays for an Inspection?
Tradition puts the inspection on the buyer across most of the country, with a clear regional exception. In areas where termite pressure is high, local custom often puts the wood-destroying organism inspection and any required treatment on the seller, and listing agents in those markets build it into the deal before the first offer arrives. Agents in lower-pressure markets rarely do.
Markets differ because the risk differs. The National Pest Management Association estimates that termites cause more than $6.8 billion in U.S. property damage each year, and subterranean termites account for roughly 95% of it. Subterranean colonies live underground and reach wood through mud tubes, which makes humid regions and wooded lots far more exposed than dry ones.
Is a Termite Inspection Included in a Home Inspection?
A termite inspection is not included in a standard home inspection, which is the structural reason it carries its own bill. Standards of practice for general home inspectors, including the InterNACHI standards we follow, do not require the inspector to determine the presence or absence of wood-destroying insects. A general inspector documents visible damage to wood and recommends further evaluation. A wood-destroying organism inspection identifies the organism.
Separate scopes mean separate reports, separate licensing, and a separate line item. That distinction catches buyers who assume one fee buys everything a property needs examined, so it helps to know exactly what a general inspection covers before deciding which add-ons the property calls for.
What Is a Termite Letter?
A termite letter is the written report confirming a property has been inspected for wood-destroying insects, and it goes by two other names: the wood-destroying organism (WDO) report and the wood-destroying insect (WDI) report. The document records whether evidence of active infestation exists, whether prior damage is visible, what treatment is recommended, and what the inspection could not reach.
Lenders are the parties that usually demand it. A mortgage company requiring a termite letter is protecting the collateral behind the loan, not the buyer’s peace of mind, which is why the requirement follows the loan program rather than the buyer’s preference.
How Does Your Loan Type Decide Who Pays for a Termite Inspection?
Your loan type decides who pays by deciding whether the report is required at all. A required report turns payment into a negotiation, because somebody has to produce it before the loan can close. An optional report leaves payment with whoever wants the information. Requirements come from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Administration, and individual lenders, each with its own trigger.
The figures below come from VA Circular 26-22-11 and the VA’s local requirements for wood-destroying insect information, from Federal Housing Administration guidance on when a pest inspection is ordered, and from the National Pest Management Association, which publishes the NPMA-33 form that most of these reports are written on. We handle the inspection side of this for buyers and sellers through our inspection services.
| Loan type | Is a WDI report required | Who customarily pays | Report form |
|---|---|---|---|
| VA | Yes in zones rated very heavy or moderate to heavy on the Termite Infestation Probability map, which includes Missouri statewide | Negotiable since June 15, 2022. The veteran buyer may now be charged the fee, and sellers still often cover it | NPMA-33 or a state-approved equivalent |
| FHA | Only on four triggers: the appraiser sees evidence, state or local rules mandate it, it is customary in the area, or the lender requests it | Negotiable. The buyer typically pays when the lender is the one asking | NPMA-33 or a state-approved equivalent |
| USDA | When the lender or local requirements call for it, which is common on rural properties | Negotiable, with the buyer paying in most cases | NPMA-33 or a state-approved equivalent |
| Conventional | Not required by program rule. The individual lender decides | The buyer, who orders it as due diligence | Any licensed inspector’s written report |
Negotiability runs down every row of that table, which is the practical takeaway. Nothing in any program says the seller must write the check for the inspection itself. Treatment is a different matter, covered further down.
Who Pays for a Termite Inspection on a VA Loan?
On a VA loan, either party can pay for the termite inspection, and the veteran buyer is now allowed to pay it directly. VA Circular 26-22-11, effective June 15, 2022, authorized charging veterans the wood-destroying pest inspection fee where the Notice of Value requires the report. The same circular allows veterans to pay for repairs needed to satisfy VA Minimum Property Requirements.
Minimum Property Requirements had previously forced the fee onto the seller, the agent, or the lender, which made some sellers wary of VA offers. Wary sellers were the problem the change was written to solve. A great deal of published advice, including material still circulating today, states that VA rules prohibit the buyer from paying. That guidance describes the rule as it stood before mid-2022 and no longer reflects VA policy.
Policy still steers the money toward the seller in practice, though, because the VA encourages veterans to negotiate the cost of the pest inspection and any repairs with the seller. Veterans in Mid-Missouri should treat the fee as a term to bargain over rather than an obligation either side carries automatically.
Does an FHA Loan Require a Termite Inspection?
An FHA loan requires a termite inspection only under four specific conditions. The appraiser sees evidence of an active infestation, state or local rules mandate the inspection, wood-destroying pest inspections are customary in the area, or the lender asks for one. Absent all four, FHA does not order the report.
Orders that do come through are usually appraiser-driven, and FHA takes no position on who pays. Buyers typically cover it when the lender is the party requesting it, and sellers often cover it when the appraiser flagged visible damage, since the seller is the one who needs the finding cleared.
Do Conventional Loans Require a Termite Inspection?
Conventional loans do not require a termite inspection as a program rule, and the decision sits with the individual lender and the buyer. Buyers on conventional financing order the inspection as voluntary due diligence, which places the cost squarely with them by default.
Default placement is easy to change here, because nothing external is forcing the timing. A buyer can write the inspection into the offer as a seller-paid item the same way any other concession gets written in, and sellers in slower markets frequently agree.
Is a Termite Inspection Required in Missouri?
A termite inspection is required in Missouri on VA purchases, because the entire state falls into the moderate-to-heavy band on the VA Termite Infestation Probability map. Wood-destroying insect information is required statewide for VA-financed properties in Missouri, with no county-level exceptions. The VA requires the report wherever the map reads very heavy or moderate to heavy, and it applies that rule across roughly 35 states and territories plus selected counties in several more.
Several more inspections become sensible once the map reads that way, even on financing that does not demand one. Mid-Missouri’s humidity, wooded lots, and older housing stock give subterranean colonies the conditions they need, and a colony in good conditions can consume about a pound of wood per day. Buyers who want the broader picture on what the state does and does not mandate can review the Missouri requirements for residential inspections.
Who Can Perform a Termite Inspection?
A termite inspection can be performed only by someone licensed by the state to inspect for wood-destroying organisms, which in Missouri runs through the Department of Agriculture’s pesticide program. Licensing there requires passing the Core examination and the 7B examination before an inspector can issue WDO reports. A general home inspector without that credential cannot write the report, and neither can an appraiser.
Credentials narrow the field of who can be hired, which in turn narrows who can be billed. Buyers and sellers who want the general inspection and the WDO inspection handled on one visit should confirm the licensing before scheduling, because a second trip costs both sides time inside an already short contingency window.
Can You Negotiate Who Pays for the Termite Inspection?
You can negotiate who pays for the termite inspection, and the purchase contract is where that negotiation gets recorded. No loan program, state law, or professional standard assigns the inspection fee to a specific party. Custom sets the expectation and the contract sets the obligation. Obligations written into the agreement override every default described above.
Agreements commonly handle it one of three ways. The buyer pays directly and keeps the report. The seller pays and furnishes the report to the buyer. Or the buyer pays up front and receives a credit at closing, which is the cleanest option when the lender’s requirement surfaces late. Buyers who want to see how the wider back-and-forth works can look at how negotiating repairs usually unfolds after a report comes in.
Is the Buyer or Seller Responsible for Inspection?
The buyer is responsible for the inspection in the sense that matters most: the buyer decides what gets inspected and relies on the result. Reliance is the test. A seller who pays for a report still does not own the buyer’s decision, and a buyer who accepts a seller-furnished report is trusting a document ordered by the other side of the transaction.
Transactions where the seller furnishes the report work best when the buyer can verify the inspector’s license and the report’s date. Buyers who want full control over the timing and the scope order their own buyers inspection and add the WDO to it.
Why Are Buyers Waiving Inspections?
Buyers waive inspections to make an offer more competitive, and the practice rises and falls with market conditions. The National Association of REALTORS® Realtors Confidence Index found that 17% of buyers waived the inspection contingency in May 2026, down from 25% a year earlier, and 18% waived it in December 2025. Falling waiver rates track with buyers regaining leverage.
Leverage matters here because a waived inspection removes the only tool that documents termite activity before closing. Redfin reported that 14% of home-sale agreements that went under contract in July 2026 fell through, and deals that survive often do so because findings surfaced early enough to be priced in rather than discovered after the keys changed hands.
Who Pays for Termite Treatment If Termites Are Found?
The seller typically pays for termite treatment if termites are found, and the reason is practical rather than legal. Lenders will not fund a home with an active wood-destroying pest infestation, so the treatment has to clear before closing, and the seller is the party who needs the sale to close. Clearing the finding is the seller’s path to the closing table.
Closing-table pressure gives sellers three ways to handle the expense: pay for treatment up front, reduce the purchase price by the estimated amount, or provide a credit at closing so the buyer arranges the work. Each approach appears routinely, and the right one usually depends on how much time is left before closing.
Not every finding carries the same weight, which is where the line between covered and negotiable gets drawn. Sellers customarily cover:
- Active infestations of subterranean termites or other wood-destroying insects
- Structural repairs to sill plates, floor joists, or framing damaged by that activity
- Any treatment the lender names as a condition of funding the loan
- Conditions the appraiser flagged that block the property from meeting program requirements
Requirements stop there, and the following items stay open to negotiation: prior damage with no current activity, conducive conditions such as wood-to-soil contact or poor drainage, preventive treatment on a property with no evidence of activity, and a renewable treatment bond for the years after closing. Sellers who want to settle these questions before buyers raise them order a pre-listing inspection and handle the findings on their own schedule.
Do Sellers Usually Fix Everything on Home Inspections?
Sellers do not usually fix everything on home inspections, and no standard contract requires them to. Requirements extend to safety concerns, lender conditions, and major defects. Cosmetic items and ordinary wear are declined routinely, and a buyer who submits a long list of small requests alongside a termite finding usually weakens the request that actually matters.
Matters that affect loan approval move first. A clear termite finding sits near the top of that list for exactly that reason, which gives it more negotiating weight than almost anything else a report can contain.
Can the Seller Refuse to Pay for Termite Treatment?
A seller can refuse to pay for termite treatment, and refusal is a normal negotiating move rather than a breach of contract. Refusal simply returns the decision to the buyer, who then accepts the property as it stands, proposes a credit instead, or cancels under the inspection contingency. Contingency-based cancellation protects the buyer’s earnest money when the notice goes out on time.
Time is the constraint that shapes all of it, since treatment and verification both have to happen before closing. Buyers who reach an agreement on repairs commonly schedule a re-inspection to confirm the work was completed properly.
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Termite Damage?
Homeowners insurance does not cover termite damage, and that exclusion is nearly universal across standard policies. The Insurance Information Institute classifies termite infestation as a maintenance issue rather than a sudden or accidental loss, which places it outside what an all-risk policy pays for. Policies pay for events, not for conditions that develop slowly and could have been caught by routine inspection.
Routine inspection is therefore the only mechanism standing between a buyer and an uninsured repair bill. The National Pest Management Association estimates more than $6.8 billion in annual U.S. termite damage affecting hundreds of thousands of homes, and almost all of that cost lands on homeowners rather than on insurance carriers. Buyers who want to recognize trouble themselves between inspections can learn the termite damage signs that commonly go unnoticed.
How Much Do Termites Devalue a Home?
Termites devalue a home through two channels rather than one fixed percentage: the cost of treatment and structural repair, and the disclosure that follows the property into every future sale. Disclosure is the longer-lasting of the two. A documented infestation becomes a known material defect the seller has a duty to share with later buyers, and that conversation recurs at each transaction.
Each transaction also reprices the repair. Damage to load-bearing members such as sill plates and floor joists costs far more to correct than damage to trim or a porch step, so the practical effect on value tracks what the colony reached rather than that it existed.
Is It Hard to Sell a House That Has Had Termites?
Selling a house that has had termites is harder without documentation and straightforward with it. Documentation is the whole difference. A seller holding a treatment record, a warranty or bond, and a current clear report answers the buyer’s question before it becomes an objection, while a seller with nothing in writing invites the buyer to assume the worst.
Assumptions get expensive during negotiation, which is why preparation pays. Sellers who are selling a house with any termite history should gather those records before the listing goes live rather than after an offer arrives.
What Happens During a Termite Inspection?
During a termite inspection, a licensed inspector examines the structure and the wood around it for evidence of active and prior wood-destroying organism activity, then issues a written report. Reports follow a predictable sequence, and knowing the sequence tells a buyer exactly what the fee produces:
- The inspector walks the exterior foundation, looking for mud tubes running from soil to wood.
- Crawl spaces, basements, and the lowest framing members are examined, since subterranean activity starts at ground level.
- Interior areas with plumbing penetrations, window sills, baseboards, and door frames are checked for damage and discarded wings.
- Attics and garages are reviewed for other wood-destroying insects, including carpenter ants and powder post beetles.
- Outbuildings, fencing, wood mulch, and stacked firewood are assessed as conducive conditions feeding activity toward the house.
- Findings are recorded on the NPMA-33 form or a state-approved equivalent, noting active evidence, prior damage, treatment history, and areas the inspection could not reach.
Areas that cannot be reached matter as much as the findings, because an inaccessible crawl space limits what any report can state. We perform termite and WDO inspections from top to bottom and deliver the written report within 24 hours.
What Does a Termite Inspector Look For?
A termite inspector looks for mud tubes, discarded wings, frass, hollow-sounding or damaged wood, and the conditions that invite activity in the first place. Conditions carry more predictive value than most buyers expect. Wood-to-soil contact at porch supports, deck posts, and door frames gives subterranean termites a direct route, and poor grading that holds moisture against the foundation keeps that route usable year round.
Year-round activity is what makes small findings worth reporting. A single mud tube on a foundation wall rarely means the structure is compromised, but it does mean a colony has located the house and is working toward it.
How Thorough Is a Termite Inspection?
A termite inspection is thorough within the limits of what is visible and accessible, and those limits are stated in the report itself. Reports cover the areas an inspector can physically reach and observe, which excludes the inside of finished walls, areas behind stored belongings, and crawl spaces blocked by debris or standing water.
Standing water and blocked access are worth clearing before the inspector arrives, since every obstruction narrows the report. Buyers weighing whether the add-on is worth scheduling should weigh it against the fact that no homeowners policy will absorb what the inspection would have found.
How Long Is a Termite Inspection Report Good For?
A termite inspection report is generally treated as current for about 90 days, and lenders enforce that window at closing. Closing dates that slip past it force a re-inspection, which reopens the question of who pays a second time. Buyers and sellers who negotiated the first fee carefully are often caught off guard by the second.
Guarding against that is a matter of timing rather than money. Scheduling the WDO alongside the general inspection early in the contingency period, rather than near the end, leaves the report comfortably inside its window. Rural properties across Mid-Missouri often need well, septic, or radon evaluations in the same stretch of days, which is another argument for booking everything on one visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does a Termite Inspection Take?
A termite inspection takes between 30 minutes and an hour for a typical single-family home. Larger properties, homes with multiple outbuildings, and crawl spaces that are difficult to enter take longer. The written report follows after the on-site work, and findings are recorded on the NPMA-33 form or a state-approved equivalent.
Who Pays for a Termite Inspection on a USDA Loan?
Payment for a termite inspection on a USDA loan is negotiable, with the buyer covering it in most cases. USDA does not impose a blanket termite inspection requirement, but lenders frequently order one on rural properties where wood-destroying insect pressure is higher. Either party can agree to the cost in the purchase contract.
Can a Termite Inspection Be Done the Same Day as the Home Inspection?
A termite inspection can be done the same day as the home inspection when the inspector holds the required wood-destroying organism license. Combining the two saves a scheduling round trip, which matters because most purchase contracts allow a short inspection period of roughly 7 to 14 days for every evaluation a property needs.
Does a Clear Termite Letter Guarantee There Are No Termites?
A clear termite letter does not guarantee there are no termites, and the report says so in its own limitations section. The document states that no visible evidence of active infestation was observed in the accessible areas on the date of the inspection. Colonies inside finished walls or beneath inaccessible floors can escape detection, which is why the report is dated and time-limited.
Who Pays for the Termite Inspection on a Pre-Listing Inspection?
The seller pays for the termite inspection on a pre-listing inspection, because the seller orders it and receives the report. Sellers use the findings to price the home accurately, complete treatment before buyers see the property, and head off the renegotiation that follows a buyer-side surprise.
The Bottom Line
The buyer pays for the termite inspection in most transactions, and three things can move that cost: the purchase contract, local real estate custom, and the loan program. On VA loans the fee has been chargeable to the veteran buyer since June 2022, and the required report applies statewide across Missouri because of where the state sits on the termite probability map. Treatment follows a different rule, falling to the seller in most cases because lenders will not fund a home with an active infestation.
Infestations found before closing cost far less than the same infestations found after, since no homeowners policy will absorb the repair. Whichever side ends up writing the check, the inspection is the cheapest piece of protection in the entire transaction. If you are buying or selling anywhere in Mid-Missouri and want the termite evaluation handled alongside your general inspection, ARC Home Inspections is glad to help. Call us at 314-948-3058 and we will get you on the schedule.
