I Just Discovered Termites in the Home I’ve Had for Decades and Need to Sell Fast to Avoid the Cost of Repairs

Your home was ideal when you purchased it decades ago. Over time, however, you’ve noticed some work needs to be addressed. Perhaps the bathroom needs renovations, or your porch caved in, or the kitchen needs updating. So you set to work fixing the house you’ve called home for so long. That’s when you find the last thing you were expecting: termites. What’s more, they moved in long ago under your nose and set to work damaging the foundations of your house. Suddenly, the extermination and repair costs begin to seem insurmountable.

Termites are an unfortunate fact of life for SoCal residences, with San Diego ranking third in the nation for termite infestations. Their varieties swarm like millions of unseen destroyers and settle into the foundations of homes. They consume wood and paper, and can nest nearly anywhere in a house. Beginning a renovation project will often unearth them, making something that actually appeared insidiously over time seem like an overnight phenomenon. Repairing extensive termite damage, especially if your home’s foundation is involved, is frustrating and expensive. The good news is that you don’t have to pony up to fix your home. With a quick and easy home sale, you can skip the costly damage repairs and move on, pest-free.

Difficulties Transferring Termite Costs

You may have entertained the idea that someone else could be responsible, or that you could find a way to fund the repairs without digging into your own pockets. Unfortunately, alternative scenarios just aren’t always realistic, despite how fervently you wish them to be so.

• Exterminator Error:

  Termite damage can escape a basic inspection that doesn’t dig in areas where termites are sometimes overlooked. You may think that if you’ve utilized exterminators to review the property, or to take care of a pest in the past, they should be on the hook for any further invasions. In reality, when you seek responsibility for damages after using their services, they may state that the damage predates their work and renders them immune to their own guarantees, which will put you out of luck.

• Insurance:

  Home insurance is a valuable safety net that can protect you from the myriad threats that could compromise your home. Unfortunately, the majority of home insurance providers don’t cover termite damage to your house. When your claim is denied, you’ll be left high and dry to cover the costs of the termite damage on your own.

• Mortgage:

  A third and common option is to shoulder the costs in the form of debt and take out a 203K renovation loan to fix the damages. The consequence here is that you’ll have to refinance your home and start a whole new mortgage. In the middle of the renovation you already started (during which you found the termites in the first place!), you may have already refinanced, and the prospect of going through the process again, with all its associated costs, will only dig a deeper hole.

It isn’t easy to accept that safety nets you thought you may have had are not foolproof. If you exhaust your options to fund the additional repairs with outside money, you’ll be forced to face the bill alone.

Tiny Bug, Big Cost

So, what does the bottom line actually look like? Between extermination and repairs, you could be looking at numbers into the tens of thousands. The costs you will accrue may include:

• Extermination. Removing the source problem could run up to about $3000. There are a few options, including bait extermination, chemical extermination, heat extermination, electro-gun extermination, and fumigation. Prices typically range depending on the service and the square footage of your home.
• Hotel stay. You will have to factor in the cost of staying away from your house during extermination and repairs. While you may have family or friends offer you shelter, that may not be practical and a hotel stay is likely to run you at least a couple hundred dollars.
• Structural repair. The cost of repair to major structural elements of your home could run you thousands of dollars depending on the extent of the damage and the nature of the necessary repairs.
• Cosmetic damage. Repair of damage to surface areas, such as tiling, wood floors, drywall, and paint will all add up.

It isn’t just these costs that you will need to take into consideration, either. You need to consider the cost to your well-being. Sleeping in hotels or on family members’ couches can take an emotional toll, and so can being in your home dealing with the headache of construction. If monetary and emotional costs seem overwhelming, you can avoid the headache with a fast and simple home sale.

Sell Fast to Find a New Perfect Home

By selling your house direct in the wake of a termite revelation, you take the money and the lesson to your next homestead. You can find a new home with recent renovations that fit the definition of your perfect home, and is certifiably termite-free. Sell Your House Direct takes the infested house off your hands hassle-free, no renovations required. We purchase properties as they are, so you don’t have to worry about rehabbing the home and dealing with the sky-high costs of renovations and restorations. Contact us today and let us help you get back on track after termites.