Saline Real Estate and Homes for Sale

While writing an offer to purchase a Saline home or condo, be sure to include a contingency for a Pest inspection.  Today I'd like to explain what's involved with a pest inspection.

A Pest inspection is an inspection of a property for evidence of any wood-destroying insects.  It is NOT an inspection for other household pests (rodents, barking dogs, nosy neighbors, front-porch solicitors, and other such "pests").

When you think of a "wood-destroying insect," you naturally think of termites.  Here in Michigan, incidents of termites are rare, but they do indeed exist.  In my experience (since 1994), I cannot recall a pest inspection turning up evidence of termites.  That said, the pest inspectors always relate their experience in finding termites in our area.

Other wood-destroying insects in the Saline area include carpenter ants and powder-post beetles.

In any event, when buying a Saline home or condo, you'll want to include a contingency on a satisfactory pest inspection.  If the inspector finds no evidence of wood-destroying insects, you're all set.

But what if the inspector does find evidence of wood-destroying insects?

There are established contractors that can treat a Saline home or condo for wood-destroying insects.  Because of our temperatures in the winter, termites can only survive deep underground.  For that reason, you won't see the "blue tarp" covering an entire house, as you might in the southern states for treating a termite infestation.  If termites are found, most contractors will seek out and destroy the underground termite colony.  If the home has ants or beetles, those can usually be treated by a perimeter poison treatment, or poison baits inside the house or condo.  Certainly not a deal killer, by any means.  The exception would be if the structural wood (the lumber in the walls, floors, or ceilings) has been so badly damaged by the insects as to make it unsafe to live there.  Again, in my experience, this hasn't happened - but it certainly (very rarely) could happen.  If you're living there, you would likely know about such structural damage well before it advanced that far!

So there you have it.  When you write an offer to purchase a Saline home or condo, be sure to include a contingency for a Pest inspection.  And when you're selling a Saline home or condo, just know that the worst that a Pest inspection contingency can result in is your cost of the treatment of any pests found.  Keep in mind, though, that a really jittery buyer may decide to cancel the whole purchase agreement by not removing their pest inspection contingency.

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If you have questions about your specific situation, or if you're wondering about wood-destroying insects in your home, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of my experience in the Saline market.  I'd be happy to meet with you!  Just give me a call at (734) 476-2063, or send an e-mail, "Vance (at) SalineMichiganRealEstate (dot) com".

You can search for homes and condos in Saline here.

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