The Termite Letter Is Not Just About Termites: What Georgia's Wood Infestation Report Really Says

A buyer file of mine in Roswell closed and funded on a Monday morning in late September. The loan was approved the Friday before, the walk-through was done, the wire went out on time. The last document to land in the file was the one buyers worry about least: the termite letter. It arrived at 8:18 on a Saturday night, about thirty-six hours before my clients sat down at the closing table.

It said clearance. It also listed evidence of wood decay fungus in three places. Both of those things were true at the same time, and understanding why is the most useful thing I can hand another buyer in North Fulton County.

What the termite letter actually is

In Georgia, the document everyone calls the termite letter is the Official Georgia Wood Infestation Inspection Report, and it is not only about termites. Per the Georgia Department of Agriculture, it covers five organisms: subterranean termites, drywood termites, powder post beetles, wood boring beetles, and wood decaying fungi below the first floor level. Molds and mildews sit outside it entirely.

It is a record of what one licensed inspector observed on one day. The state's fact sheet describes a ninety-day guarantee attached to it: if an organism the report certified as absent turns up within ninety days, the pest control company treats it at no charge to the owner. That is a narrow promise about specific organisms — not a warranty on the house, and no substitute for a home inspection.

That distinction matters because of how the letter gets read. Most people look for one word, clearance, find it, and stop. The findings section underneath is where the information lives.

The problem on this file

This was a split closing: the seller signed on a Thursday, my buyers on the following Monday. A split closing looks like it buys you time. It does the opposite. Every condition in the file has to be satisfied before the earlier signing, not the later one, and in this case a weekend sat in the middle of it, when nothing can be ordered, scheduled or corrected.

Going into that week the file was in good shape with one item open: the wood infestation report. It had been expected by Wednesday and did not yet exist. A termite letter is not paperwork anyone inside the transaction can generate — a licensed pest company has to visit the house, inspect it and issue the report, and that scheduling sits with the listing side and the inspector's route.

What we did, and when

The spine of this file is a set of timestamps.

• Thursday, 9:44 a.m. — My transaction coordinator sent a written request for the report, naming the closing date and the date it had been expected. In writing, so there is a record and a clock.
• Thursday, 12:00 p.m. — The seller's signing appointment went ahead as scheduled.
• Thursday, 2:57 p.m. — Second written follow-up, same day. One request on a Thursday with a Monday closing behind it is not a follow-up system.
• Friday, 8:35 a.m. — The answer came back: the pest company was going out Saturday and the letter would be issued the same day.
• Friday, 1:36 p.m. — Final loan approval and the final closing disclosure arrived from the lender.
• Friday, 3:00 p.m. — Final walk-through, staffed by a member of my team rather than left to the buyers, with the house key to be carried to the closing table because the listing side does not attend closings.
• Friday, 3:25 p.m. — Revised settlement statement, carrying the figures my buyers needed to arrange their wire on a business day rather than in a Monday scramble.
• Saturday, 8:18 p.m. — The inspection report was issued.
• Saturday, 9:49 p.m. — I read it and forwarded it to my clients that night.
• Monday, 10:00 a.m. — My buyers signed. The signed settlement statement came back at 11:27 a.m., the closing was confirmed complete at 11:34 a.m., and the funds receipt followed at 12:44 p.m.

What the letter said, and why it went out on a Saturday night

No active termites were found. Clearance was given. And the inspector noted evidence of wood decay fungus in three specific places: the left side of the front porch at the base of the steps, the back wall at the deck by the doors, and a corner of the garage against the retaining wall. He recommended a liquid treatment as a preventative measure.

Those three locations are the lesson, because they are not random. They are where water arrives on almost any house and has nowhere to go: the bottom of a set of steps, the wall a deck ties into, the corner where a retaining wall holds soil against a structure. Wood decay fungus is a moisture problem carrying an insect problem's paperwork, and the long-term answer is usually drainage, grading and ventilation rather than an exterminator.

Which is why my clients had it on Saturday night rather than at the table on Monday. Nothing in that report changed the closing; all of it changes their first ninety days in the house. A buyer who reads that letter twenty minutes before signing reads it as an obstacle. Two days early, it is a to-do list.

Six things I would tell any Georgia buyer

1. Put the termite letter on the calendar at binding, not in closing week. It depends on a third party visiting the house. Treat it like the appraisal, not like a signature.
2. Read past the word "clearance." It describes active infestation on the day of the inspection, and says nothing about the evidence, damage or conducive conditions written down underneath.
3. Know that it is not only termites. Beetles and wood decaying fungi are on the same form, and fungus findings are the ones most often skimmed past.
4. Ask where, not just what. A finding at a porch base, a deck ledger or a garage corner against a retaining wall is telling you about water on that side of the house. Photograph those spots and watch them in your first heavy rain.
5. On a split closing, work to the earlier signing date. Two dates do not mean two deadlines. Everything is due before the first one, and a weekend inside the gap is dead calendar.
6. Settle the walk-through and the key before closing week. Who is walking the house, when, and who carries the key to the table. Small questions that become large ones at 9:00 a.m. on closing day.

Looking back

On every buyer file I now treat the wood infestation report as a dated deliverable from the moment we go under contract, with a written request and a named person behind it, rather than an item that surfaces in the last week. And when it arrives I go through the findings with my clients, not just the clearance line — because the part of that letter that matters to a homeowner is almost never the part that matters to the closing. A file that funds on time is a short list of external dependencies, each with a date and someone chasing it in writing.

I am a real estate agent and associate broker with Keller Williams Atlanta Partners, working across Gwinnett, Forsyth, North Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties in English and Mandarin, at about a hundred closings a year. If you are buying in Roswell, Alpharetta or Johns Creek and want someone who reads the whole letter, book a time to talk.