Whether you have to disclose past or current termite damage when you sell in Pennsylvania, what a buyer's inspection will surface anyway, and how to decide between repairing first and pricing it in.
Pennsylvania's Seller Disclosure Law requires sellers of most residential real estate to complete a written disclosure statement covering known material defects, and past or current termite or wood-destroying insect damage is one of the specific items that standard form asks about. If you know about it, it needs to be on the form. Leaving it off doesn't make the damage go away, it just moves the problem to after closing, where it becomes a legal one instead of a negotiating one. A real estate attorney or your listing agent can walk you through exactly how to word it for your situation.
Both paths are workable, but they land very differently. Selling as-is with a price reduction sounds simpler, but many lenders, especially FHA and VA, won't fund a purchase until active damage or structural issues are addressed, so the repair often has to happen anyway, just later and under time pressure during someone else's option period. Repairing before you list means you set the timeline, get a fixed price instead of a rushed one, and go into showings with the issue already behind you instead of hanging over every offer.
A buyer weighing 'trust me, it's fine now' against a repair with a written scope, a pulled permit, and a workmanship warranty isn't really weighing two equal options. The second one is something their attorney and lender can actually verify. It's also the stronger answer if a WDI reinspection happens right before closing, which is common on older homes in the Reading area, and it heads off a last-minute renegotiation over a problem the buyer's inspector found first.
Structural termite repair isn't a same-week job once shoring, framing, and any inspection sign-off are involved, so the point to get an assessment is when you first start thinking about listing, not after an offer is already in and a clock is running. Getting the scope and price nailed down early also means it can be weighed against a simple price adjustment with real numbers, instead of a guess made under pressure.
If you're not sure whether damage you know about, or damage a past inspection flagged, has reached structural wood, that's worth finding out before a buyer's inspector does. We give Berks County homeowners a free on-site assessment and a clear written price for the repair, so you can decide how to handle it on your terms, not on a closing deadline. If the damage turns out to be more cosmetic than structural, that's useful to know too, and it's a much shorter conversation with a buyer.
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Termite damage only gets worse, and more expensive, the longer it sits. Get a free on-site assessment from Berks County's structural repair team.
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