Do You Need a Termite Letter to Sell Your Cobb County, GA Home?

No, Georgia law doesn’t require a termite letter to sell your home. But most lenders do.

If you’re selling in Mableton, or anywhere else in Cobb County, you’ve probably heard the term “termite letter” thrown around without much explanation. It’s one of those closing-table documents that nobody thinks about until a lender’s checklist flags it, and by then, sellers are sometimes surprised to learn it’s not actually a Georgia legal requirement at all. It’s a financing requirement, which means whether you need one, how fast you need it, and who pays for it all comes down to how your buyer is paying for the house.

Georgia doesn’t mandate a wood-destroying insect inspection report (WDIR) for every home sale. If your buyer is paying cash, there’s no legal obligation to get one at all, though it’s still a smart idea given how much termite pressure exists across metro Atlanta.

Financed sales are a different story. Georgia is one of the states where VA loans require a wood-destroying pest inspection, and FHA loans typically require one as well. Conventional loans usually follow the same pattern, even though it’s technically a lender overlay rather than a federal requirement. In practice, this means the vast majority of buyers in Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, and Powder Springs will need a termite letter before their loan clears to close, the only real exceptions are cash buyers who choose to waive it.

One more wrinkle worth knowing: on VA loans, the property is the one being cleared, not the buyer, so the requirement follows the house regardless of who’s financing it. While sellers customarily cover this as a negotiated closing cost, VA rules also allow the buyer to pay for repairs needed to meet minimum property requirements if that’s how the contract is written.

Georgia is one of the states with its own state-mandated inspection form rather than the national NPMA-33 form used elsewhere, inspectors here work from Georgia’s own version, commonly still called a “termite letter” or wood infestation report regardless of the exact form name. Only pest control companies licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture for wood-destroying organism inspections can issue a valid one, and the inspector’s license number has to appear on it.

The inspection covers subterranean termites, wood-boring beetles, powder post beetles, and wood-decaying fungi, both active infestation and older, already-treated damage. It’s a visual inspection: inspectors check the interior, exterior, attic, and crawl space for mud tubes, discarded wings, and damaged wood, but they can’t move furniture, pull back insulation, or open up walls. That’s worth knowing if you’ve got finished basement space or dense landscaping right up against the foundation in a Mableton or Acworth home, anything the inspector can’t physically access can’t be verified either way.

Cost for the inspection itself starts around $225. Like most closing-cost items in Georgia, who pays is fully negotiable between buyer and seller, but the customary local practice is for the seller to cover it, similar to how seller concessions get negotiated elsewhere in the contract.

Some FHA-insured transactions allow up to 90 days under HUD’s regional guidelines, but 30 days is the number to plan around for most sales. If your closing slips past that window, because of an appraisal delay, a buyer’s financing hiccup, or a slow attorney’s office, the report expires and has to be redone before the lender will clear to close.

That’s exactly why this inspection belongs early in your due diligence period alongside the general home inspection, not scheduled separately closer to closing. If you’re already coordinating a pre-listing inspection or responding to a buyer’s post-inspection repair request, it’s worth asking your agent to line up the termite inspection at the same time so you’re not scrambling to reorder it a week before closing.

The bottom line: a reinspection to renew an expired letter isn’t usually expensive on its own, but it’s an avoidable delay at exactly the point in a transaction when nobody wants one. Line it up early and it’s a non-issue.

Finding evidence of termites doesn’t mean your sale falls apart, it means you and your buyer have a few standard paths forward. Buyers typically have the option to walk away and recover their earnest money if they’re still inside the due diligence period, renegotiate the price to reflect treatment and repair costs, ask you to fund treatment before closing, or accept the home as-is if the issue is minor.

Treatment timelines are usually short, most companies can complete initial treatment within 24 to 48 hours, after which the property is reinspected and, if clear, a new letter is issued. Cost depends on the treatment method: liquid treatments generally run $1,300 to $2,500, bait station systems $1,900 to $3,400, and combined liquid-and-bait approaches $2,400 to $4,200, with most Georgia homeowners landing somewhere between $900 and $3,800 depending on the extent of the issue. If you decide to put an ongoing termite bond in place, common in this market given how termite-prone metro Atlanta is, expect roughly $300 to $475 a year for the renewal, which some sellers offer to transfer to the buyer as a selling point.

None of this is unusual in Cobb or Cherokee County. Subterranean termites are a fact of life in Georgia’s climate, and a documented, treated infestation with a current bond in place is often viewed as less concerning to buyers than an untreated, unknown one.

Whether you’re selling in Mableton, Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, Powder Springs, or across the county line in Woodstock or Holly Springs, the termite letter is a small piece of the closing checklist that’s easy to get right if you plan for it early, and easy to let derail your timeline if you don’t.

Let’s Map Out Your Full Closing Checklist

The termite letter is just one piece. Let’s schedule a free CMA and listing conversation and walk through everything your specific sale will need.

Ken Mandich is a Realtor® and team lead at Complete Realty Team, serving Metro Atlanta with a focus on Cobb and Cherokee County. As an active real estate investor, Ken brings a rare combination of hands-on investing experience and full-service agent expertise to every seller and buyer he works with. He’s built his business around clear communication and walking clients through every step of the process, from pricing a home right to closing with confidence. You can reach him at 404-410-6465 or [email protected].