The Termite Letter: What a Wood-Destroying Insect Inspection Catches Before You Close

Somewhere in the pile of paperwork between your accepted offer and your closing table, there's a document agents around Kansas City still call "the termite letter." Its official name is the Wood-Destroying Insect report — the WDI — and depending on your loan, it may not be optional. I've watched buyers breeze past it on the checklist because it sounds like a formality. It isn't. In our part of the country, it's one of the least expensive pieces of due diligence you'll buy, and one of the few that can quietly stop a closing if it's handled late.

Why KC buyers can't skip this one

Kansas City sits in what the U.S. Forest Service maps as a moderate-to-heavy termite pressure zone. Our resident species is the eastern subterranean termite — a colony insect that lives in the soil, not the wood, and commutes into your house through foundation cracks and the mud tubes it builds up basement walls. That matters for two reasons. First, the KC metro is full of exactly what these insects love: mature neighborhoods with decades-old landscaping, deep basements, wood decks, and mulch beds pushed right up against the foundation. Second, because the colony lives underground, an active infestation can be doing damage for years with almost nothing visible in the living space.

That's the gap the WDI inspection exists to close. A licensed pest professional walks the foundation, basement or crawlspace, garage, and accessible exterior wood looking for four specific things: live insects, visible evidence (mud tubes, shed wings, frass), visible damage, and signs of previous treatment. The findings go on a standardized form — the NPMA-33 — that lenders, agents, and title companies all recognize.

When the letter is required, and who pays

If you're buying with a VA loan, this stops being a nice-to-have. In Kansas and Missouri, VA financing requires a WDI inspection, and the report needs to come back clear — or show treatment — before the loan closes. For years VA rules barred the veteran from paying for that inspection, which made it a standard seller expense here. A 2022 policy change made the fee negotiable, so who pays is now a contract conversation, not a rule. If you're a VA buyer, make sure your agent addresses it in the offer rather than discovering it the week of closing.

Conventional and FHA buyers usually aren't forced to order one, but here's my honest take: at roughly $75 to $150 — often less when bundled with your general home inspection — the termite letter is cheap insurance in a region with this much termite pressure. Your general inspector will note suspicious conditions, but most are not licensed to issue the NPMA-33. Order both during your inspection window and you get two sets of trained eyes on the same house.

Reading the report like a local

A WDI report in the KC metro tends to land in one of three places, and each has its own playbook.

Clean report, no evidence. The best outcome — file it and move on. Worth noting: the inspector only certifies what's visible and accessible. Finished basements can conceal sill plates, which is one reason the report has a section listing obstructed areas.

Evidence of previous treatment. Extremely common in established neighborhoods, and not by itself a red flag — small drill holes in the basement slab or foundation perimeter usually mean a liquid barrier was applied at some point. The question to ask is whether a treatment warranty or bond exists and whether it transfers. A transferable bond from a reputable company is genuinely valuable: it typically means annual re-inspections and covered re-treatment. Get the company name, the renewal cost, and the transfer deadline in writing before closing — these bonds often have a short post-closing window to transfer, and missing it means starting over.

Active infestation or damage. This is where the negotiation starts, not where the deal ends. A perimeter liquid treatment on a typical Johnson County home generally runs in the $1,200–$3,000 range; a bait-station system costs a similar amount to install plus an annual monitoring fee. Damage repair is a separate line item and needs a contractor's bid, because termite damage to a sill plate or rim joist is a structural repair, not a pest bill. Sellers in this market routinely pay for treatment to keep a deal together — it's a known, priceable problem.

One more local wrinkle: the Kansas seller's disclosure asks about past infestation and treatment. If the disclosure says "treated in 2019" and the WDI report finds no evidence of that treatment — or finds fresh mud tubes — that mismatch is worth pausing on. It's the same principle I walk buyers through on the sewer scope: the documents tell you a story, and the inspection tells you whether the story holds up.

What termites are not

Two things get mistaken for termite problems constantly. Carpenter ants also tunnel wood in KC houses, but they excavate rather than eat it, and the treatment is completely different — a good WDI inspector will distinguish them on the report. And old damage with no live activity is a history lesson, not an emergency. Houses in our older neighborhoods have often had — and beaten — termites at some point in fifty or sixty years. What you're buying is the current condition plus the protection plan, which is exactly the mindset I recommend for radon testing and every other item in your inspection window.

The bottom line

Order the WDI early in your inspection period, not the week of closing. If you're a VA buyer, it's required — put the cost in the contract. If a bond exists, transfer it on time. And if the report comes back with findings, treat it as a repair negotiation with known prices, not a reason to panic.

If you're buying anywhere in Johnson County or the KC metro and want an inspection strategy that covers the things this market actually throws at buyers — termites, radon, sewer laterals, flood plain checks — that's exactly what I walk my clients through on every purchase. Reach out and let's talk through your next move before you write the offer.