Annual Termite Inspection - yay or nay?

[HeadedWest2029]

I bought my house 7 years ago and every year I get a termite inspection for ~$80.  If you get it done every year as part of an annual agreement, if termites are found the treatment to remove them is free.  I've never had termites, but as a first time home buyer I just continued what the previous owner did figuring it was good insurance.  The inspector guy pointed up and down the street at various houses where termites were found, but didn't know how trustworthy that information was.  Anyway, is this a necessary expense or better to "insure myself" and just deal with the issue if it comes up?

[tomorrowsomewherenew]

Where do you live?

[jac941]

I doubt it's worth paying for every year, but it might be worth doing on a regular basis. Our house was teaming with termites when we bought it -- didn't need an inspection to figure that out. The company that did all of the termite abatement work & who replaced the extensively damaged framing included annual inspections for a few years after they finished in the cost as part of the warranty for their work. The termites have not returned in 4 years -- this is despite the known history in our house and despite being able to visibly see termites in my neighbor's house that's 8 feet away from our home.

Now that our "free" annual inspections are up, we will probably continue to have it inspected every 3-5 years. But, we also know some of the signs of termites and some of the things that encourage termites so we keep an eye on conditions ourselves as well and would have it inspected sooner if anything seemed amiss to us.

[HeadedWest2029]

Where do you live?

We live in Illinois

[Spork]

I live in the south and I have no idea if we have the same termite issues.  Take that in mind before you read what I have to say.  We have almost 100% subterranean termites here.

I think it is important that someone does an annual termite inspection.  The question then is: who?  With a little bit of googling, I think you can do your own.  $80/year saved.  Are you as good as a "seasoned termite inspector"?  Maybe.  It depends on if they send out some old fogey that has done it for 30 years or some new kid that just started last week.

In our case, walking around the house and looking at the foundation gets about 90+% of the problem.   We don't have a lot of foundation penetrations (and I know where they all are).  But we live in the woods.  Termites are EVERYWHERE.  I might find out I am 100% wrong here in a few years.

Inspections *may* come with some warranty... that if they do find termites, they will get rid of them... maybe even fix the damage.  But know what you are buying.  It is insurance.