The termite companies are probably my biggest gripe in the whole RE game. Section 1 termite clearance somehow gotten written in as a standard item that gets included in most transactions. Because its written in, the termite companies have a free hand to find as much damage as they can and to come up with a bid as high as possible.
In this case the bid was over $8500!!!!
Because its a short sale the buyer doesnt get termite clearance and they dont have to accept this bid. By going to Corky’s the tenting will be $600 less than the bid we got. The original bid for wood repairs was $6500!!!! I called them up and read them the riot act. The revised bid came back at $2250 nearly 1/3rd of what they originally tried to extort. AN’s guy just came back at $1800 which is almost 1/4 of what the termite company tried to get away with. They can probably get him down a little more too.
FWIW, none of this work is critical to the structure of the house and simply tenting the house will prevent problems any time soon.
