DGH – a buyer (you included) won’t be able to obtain a good mortgage without a termite certificate – selling the property ‘as is’ most likely means you are dealing with an investor who is going to expect a significant discount for the ‘as is’ condition – at a minimum you are raising a red flag that the property has issues
much better IMO to get a good termite inspection, address any issues found and obtain the termite certificate before putting the property on the market – since most buyers are going to need this cert anyway you should have it in hand
the termite inspector is going to poke at all the exterior wood (trim, window sills, fascia, etc) with a blunt tipped metal rod – if he finds any soft or mushy wood he is going to call this out on his report and he is going to look even closer at the area in question – you can do this inspection as well and fix anything you find – really bad wood should be replaced but you can repair a lot of damage with wood filler – wood filler is an acceptable repair so you aren’t hiding anything from the inspector
the inspector is also going to go into the attic and under the house if it is accessible – he will be looking for damaged wood and signs of termites – he will also call out any water damaged wood he finds
if the property hasn’t been tented in several years I would assume that tenting will be required – in socal it is better to assume that you DO have termites than that you don’t because it is quite likely that you do whether you realize it or not – fortunately for us the local termites don’t eat much and we can stay on top of them
anyway, enough on the termite issue – get the inspection so you know where you stand
~
seems like the cleanest thing to do is sell the house and let everyone share the results now – there are too many ways for hard feelings to arise in the future if you keep the house – let’s look at two extremes:
1. you keep the house and house values drop to zero in 2008 – now your siblings feel bad because you are stuck with a worthless asset and they got away clean – you feel put upon because you knowingly bailed out your siblings but you weren’t expecting the bailout to be quite this large
2. you keep the house and the Paulsen/Bush/Hillary Plan somehow causes housing prices to double in 2008 – now your siblings are jealous and might even decide that you tricked them into selling the property at a lowball price
think long and hard about keeping the house – you will know these people for the rest of your life