What a Texas inspection is, by rule
Most disappointment with home inspections comes from mismatched expectations, and that is avoidable because Texas defines the product in writing. The Texas Real Estate Commission's Standards of Practice are adopted by rule in 22 TAC Chapter 535, Subchapter R, and the general provisions rule defines a real estate inspection as "a limited visual survey and basic performance evaluation of the systems and components of a building using normal controls" and states that it "is not intended to be a comprehensive investigation or exploratory probe to determine the cause or effect of deficiencies."
Every word in that sentence is load-bearing.
Limited. The scope is bounded by the rule: an inspector need not inspect items other than those listed in the Standards of Practice.
Visual. The inspector looks. Nobody opens walls, excavates, or takes the house apart.
Survey. A sweep across a whole house in a few hours, not a deep study of one system.
Basic performance evaluation, using normal controls. The inspector operates things the way you would — the thermostat, the switch, the faucet, the door — and reports how they perform, not the way a technician with instruments would.
Not a comprehensive investigation or exploratory probe. Determining why something is failing, or what follows from it, is outside the exercise by design.
That definition is not a disclaimer bolted on to limit liability. It is the product specification, and understanding it converts a home inspection from a reassurance ritual into a tool with known edges — far more useful than one with imagined edges.
What limited visual survey means in practice
The Standards of Practice spell the boundaries out, and the exclusions are the most misunderstood part of the process.
An inspector is not required to inspect:
- items not listed in the Standards of Practice;
- anything buried, hidden, latent or concealed — which in one phrase covers slab reinforcement, subgrade conditions, under-slab plumbing, wiring inside walls and insulation behind finishes;
- detached buildings, decks, docks, fences, waterfront structures or related equipment;
- sub-surface drainage systems;
- elevators, automated controls, security systems, solar panels and smart home components.
An inspector is not required to report:
- past repairs that appear to be effective and workmanlike;
- cosmetic or aesthetic conditions;
- wear and tear from ordinary use.
That second list deserves a pause, because it runs against the instinct that a longer report is a better one. A previous owner's competent repair is not a deficiency, a scuff is not a deficiency, and thirty years of ordinary use on a thirty-year-old house is not a deficiency. An inspector who writes up all of them is not being thorough; they are diluting the findings that matter.
An inspector is not required to determine the presence of pests, asbestos, lead-based paint, mould or any other environmental hazard. Those are separate disciplines with separate licences.
And an inspector cannot be required to anticipate future events or conditions; operate shutoff, safety, stop, pressure or pressure-regulating valves; or provide repair cost estimates, recommendations, or re-inspection services. If you have wondered why a Texas report carries no prices, that is the reason. It is the rule, not an oversight.
The report: REI 7-6, and why it looks the way it does
Texas does not let inspectors design their own report. 22 TAC §535.223 requires that inspections for a buyer or seller of substantially complete one-to-four family residential property be reported on Form REI 7-6. TREC adopted the updated Standards of Practice on 9 August 2021; REI 7-6 could be used voluntarily from 1 September 2021 and became mandatory on 1 February 2022, succeeding REI 7-5.
The rule goes further than requiring the form. If the report is produced by software — as nearly all now are — it must reproduce the text of the standard form verbatim, with identical spacing, borders and placement. Permitted modifications are narrow: font size no smaller than ten point, typeface colour, legal-size paper, cover pages, headers and footers, and deletion of optional systems sections that do not apply.
That is why every Texas report has the same skeleton. It is a consumer protection measure: you can compare two reports on two houses, or two inspectors on one house, because the containers are identical.
The form works through four check boxes per item — I (Inspected), NI (Not Inspected), NP (Not Present) and D (Deficient) — plus written comments, and any item marked D must be explained in writing. There is no severity scale, no score and no pass or fail. A deficiency is a deficiency whether it is a missing GFCI receptacle or a cracked heat exchanger; the written comment is where the weight lives.
The standard form is not required for every inspection. The rule carves out re-inspections, inspections required by a lender or governmental entity, quality-control inspections for a builder, and buildings that are not substantially complete — the category a new-construction phase inspection falls into.
What the report is for, and what it is not
A Texas inspection report is a snapshot of observed condition on the date of the inspection, covering readily accessible components. Hold every other claim about it against that sentence.
It is not a code compliance inspection. This is the most common misunderstanding in residential inspection. Older houses are generally legal nonconforming: built to the code in force when they were permitted. A 1978 house is not "out of code" because it lacks arc-fault protection, and a 1992 house is not defective because its receptacles are not tamper-resistant. Requirements changed; the house did not become illegal. An inspector may reference current practice to explain why something matters, but only a municipal code official performs code enforcement.
It is not a warranty or a guarantee. A water heater that works on Tuesday can fail on Friday, and the rule specifically declines to require inspectors to anticipate future events or conditions.
It is not insurance, not an appraisal, and not pass or fail: there is no threshold in the rule at which a house fails, only a description of what was observed.
It is not an estimate. No prices, by rule.
What it is is a standardised description of a house's condition on one day, produced by someone with no financial interest in the outcome. That is narrower than most buyers expect and considerably more trustworthy, because the person writing it does not profit from what it says.
Who is licensed to do what
Texas licenses inspectors in three tiers, and the distinction is not cosmetic.
- Apprentice Inspector — entry level, must be sponsored, works under the direct supervision of a Professional Real Estate Inspector.
- Real Estate Inspector — must be sponsored, works under the indirect supervision of a Professional Real Estate Inspector.
- Professional Real Estate Inspector — the top tier, no sponsorship required, and the only level that may inspect independently.
The path between them is substantial. Under 22 TAC §535.214, the sponsored route to Real Estate Inspector requires 90 hours of qualifying education — Module I (40 hours), Module II (40 hours) and Business Operations (10 hours) — plus three months of active apprentice status and 25 completed inspections. The sponsored route to Professional Inspector requires 134 hours, adding a 20-hour Texas Law module and a 24-hour Standards of Practice module, plus twelve months as a Real Estate Inspector and 175 completed inspections. Alternative paths substitute coursework and a Texas Practicum for some experience. Every route ends in examinations.
Licensing does not stop at entry. Under 22 TAC §535.218, renewal every two years requires 32 hours of continuing education — 24 hours in core subjects such as foundations, framing, roof systems, plumbing, electrical, HVAC and report writing, plus 8 hours of mandatory legal, ethics and Standards of Practice coursework, with no more than 16 hours from any single subject. Inspectors must also carry proof of financial responsibility; the amount set by rule is a statutory minimum, not a description of any inspector's actual policy.
The practical step takes thirty seconds and almost nobody takes it: look the inspector up on TREC's public License Holder Search and confirm tier and status before the inspection, not after.
Where the licence boundary sits
An inspection touches many systems and stops at several licence lines. Knowing where they fall tells you what to order separately.
- Structural opinions belong to a Texas-licensed professional engineer. An inspector reports and describes movement. Determining causation, specifying a remedy or sealing a design is engineering practice.
- Pressure testing plumbing belongs to a licensed plumber. A static or hydrostatic test on an under-slab drain system is a separate service; the Standards of Practice do not even require an inspector to operate shutoff, safety, stop or pressure-regulating valves.
- Sewer camera inspection is outside the standard scope and ordered separately — on older housing with cast iron drain lines, one of the highest-value ancillaries available.
- The termite report is not a TREC document at all. The Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report is Form SPCS/T-5, administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture's Structural Pest Control Service under 4 TAC §7.175. Only a certified applicator or technician licensed by TDA in the termite control category may perform one. A TREC inspector licence does not authorise a WDI report. Many Texas inspectors hold both licences — but that is a fact to confirm, not to assume.
- Landscape irrigation is licensed by the TCEQ. Irrigation is an optional system on the report form, inspected under the Standards of Practice when included; a full irrigation audit is separate work.
- Insurance claim assessment is a different discipline. An inspector reports observed roof condition; an inspector is not adjudicating a hail claim, and a roof report is not a claim.
None of these boundaries are evasions. They are the reason the report can be trusted: an inspector who does not sell the remedy has no stake in how large a finding sounds.
How to use the process well
Read the exclusions before you read the findings. Ten minutes with the Standards of Practice, published in full by TREC, will tell you more about what your report means than an hour spent worrying about any single line in it.
Attend, or at least walk the house afterwards. A written deficiency is a sentence; the same deficiency pointed at in person, with the reasoning attached, is an education. The report format does not have room for nuance.
Treat "NI" as information. Not Inspected is a real answer with a real cause — a locked panel, a de-energised system, an attic with no safe access. Every NI is a piece of the house nobody looked at, and it is worth asking why.
Stack the specialists deliberately. The general inspection is triage: it tells you where to spend, and specialists need scheduling time of their own.
Do not expect the report to make the decision. It describes; you decide. That division is deliberate — a report that told you whether to buy would be worth far less than one that told you accurately what is there.
Common questions
Why does my inspection report have no repair prices in it?
Because the rule says it does not have to, and most inspectors correctly decline. The Standards of Practice state that inspectors cannot be required to provide repair cost estimates, recommendations, or re-inspection services. There is also a sound reason behind the rule: an inspector who priced repairs would be one step from selling them, and the independence of the report is the thing that makes it worth reading. Pricing comes from contractors, and the right number of contractor quotes for anything significant is more than one.
Is a Texas home inspection a code inspection?
No. A home inspection is a limited visual survey of condition, not a review of code compliance. Older houses are generally legal nonconforming, meaning they were built to the code in force when they were permitted and did not become illegal when the code changed. A 1978 house without arc-fault protection is not violating anything. Only a municipal code official performs code enforcement, and only new or permitted work is inspected against the current adopted code.
What does NI mean on the report form?
Not Inspected. It means the item exists but the inspector did not or could not evaluate it, and the written comments should say why — a locked electrical panel, utilities turned off, an attic with no safe access, a roof too steep or too wet to walk. NI is not a pass. It is a gap, and it is worth resolving before the option period closes, either by having the obstruction removed and the inspector return, or by accepting the unknown consciously rather than accidentally.
Can my home inspector also do the termite inspection?
Only if they separately hold a Texas Department of Agriculture licence in the termite control category. The Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report is TDA Form SPCS/T-5, governed by 4 TAC §7.175, and a TREC inspector licence does not authorise it. Plenty of Texas inspectors hold both credentials and can do both in one visit. Ask directly rather than assuming, because the two documents are regulated by different agencies and cover different things.
How do I check that an inspector is licensed?
Use TREC's public License Holder Search and confirm both the licence tier and the current status. The tier matters: only a Professional Real Estate Inspector may inspect independently, while Apprentice and Real Estate Inspectors work under the direct or indirect supervision of a Professional. Renewal is every two years and requires 32 hours of continuing education, so an active licence also tells you the inspector has kept up.
Does a longer report mean a more thorough inspection?
No, and it can mean the opposite. The Standards of Practice do not require an inspector to report cosmetic or aesthetic conditions, wear and tear from ordinary use, or past repairs that appear effective and workmanlike. A report that catalogues every scuff and hairline crack buries the three findings that actually matter. Judge a report by whether the significant items are clearly described and clearly reasoned, not by page count.