Inspection waivers in 2026: what NAR's monthly data shows

About 1 in 5, at most. NAR's Realtors Confidence Index for September 2026 found that 20% of buyers waived the inspection contingency, unchanged from August and down from 21% in September 2025. Across 2026 the monthly reading has ranged from 12% to 20%.

The RCI is a monthly survey of Realtors about their most recent sale. September's went to a random sample of 75,000 members plus recent respondents. Of 1,701 replies, 817 had a client that month, and NAR puts the maximum margin of error at 3 percentage points at 95% confidence. Keep that number in mind: a 2 or 3 point monthly move is inside the noise.

Source: NAR Realtors Confidence Index monthly reports, January to September 2026. Each report states the current month and the year-earlier figure.

Averaged over a quarter, the trend is clearer than any single month. January to March 2026 averaged about 17%, against about 21% a year earlier. July to September averaged about 19%, against about 21%. Waivers are lower than in 2025 and well below 2022, and the summer months moved back toward 20%.

30% of buyers waived the inspection contingency in June 2022, the peak of NAR's series, and 32% waived the appraisal contingency the same month. NAR's economists wrote in February 2026 that the most recent reading at the time was a new low in the dataset, which NAR began collecting monthly in April 2021. That reading was the January 2026 RCI: 12%, down from 18% in December 2025.

The 2022 market and the 2026 market differ on almost every measure that matters to a buyer deciding whether to skip an inspection. In September 2026, homes received 2.2 offers on average (2.3 a year earlier), 16% sold above list price (21% a year earlier), and cash sales were 27% (30% a year earlier).

Competition for the house. Waivers are an offer-sweetener: a buyer facing other bids gives up a contingency to look like a surer close. When offers per listing fall and more homes sell at or below list, the buyer has less reason to give anything up.

Three other factors push the number around:

• Cash buyers: a cash buyer has no lender requiring an appraisal and often wants a fast close. NAR's cash share fell from 30% to 27% over the year to September, alongside the waiver share.
• Repair costs: a buyer who skips the inspection takes on whatever is behind the drywall. When repairs cost more, the gamble costs more.
• Cancellations: Redfin reported that about 40,000 purchase agreements were cancelled in December 2025, 16.3% of homes that went under contract, the highest December rate in its records back to 2017. Redfin notes that buyers often exit through the inspection contingency. In a soft market, buyers and their agents value that exit, which keeps the contingency in the contract.

Since October 15, 2025, Massachusetts sellers and their agents may not condition acceptance of an offer on the buyer waiving the inspection, and sellers must give buyers a written notice of the right to an inspection, NAR reported. The rule came from the state's Affordable Homes Act, signed in 2024. Auctions are among the exemptions.

WBUR's coverage adds the detail inspectors ask about most: buyers can still waive, but only after their offer is accepted, so a waiver can no longer be used to win the house. Pre-sales of new construction with at least a 1-year warranty are excluded, as are family transfers, divorce-order sales and estate-planning transfers.

New York has a bill for the 2025 to 2026 session that would bar both sides from agreeing to terms contingent on waiving inspection. NAR reported it as held in committee, and the New York State Association of Realtors opposed it.

For a Massachusetts inspector, the practical effect is a steadier book of business through competitive spring markets. For inspectors elsewhere, the law is a model your state association can point to, and the RCI table above is the data to bring to that conversation.

Make the inspection easier to keep than to drop. The buyer waives because the inspection looks like a risk to winning the house. Each of these lowers that risk.

1. Sell pre-listing inspections to listing agents. A seller who orders an inspection before listing hands buyers a report up front. The buyer can bid without a contingency and still know what they are buying. Listing agents in competitive pockets are the customer here, and spring is when to ask.
2. Offer a pre-offer walkthrough with a written scope. Some inspectors offer a shorter visual walkthrough before an offer, sometimes called a walk-and-talk or informational inspection, for buyers who plan to waive. Put the limits in the agreement in plain words, keep it out of the language of a full inspection, and check with your E&O carrier before you sell one.
3. Deliver the same day. The contingency window is the cost of keeping an inspection. In Spectora's 2026 survey of 433 agents, reliability and timeliness was a top referral reason for 46%, and being slow to respond or hard to reach was the top reason agents stopped referring an inspector (25%).
4. Give agents the numbers. One slide with the table above, a line on what the buyer's agent should say when a client asks about waiving, and the repair you found last month that would have been the buyer's problem.
5. Watch the monthly reading. NAR's RCI reports have come out between the 8th and 13th of each month this year. When the waiver share rises for 2 or 3 months in a row in your region's market, spend more time on listing agents and pre-listing work.

The waiver share has held near 20% since August while mortgage rates rose and contract signings fell to a record low (see The Weekly Walkthrough, issue 1). A slow market keeps waivers down because buyers have room to negotiate. The months to watch are the ones where a local market tightens again, usually spring. The inspector who already has listing agents ordering pre-listing reports when that happens loses fewer jobs to a waiver.

For what to charge for that work, see our read of the 2026 fee surveys.