Ready to debunk home warranty myths and discover how they play a crucial role in real estate contracts? Join us as we chat with Tina and Maddie from Achosa, a Home Warranty company, and gain valuable insights on why home warranties are a must-have for every homeowner. Maddie shares her experiences with real estate agents and companies, and reveals that some states even mandate a warranty in their contracts.
We discuss Achosa's unique claims process, featuring a lightning-fast 10 second hold time on their 888 number, and highlight the importance of having a trustworthy contractor. Additionally, we explore the company's transparency in handling claims and why paying contractors their retail rate benefits the local economy. Don't miss our conversation on the risks of purchasing keywords on Google and the potential scams lurking online.
Finally, we delve into the differences between homeowners insurance and home warranties, and how they can cover various damages from malfunctioning water heaters to lightning strikes. Learn the importance of seller home warranty coverage, providing up to $1000 with a $100 deductible. Tina and Maddie also explain why it's crucial to purchase a home warranty the same day you list the property, and how Chose handles negotiations between buyers and sellers when covering home warranty costs. Tune in for this informative episode packed with essential knowledge on home warranties and their impact on the real estate market!
Ready to debunk home warranty myths and discover how they play a crucial role in real estate contracts? Join us as we chat with Tina and Maddie from Achosa, a Home Warranty company, and gain valuable insights on why home warranties are a must-have for every homeowner. Maddie shares her experiences with real estate agents and companies, and reveals that some states even mandate a warranty in their contracts.
We discuss Achosa's unique claims process, featuring a lightning-fast 10 second hold time on their 888 number, and highlight the importance of having a trustworthy contractor. Additionally, we explore the company's transparency in handling claims and why paying contractors their retail rate benefits the local economy. Don't miss our conversation on the risks of purchasing keywords on Google and the potential scams lurking online.
Finally, we delve into the differences between homeowners insurance and home warranties, and how they can cover various damages from malfunctioning water heaters to lightning strikes. Learn the importance of seller home warranty coverage, providing up to $1000 with a $100 deductible. Tina and Maddie also explain why it's crucial to purchase a home warranty the same day you list the property, and how Chose handles negotiations between buyers and sellers when covering home warranty costs. Tune in for this informative episode packed with essential knowledge on home warranties and their impact on the real estate market!
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Real Estate Happens. We have some great guests for you here today. It's been my pleasure here over the last probably three or four months to get to know Tina and Maddie from a Chose, a Home Warranty, So we're really, really fortunate to have them on the show today. We were just sitting in the lobby out here just kind of having a conversation talking about home warranties and property management and all the other horseshit that goes along with that. Look, the only thing we're missing today, guys, and I apologize. normally when we do this show it's always done with the old fashioned drink, but I did not make old fashioned as a day. Tina, how are you?
Speaker 2:I am good, i'm good. Thanks so much for the opportunity to be here And it has been a pleasure to get to know you and your team, that you're growing so quickly and rapidly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's gone a little bit crazy, hadn't it? Yeah, maddie, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for having us. Maddie's an expert public speaker, by the way, in case anyone wants to know. That is all thanks to Kenny. Don't let me fool you, it's not thanks to me. You got up and did a great job in front of our group. The other day We had a great team meeting and Maddie came in and really, i mean honestly, you really handled your own pretty well because you were getting some really people throwing you some, some fastballs and down there and you were knocking them right out of the park. So you didn't really miss a step And I actually saw her kind of perk up. It gets a little feisty sometimes If they think she's being challenged. Yeah, she thinks she's being challenged. Man, she's gonna write on top of it. She's like I don't think. So What are you doing here? No, that is not how it works And you will buy a home warranty, maddie, i understand you're quite the stalker also.
Speaker 3:I am not a stalker. I need to make that very clear. I'm very persistent.
Speaker 1:I saw a video that that tells me otherwise. David Allison, let's just call him out right here on the show. Oh my God, yeah, ghosting, that is not cool, right? I mean, it's definitely a challenge, we're gonna get him, we're gonna. anybody that hears this podcast, i want you to call David Allison and tell him he needs to call Maddie, that he has been ghosting her and he needs to at least return that phone call. So we'll get that out there for you. See what we can do about promulgating that and kind of getting that going. See if we can get a response from that. Tina, talk to us about home warranties and, you know, give us some. I guess that's really all I need to say is talk to us about home warranties. It wasn't boring a minute ago.
Speaker 2:It's not boring, but you know most people know about home warranties I think. I think what really is the issue is more the misconception of a home warranty. What is a home warranty supposed to cover? What are we setting the expectation for the clients? It's not a cover all Well.
Speaker 1:I thought it was. If you like, broke everything, just got it replaced for free. You know what a home warranty is.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. It's more. There are people that believe that, though We're going to change that. It is designed to help offset the cost of repairs and replacements for the major systems and appliances in the home due to normal wear and tear breakdowns. Not the kids stood on the dishwasher door, not the kid flushed the pumpkin truck down the toilet and caused a backup or a break and pipe. It is there designed for just age related failures. How I use my house is going to be different than how the person before me used the house. I might use my dishwasher once a month. I might sell that house. The new family uses it once a day, so it's getting more use. So it's going to break sooner, and we all know nowadays they don't make things to last, unfortunately. So things are going to break sooner.
Speaker 1:No, I can't disagree. Everything breaks nowadays right, Everything. But Maddie you know out and talking to real estate agents and companies that you do every day, i wouldn't have returned your phone calls. What is it do you find to be the biggest challenge of what agents misconception are, or what they understand they don't understand about home warranties?
Speaker 3:I feel like the most conversations I run into is people thinking that they are just optional, when really they should be written into every contract. Every home should have a home warranty on it. There's even states that require you to have a warranty in their contract.
Speaker 1:That's a new one. I did not know that. What state would that be, Because I don't want to live in that communist country. I believe it's Texas. We were actually trying to look at it. There's no way Texas is as as no. There's no way Texas has got that rule.
Speaker 3:Really, that's what we're told, yeah.
Speaker 2:They. I think it's more of a protection right, like it's making sure that homeowners are protected. I mean, i always say in any market, home warranty is important. It is really really important, as long as they understand what it's there for. It's not required in Virginia like homeowner's insurance, obviously.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 3:So there is actually. This morning I was reading an article that was talking about how home warranties are really good for this next generation that's coming into home buying, because millennials Jen what is it? X and Z now, or X and Y are used to renting. They're not used to having to take on when appliances break down or hot water heaters break down. They're used to calling their landlord and their landlord handling it. So now they're buying these homes and they're having to figure out how they're gonna cover these like multi-thousand dollar repairs or replacements.
Speaker 1:Well, i've always said probably the most expensive time in a home is usually your first year, right? Cause you're not used to what's going on, you don't have your maintenance schedule set up, so things are gonna break, and that's probably when you're least likely to have the money to be able to fix it. So I mean, at least for the first year, i think it's super important to have that. So I think that works well. We were talking about coverages and I find one of the things about a choza which I would choose, a choza Is that how that goes? I choose it. You choose a mean Yes, yes, very good Because of how you pay the vendors. And so, matt, you wanna talk to us just a little bit about how that whole process works, because here's what we know If you with the traditional home warranty I'm gonna call the home warranty company, i may or may not get somebody on the phone, i may or not be on hold for an hour, or I may have to do it online and then hope somebody got that email and then hopefully they will have a vendor that's local or a vendor that's available, and then he may or may not show up for the next week or week and a half to get to your house.
Speaker 1:And then he does come out and then you find out well, it is not covered, or maybe it was covered, or there's part of it covered, or he has additional charges that won't be covered, and then you have this whole warranty claim. So there's all these issues and that's pretty much how it goes and that's pretty much why most agents are like screw that. I don't want nothing to do with the home warranty, but you guys are different. Can you explain how you're different from the wonderful process that I just described?
Speaker 3:So our process is probably my favorite thing to talk about, to be honest, because I'm coming new into this industry and I love helping people through their claims, because that's why I'm here. I'm not just here to sell you a policy and walk away. I'm gonna help your clients go through this claims process. I'm gonna help you, as real estate professionals, understand it as well. So what happens is a client's gonna call our 888 number, which, by the way, only has a 10 second hold time Unbelievable. I know They're gonna get on the phone.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna test that.
Speaker 3:I tell people all the time that that's I wanna start doing that in my meetings. But so they're gonna get on the phone with the claims department. They're gonna ask them very basic questions What's not working? How is it working before? Where is it located in the home? Boom green flag, go ahead. Call a vendor you know like and trust. You don't have a vendor you know like and trust. Call your agent. We know that you guys have a list of vendors through the roof of HVAC people, hot water people, because home inspections come up, you gotta have somebody to go to.
Speaker 3:That contractor's gonna come out. Your client doesn't even need to say that they're working with a home warranty company. They just need to be like hey, my hot water heater is not working. Contractor is going to come into the home, do a diagnosis with the client and the contractor, both on the phone. Complete transparency that is what we're here for. Complete transparency. Those and our claims department. We're going to say what's covered, what's the cap? if it's not covered, why wouldn't it be covered? And from there we get the green light. If it is covered, the contractor is going to go ahead and do the work. Once the work is completed, to the client satisfaction. We're going to pay the contractor with the credit card.
Speaker 1:Here's what I heard I get to use my own contractor. That's what I heard, And I think that's probably the most important thing out there, especially for agents. Now there's also I was talking about property management Janet Jones away property management, one of the premier property management companies in the area, plug Right, And Janet was saying that there are a lot of home warranty companies that will not work with a third party, ie a property manager. Right, Because they don't want to have to deal with that property manager. They want to deal directly with the homeowner and you guys will talk to the property manager as long, as, I'm assuming, the homeowner has authorized it for you guys to do that. That'd be correct. So that and you're right Agents have a lot of their own contractors that they work with all the time and we usually can get a better response just because of the volume of business that we give them. So I think that's that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:And the contractors love it because we don't negotiate their rates. We pay them their retail rate for the repairs. So if a client does call a contractor and says, hey, i have this home warranty company and I need to file a claim, we need you to work. The contractor is nine times out of 10. I'm going to say no if they've never been through our process before. Because they hear home warranty and they hear negotiate rate six to eight weeks to get pay out. I've got to wait for that company to order the parts and equipment.
Speaker 2:That doesn't happen with the choza all the parts and our source locally by that contractor. So not only are we paying the contractor what they're worth, what they're used to, they get to go get the parts in their local supply shop. We're keeping the money in the economy. So we treat the contractors and the customers the same because we want the whole experience to be good. The nice thing with that is now we have contractors that call us Hey, how can I get on your list? Well, we don't. We have a list that we can give to customers, but we will always give them three options because we want them to make the choice that's best for them.
Speaker 1:Well, i think most home warranty companies have gone by the way of the government. They've taken the lowest bidder so they can save the most money and, quite frankly, you get shitty contractors when you're you know you get what you pay for. Right, you get what you pay for. I have a guy that does pavers right, patio pavers, one thing, another And he is $27 a square foot. I can get it done for probably 16 or 17. I pay him $27 a square foot And I never argue with it because it is the work is absolutely flawless flawless Every single time, it's just flawless.
Speaker 1:We were talking about something out in the lobby earlier that I want to kind of bring back up, and it sounds like a choza is getting scammed on the internet. You want to kind of let's let's get this information out there. We want to make sure that our listeners are taking care of and they're very, very careful. Look, the world of the internet is an amazing thing and you can look up anything on the internet. You can find anything on the internet, but the story you're getting ready to hear will show you that, even though you think you've looked up, what you think you looked up, it might not be what you looked up If that can follow that logic anywhere down the line. So so, so tell us what happened.
Speaker 2:So I this is new for me, i mean, i've heard it a couple times over the last few years but people can purchase keywords on Google. So if a company decides, oh my gosh, i love what it shows us doing, which this is the second time it's happened. It wasn't the first time, it's the second time it's happened They can just purchase the word a choza. It's a keyword, it plugs to their website. So I had an agent call me and she was like oh my gosh, tina.
Speaker 2:I'm saving your number in my phone now because I sent my client to the website. I thought they Google to choza phone number came up. They ordered their policy. The guy on the phone told him it was a choza, but when the policy documents came in their email it wasn't a choza. She's like how can they do that? I said they just purchased the word, they purchased the keyword to then lead people to their website. She says that's not good. I'm like no, it's not good. Have your clients call me directly, don't send them to the website. That's the sad part about the internet is, yes, you can look up.
Speaker 1:Oh, tina, there's so many sad parts about the internet. Not just that. Let's just be honest. Look when there are more, when they are like. I think the number is like 27 or 28. Times more porn sites than are any other sites. That's a sad state of our economy, right.
Speaker 2:Oh, but just be careful, like if you have a client that really is, and if you believe that You want them to come to a show or you do they have questions, go to come directly to us. You know that's the best thing to do. Save our phone number as an agent. Save us Your number on the phone. Clients Reach out whatever you have to do, but just be careful because unfortunately it is a lot easier than People believe that that can happen 100%.
Speaker 1:Maddie got something to say about that. She wants to say she wants to say hashtag do Dowson, call me. I Think, i think that's really, really, really what she wanted to say.
Speaker 3:I mean, come on, man, we're gonna do business together. Call me. It's got to this point. I had to involve Kenny I.
Speaker 1:Know, david don't even know who I am, so that's probably not gonna help you much. I tried to call him earlier to don't feel like he wouldn't answer the phone for me either, and I'm nowhere near as cute as you are. So I mean, if I can't get him to answer the phone, i can. We're all new. You can't get him answer the phone? I don't know What about a leaky roof? So be peaches, so s would be for shingles Preach.
Speaker 2:Oh, roof leaks.
Speaker 1:Well, let's look, let's let's talk about that real quick. Right, a home warrant, a homeowner's insurance, covers the damage caused by a Malfunctioning water heater, but they don't replace the water heater. Right, and that's just the facts. They're not gonna replace your home warranty or not your home warranty, but your homeowners insurance will not pay for the water heater You're paying for that. They will pay for the damage caused by that water here. That's a big distinction that needs to be made. So what a home warranty kind of picks up in some aspects helps offset the cost of the replacement of the Item that caused the damage that your homeowners insurance is going to cover.
Speaker 2:If the let's talk about heating and cooling, right, you have a condensan system outside, the house gets struck by lightning, that system gets shorted out, who would they go to?
Speaker 1:Shit. Let me think about that. I would think that that could be covered by a home insurance. Yeah, that would be covered by Right, that's damage, like that's like. Well, why would they replace the roof they would place on? really, because you're watching really well, was it? is it? is it leaking because it's old? or is it leaking because we just had a hurricane come through? Okay, okay, i got that.
Speaker 1:So it really who you go to depends on how the damage occurred whether it's wear and tear and just wore out. I Chose it. That's a great way to go for it, right there. So home insurance accidents, damage, acts of nature sometimes depends on your Right. There you go, substantial damage, and then you guys are normal wear and tear, i guess, right, yeah, everybody tells me I have a lot of wear and tear. I don't think you're warranty wise. Yeah, you kidding me. Warranty has done expired on my ass and nobody will renew it. And trying all day, nobody will renew this warranty. I know. It's just one of those things. So any last thoughts on home warranties that you'd like to kind of put out there?
Speaker 2:I'm just going to say I don't care what the market's doing Sellers, market, buyers, market, neutral market Warranties are still important.
Speaker 1:Oh, i have one, maddie, i'm going to let you, i'm going to give mine And then, maddie, we're going to let you wrap things up Seller home warranty coverages, right? So I think it's very interesting that a Chosa has a seller home warranty coverage. That, in my opinion, is pretty amazing. So if you're listing a house and you're not putting in a Chosa home warranty seller coverage on a house, then you're actually, i think, doing your seller to service because a it's free, truly free, never has to purchase the home warranty, never has to pay for it, right? Is that correct? It provides up to $1,000 with the coverage, with a hundred dollars per incident deductible. One fifty on the seller side. So let's just say, during the home warranty phase of things, he has a HVAC that goes out and correct me if I'm wrong And it's a fifteen hundred dollar repair. He pays a thousand dollar. You guys pay him a thousand dollars, and that's whether anybody ever purchased that home warranty or not. That's a question.
Speaker 2:That's correct. I mean, if it's a fifteen hundred dollar repair, then the homeowner is going to have five hundred dollars because it's over that thousand dollar cap and we're going to pick up a thousand. There is not a requirement to purchase it for the buyer. Of course we'd like to get the buyer side. So if it's not negotiated in, we're happy to reach out to the buyer's agent and explain the importance of the unit.
Speaker 1:Well, i think that, right, there is the key, and I think that's where it shows it's done the right thing. It's called a loss leader, correct, right, and that you know we talk about loss leaders. All the time is like OK, yeah, i'm going to lose a little bit of money on this, but the hope is that I will make more on the other side, which is a great business plan and it provides a great service for us. So now don't go out there thinking that you're going to go and you're going to do that listing appointment. You're going to look at that house and say, well, i see all these things broke, so let's just go and put that on and then we'll get these fixed, because it's not going to work that way.
Speaker 1:Ok, and also, don't think that you can have a listing for two weeks and then put your warranty on there. It has to be done the day you do the listing. So I have actually implemented in our office every listing that that goes live, are TC's go ahead and automatically order a chosen warranty, and I think that's. I think that's really great, it's working. Now, you've seen those coming through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nice. And what's really nice is because they are being diligent enough to say, ok, seller is paying for this one, seller is not paying for this one. But here's the buyer's agents information, which gives Matty and I the opportunity to explain the importance of continuing it, that history for a buyer, even if a seller is not paying for it, but that history for the buyer when they purchase it is super important. I mean because then if they move in and it's day three and the AC has gone out, the house has been covered. So there's history that obviously we didn't buy a warranty because we know things are wrong.
Speaker 1:So I'm getting ready to do a class at the at the library on June 20th And there's a couple about 100 or so people signed up for it And it's on. Yes, it's one or two, it's just like 100 people or so. Well, we're going to have you come up and talk It's on. It's on pickers and pickers. Right, and I think this is a very interesting conversation because I'm going to talk about it. Joe decide. Better get my shit straight right now. Now, if a home warranty is been on the seller side home warranty and they come through and they do a home inspection and they find a problem, will that problem be covered under the seller side warranty?
Speaker 2:If it's warranty related. Don't call me because the windows are leaking.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's fair. That's fair. So let's say that during the during the inspection and this is very typical, this happens all the time During the inspection, the home inspector says the HVAC is not cooling properly. There's a differential split between the two systems that far exceed what it should be Right. And then you have an HVAC guy come in and he says oh yeah, it's because we need the freon. That costs $235 a pound and you're only going to pay $10. No, that was another conversation we had earlier. But let's say it's a it's $400 fix. Am I wrong in assuming that the seller would pay $150 and a chooser would pick up the rest?
Speaker 2:That's correct As long as the listing coverage was in place. What they will not fix during those like when you did that negotiation that picked up is it's extended past the end of its life, it's still working. And then the seller's like and then the or the buyer's side's going well, we want you to replace it. And the seller's like well, i'll use my warranty. There has to be a failure. It can't be something missing. It can't be code back in. Whenever this house was built, there was no GFCI required in the bathroom. Now there is, so we need to put it in. That's not a failure, that's an upgrade. Warranties aren't designed for that. So you can't use the listing coverage. You can't even use virus coverage. For that You can't use the coverage. For that It has to be something that's failed. There's plumbing leaks, there's a slow drain, so there's probably a clog. The HVAC, the differential is off, things like that.
Speaker 1:You guys cover clog drains, We do as long as it's not a tonkotra. I started to say because that's where I was getting to go next. So you know it's going to be a tree root right? Always going to be a tree root Tree roots are not normal wear and tear.
Speaker 2:I just always recommend, not on the seller side I don't think you can do that But on the buyer's side when they're looking. If the house has a lot of trees in the yard, talk to homeowners insurance about adding that coverage.
Speaker 1:Very good, all right. So I also wanted to get that that. that out there real quick, maddie. wrap it up for us What you got.
Speaker 3:I just want to say really quick that people, when they hear a seller's coverage, feel like they don't need to use it. But, like you said, it's important What I want people to understand there is literally no strings attached. The worst that is going to happen is you're going to get a text message from me like Hey, is this under contract? Can I have a buyer's agent's name? That's it. I just feel like people don't realize that we're literally all about transparency and we just want to show how our process works and why our process is working now.
Speaker 1:I think it's a great process. Guys, thank you so much for being here today. We're going to cut y'all loose. I hold on a second. Tina has a final word. Oh, we're so glad to have you here. We're super glad to have you guys in the office. We have training tomorrow. We have tomorrow is hold on, hold on I'll think of it in a second Budgeting for independent contractors. So I think it's going to be a pretty good class, so hopefully you guys will stop by. I would love to see you. So, guys, thanks for being here. We're going to let you get back with your day. Hope you have a wonderful one. Yes, have a good one. Talk to you soon.