Tyler: Hello everyone. This is Tyler Ford eXp Realty here in Tucson, Arizona and I am with Heather Chumbler-Rich of 2-10 Home Warranty and she is the senior account rep for all of Southern Arizona and been using Heather in 2-10 for years. They do an awesome job and they also have great service both on the front end and back end. And today we are going to be talking about what we call seller coverage and it’s something in my opinion a lot of agents don’t know about and we’re going to be talking about what it is and also how agents can benefit with their clients by offering seller coverage. So with that, Heather what exactly is seller coverage and why would somebody agent and a seller want to have seller coverage?

Heather: Thank you for the opportunity.

Heather: Seller coverage is designed to protect the sellers during the time that the property is on the market. We provide coverage for heating, electrical, plumbing, and appliances. So it’s actually the most under utilized free money in our industry. The reason why they had wanted is because it will protect them from unexpected loss of failure, let’s say for example dishwasher or a leak in the master bath. It costs money to do these things to correct them. So it’s provided when a one year buyer plan is purchased at closing. But the idea is to help hold the deal together by providing coverage to the seller side to also help the seller’s agent. But then also it establishes a history of coverage for the buyer when the buyer takes possession too. So there’s just so many benefits with that seller coverage. It’s actually not paid for until at the end the warranty is paid at closing. And also we have the ability of adding air conditioning and heat pump coverage too.

Tyler: So somebody can have a home warranty put on their home when their home is listed for sale, they don’t have to pay for it up front?

Heather: Correct.

Tyler: And so how does somebody enroll? Is the agent calling in to enroll the seller for seller coverage? Is the seller doing it? If somebody wanted to set up seller coverage, how would it work? And one other question, if an agent wanted to pay for it as a benefit to their client, could they pay for it up front so it’s not paid at the end? Could it be paid for up front?

Heather: It can’t be paid for up front because we only collect at closing when it closes. But here’s the idea of how it starts. So in the listing agreement, when agents are sitting down with their sellers, I believe the line is close to 146 of the listing agreement somewhere around there that it talks about home warranty. And if the sellers want to include a home warranty for the buyer at closing, because studies show that home sell faster when a home warranty is included for the buyer, the buyers don’t know the history of the systems and appliances. So Mr, Mrs, seller, we’re here looking at the listing agreements, talking about home warranty.

Heather: This company here 2-10 home buyers warranty will provide a one year plan for the buyer to the major systems and appliances of the home. But if you, Mr, Mrs seller would like them to enroll the seller coverage, then we can give you coverage from now the date that we fill out the listing agreement until closing and that will provide coverage for these items that are eligible for coverage. Nothing is paid for upfront. It’s only paid at closing when it closes. The only thing that would be paid up front is let’s say that they did have a leak in their master bathroom and they do need a plumber to come to the home. The service fee is actually paid for as a driving fee to get the service provider there. And we try to repair and if we can’t repair it then we replace.

Tyler: That’s awesome. And again, a lot of agents don’t even know about it. And I see, especially let’s say a home’s vacant and you never know what could go wrong if a home’s vacant, is it still covered? Cause a lot of times even when you get homeowners insurance, you know there’s a premium on a vacant home, whether vacant or lived in, does it, does it matter? Can it be a vacant home?

Heather: Well, so we ask for the assistance and appliances to be in good and safe working order functioning, good and safe working order. If the plumbing system hasn’t been used or if the electrical… We just asked for everything to be turned on and utilized. But at that point we don’t do any kind of an inspection ahead of time. We just look to see if there’s a true breakdown in normal wear and tear after the enrolled effective date. So that that way we know that it’s a true breakdown and eligible as long as it’s eligible for coverage for themselves.

Tyler: That’s cool. I mean, one thing as an agent, let’s say you’re going in and trying to get a listing, you might be competing against a couple of different agents. I think it’s a great unique selling proposition in terms of telling the seller as an agent that you will pay for the seller coverage so you can get them a credit at close of escrow of the $50 to give them peace of mind that their home is covered during the listing period. So if anything happens or goes wrong, they’re covered and the agent for $50. I mean, it’s money well spent. Not only are you getting a listing, you’re giving the seller the peace of mind of that if anything goes wrong, it’s covered under the seller coverage on the home warranty.

Heather: And you know what, thank you for mentioning that because I know I haven’t quoted the 50 yet, but what that is, is the seller air conditioning and heat pump option for $50. And so when we enroll seller coverage, my company is going to ask for a few things. They’re going to want to know the address, they’re going to want to know the seller’s name, seller’s contact information. And if they do want to include sellar air conditioning and heat pumps for an extra $50 that’s paid at closing when it closes.

Heather: So our plan price is $550 so we added the $50 seller option to it. It would be a total of $600 at closing. But what that does is that actually gives up to $21,000 worth of coverage during the times the property’s on the market. Some other companies only have a cap of $2,000 in the seller side, but with 2-10 home buyers warranty, we actually cover up to 21,000 with that seller air conditioning option added too.

Heather: So it’s 19,500 for free just to include it, just to enroll it, and then if they want that extra 1500 for air conditioning, they can get that too. So to answer your question, they don’t know usually that this is available and many times seller agents don’t even know it’s available. But I want to… Hold that line. I’m coming right back. Just bear with me. I’ve got it. I’m going right back. I think you should see me in a second. I’m back anyways, whether it’s the buyer paying the warranty at closing or the seller paying the warranty at closing, I want to help you and the agents enroll that free coverage. At least the, 19,500.

Tyler: Yeah. I actually misunderstood. I didn’t realize it was free. I thought it was $50 but we are saying all you have to do is enroll it. It’s free. And if you want to add the more expensive things in terms of HVAC.

Heather: That’s the only thing to add. Yeah.

Tyler: Okay. So then you would pay the $50 but it’s free. So why wouldn’t you want to do it? You just have to make the phone call to enroll it.

Heather: Exactly.

Tyler: So why wouldn’t you want to do it? But they have to provide the home warranty upon close of escrow to get the free-

Heather: Correct.

Tyler: So let me ask you this question. Let’s say they enroll, something happens, they get it fixed before it sells and then they don’t get 2-10. So- How do you- so that’s my… how does… You understand my question.

Heather: Oh yeah. This happens too. If it gets negotiated out of the deal at the last minute. Basically if you get paid, we get paid. If it ends up coming to 2-10 great. That’s when we get paid. But if it gets negotiated out of the deal, then we just cancel it on our side.

Tyler: What if there was a claim on the seller side, but let’s say somebody made a claim on something-

Heather: Even if we served a claim and if it gets negotiated out of the deal, like let’s say we replace the dishwasher and then all of a sudden the seller changes their mind, they don’t want to sell the home anymore, they just don’t want to do that. Then they cancel and we’ve already paid the money for the brand new dishwasher. We don’t go back and ask for that money.

Tyler: So basically it was free service other than the service call that they got for nothing.

Heather: Yes.

Tyler: Wow, that’s pretty cool.

Heather: This is the most underutilized and probably not fully understood tool in the home warranty worlds. This is why what I love is I’m able to protect the sellers and the seller’s agent and of course start that history of coverage for the buyer, which will benefit the buyers later, if we share that we have maybe two months worth of seller coverage on it before it was closed. For example.

Tyler: Right. Okay. Well that’s exactly why Heather and I are doing this cause we were sitting down the other day and she was talking about it and I totally did not get it. And I’m like we need to do a video on this. Well for agents to better understand it and to let sellers know about this coverage because you’re right. I mean why wouldn’t you want to do it? It does. It makes absolutely no sense not to put it in place. And I just took a listing and I’ll be honest the other day I did not put the seller coverage in.

Heather: Well I’m going to help you with that.

Tyler: Cause I thought it was 50 bucks. Not that I didn’t want to pay it, but it’s free. So why wouldn’t you want to do it

Heather: Now, I’m going to help you do that cause let’s protect you as the agent. Let’s hold your deal together. Let’s protect the seller, let’s protect the buyer. It all helps everybody. And you know what Tyler, I have an email that I will send to any agent that requests it. That’s basically me talking about the seller coverage. And I attached the home service agreement. And ultimately it is just, I try to make it really easy cause I’ve realized real estate agents don’t do home warranty every day and I do. Also want to be a good partner to eXp.

Heather: So I will include our coverage and talk about our coverage in this email. So sometimes it can be a little wordy, but I figure more information than not enough is a good partner to be able to support your agents is great.

Tyler: Cool. Well I appreciate it. I’m glad we did this because I thought I understood it and now talking to you, I totally misunderstood what it really is, but now I get it. So, I thank you-

Heather: Thank you.

Tyler: -and we’ll share this with our agents and everybody needs seller coverage. It’s taking a listing.

Heather: Thank you. I also have a flyer if agents ever want to put together with their packets for their sellers or buyers, of course the seller side more for the complimentary seller coverage. But this now I’ve got all kinds of marketing material to help them to really make their listing shine.

Tyler: Okay. This video is going to go into a blog post and we’ll be putting all the flyers and all the things that people need to read up about it, what it is. It’ll all be okay within the posting that we’re going to do. So I appreciate it.

Tyler: Thanks for taking your time.

Heather: Well, thank you. I’m very honored. Thank you.

Tyler: Thanks, Heather. Bye.

Heather: Bye.