The Brad Weisman Show
Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! #TheBradWeisman #Show #RealEstateRealLife
The Brad Weisman Show
Insights into Home Warranty Coverage w/ Matt Fellin
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Are you ready to learn the ins and outs of home warranties and how they can offer you a competitive edge in the real estate market? Today, we unravel this topic with Matt Fellin from America's Preferred Home Warranty, who brings a wealth of knowledge and insights. We unravel how home warranties are not just an add-on, but an essential safeguard against product failures, offering coverage on up to 25 products in the home. Additionally, we touch on the legal coverage offered to sellers and the seamless transfer of warranties to buyers at closing, making it a win-win for both parties.
Moving forward, Matt breaks down the claims process, highlighting the convenience homeowners have in choosing their own preferred licensed contractors. Hear about the competitive response times, the possibility to renew a warranty each year, and how contractors get paid. We also compare pricing and standard coverage across the industry. Closing off, we revisit the importance of home inspections and how a warranty can complement this process, giving homeowners and buyers the upper hand. Matt wraps up with an overview of the services and coverage he provides, leaving you equipped with expert advice and a better understanding of home warranty coverage. Jump in and get a handle on home warranties with Matt Fellin.
#homewarranty #realestateandyou #bradweisman #realestateagent
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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show (formerly known as Real Estate and YOU), where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife #realestateandyou
Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.
Hello, this is Brad Wiseman. You're listening to Real Estate and you we are back in the studio with more awesome information. This show actually happens to be about real estate, which is pretty good. This guy here is somebody comes into our office pretty often and he talks about this product that we really need to talk about. There's not many inspections being done today and, with that being said, it gets a little scary because we don't know what's in the house. So instead of doing an inspection, we are doing home warranties. So Matt Felin is here from America's Home Preferred right Home Preferred. America's Preferred Home Preferred Home Warranty. There we go. You know what's funny? When I wrote my notes, I actually literally wrote down America's Home Preferred Home Warranty. Yeah, this is why We'll get it right. Yeah, this is why, you know, maybe I shouldn't write things out, I should just go with it, right, Hugo?
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:See, Hugo always agrees with everything I say, so I love having him around. So let's, you're doing home warranties and you're doing a lot of them now I bet.
Speaker 2:We are, we are. We've been very important in the. We've always been important. But in the changes with the market, with so many inspections being waved along the way, even with the inspection there's no crystal ball that you know down the road a couple months in, towards the end of the year, that not going to have a problem of product failure that we could help out with.
Speaker 1:And so let's just explain what. Let's just get right out what is a home warranty? What is this? People get confused. It's not insurance. It has nothing to do with. Like Hugo had said to me. Is this what I need for the bank? Is this? It's not private home mortgage or mortgage insurance. This is a completely different elected type warranty. So explain what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're important there. You see analogy a lot of like used houses, like a used car. Yeah, products fail, things go wrong, well pumps go out. So a lot of folks don't want a used car without a warranty. They really shouldn't want to use house without a warranty. So we're in place for product failures Again. Yeah, like you said, we're not homeowners insurance. Tree falls on a roof and you know damages the house. You're going to use your homeowners for that. Yeah, what for products that fail? Things like dishwashers, hot water heaters, bigger stuff like central air. We have septic and well pump coverage. So 25 products that we offer coverage on for for a buyer, a little bit of a shorter list for seller, but a lot of power on the list.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's go there. You said there's there's a lot for the buyer, but what's on there for seller? So, cause this is the part that always amazed me is that you, you, you don't pay for the policy until settlement. Correct, is that? That's the way it still is? But there's anything I say it's wrong, just let me know I'm wrong, cause sometimes I do say things that they're not correct and then we use the eight ball to find out what's really happening. Okay, eight ball nose. That's right, especially the red one. So yeah, so let's go into that. So there's some things that are covered for the seller, but they haven't even paid for this thing yet, correct?
Speaker 2:So it's it's it's very powerful to have it on the listing side, because we have a list of things for the seller that they can claim on with us.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Um, they also get to use their own license contractors. We would talk about a bit here. If they do have a claim, which is a huge value for that homeowner, we also entitled that seller to up to a thousand dollars in legal coverage If they get sued by the buyer for up to two years post sale. We can potentially help now like a thousand dollars in attorney fees for free just cause we're on the listing Right. So the other thing is the warranty transfers to the buyer for free of closing. Yeah, the buyer picks up 25 products. There's $25,000 between all the products. You know ceiling a maximum on each product Something's covered, something's not but aggregate combined 25,000 for them to claim on that for the seller. That really helps take them out of the transaction after the sale because something goes wrong for that buyer. You're handing them a free home warranty with 25 products they're going to probably come to the home warranty company, not back at the seller. So it helps take that seller out of the transaction. National Association of Realders tells us too that houses normally get more money for it for that listing, when there's an advertised warranty on the MLS. It's like that used car is going to get more money when advertised warranty on it too, so not a power there.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny is I'm not a warranty guy, but if somebody's paying for it for me, I'm in. Yeah, yeah, seriously. But on this kind of situation now too, let's go back to what I said in the beginning was we're in a market where people aren't doing inspections and we never thought we'd be here and we're probably going to go back to inspections over the next year, I think, as things start to go back to normal. But if you were going to spend $600 on inspection, I suggest you spend $600 on a warranty. And then what's nice about that, even if you did have an inspection? The thing about an inspection we talked about this the other day. It's a snapshot in history. It's basically saying the day I was there, everything worked. Okay. We all know mechanical things. You can have a brand new car, brand new AC, brand new anything. The next day or the next week it could fail. It's a mechanical item, that's true. So that's what I think is huge with the warranty is that it's a year of not being worrying about the hotwood reader, worrying about the AC or whatever going out.
Speaker 2:So it's definitely peace of mind there for them and, yes, you're correct, with an inspection Inspector stands there and says, hey, today everything looks good. It doesn't mean in two months, three months, six months. I mean our coverage for that buyer is for a full year. Yeah, that a product isn't going to fail and our prices are very nominal. For the coverage that they get and, of course, being able to use their own contractor, we do not require a home inspection for our plans, for our warranty. That's the thing I want to bring.
Speaker 1:Let's say that again. So a lot of people ask that question, Matt. They'll say, hey, okay, great, I'm going to get this warranty, but you know they're going to go out and inspect the house and then they're not going to cover half the things on their list, because those things are older.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you said two things there. We don't inspect the house as a home warranty company. Okay, you know the buyer or seller agrees they want it on the agent places you order with us and it's put on, just order it. Because we don't come out and say, okay, well, let us look at the house, yeah right, see what kind of shape this place is, and no, just put it on, there's coverage. And then we do not require the owner to do a home inspection to validate the plan Gotcha. So I mean, that's what, like what you're saying there earlier. It's so important if they're passing on a home inspection and there's not one done well, that used houses even a bigger question mark than if there was an inspection you better have something in your hand a home warranty and we even have a little more premier plan for a buyer that gets them more products within the products eligible to claim on, gives them their best opportunity to have an approved claim, and it's you know $600.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna say let's get a range here just because we can talk a little bit about price, and we're not gonna. We're not gonna hold you to anything, obviously, but you have a nice brochure, has all the information. So what are we looking at? What's the least expensive policy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so really for the there's three price points. We try to keep it very easy for for agents we like easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep it simple keep things moving easy to do business with. So for single family home $499 starting price. That has the 25 product list and the 25,000 aggregate between them. That carries $100 deductible per claim. Now there's also a choice at $535 with only a $50 deductible per claim and then you can go up to that premier plan which is 695. So that gets the list of 25 products and then within those products we give more pieces in there, more, more, more stuff. That's covered. We have more products within the products.
Speaker 1:Because, like like an HVAC system, I mean there's a lot of things that can go wrong. Good, example.
Speaker 2:So if that premier plan or the buyer's preferred upgrade, which is included, is put on there, if that gets worked on your central layer and the free on of the pure on the refrigerator needs refilled, right it's expensive. That's like $140 per pound yeah systems are taken three to five pounds. We pay completely to refill the refrigerator in the system if it gets worked on. So that's where that premier plan is. That's a big deal, Even with an inspection. I recommend that a lot of times. Just yeah, and it carries the lowest deductible only $50 per claim.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Yeah, that's awesome. There you go, hugo.
Speaker 2:That's right. Pretty good stuff, right? Yeah, no, that's very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's awesome. So let's go back to one of the things that we suppose we might we touch on this a little bit was okay, I'm the seller. This doesn't happen too often now, right now in this market, but I have the property 123 Main Street. It's on the market. I decided, you know what, I'm really worried about the dishwasher or whatever. I'm worried about something going and I'm just going to get this coverage and I'm going to transfer it over. The buyer Turns out have it on the market for some reason. I can't sell it. I'm like screw it, I'm taking it off the market. I can't find a house. What do I pay for if something got covered?
Speaker 2:If it's on the market and let's use hot water heater. Hot water heaters hate it when a sign for sale sign gets kicked in the yard and hot water heater's seen it. Why is it always the hot?
Speaker 1:water heater gets picked on.
Speaker 2:I don't know it happened to me when I bought my house.
Speaker 1:I was doing a walkthrough and they're down there with a mop around. I'm just I'll deal with it, whatever.
Speaker 2:So seller coverage is on and maybe a problem with the hot water heater that they come to us and we do a claim for. We pay out $300 towards their problem to fix that hot water heater Cool. And then something happens in the family maybe and they have to take the house off the market and it doesn't close. The warranty can be canceled. Nobody owes us for it, whether the agent is paying for it and putting it on or the seller. We wanna be on that listing so there's no risk, there's just benefits to having a listing as such, see that's huge and it's like two warranties for the price of one. I wanna be clear about that. If it's put on the listing and seller or agent's paying for it, there's one cost. It's $4.99,. It can go into. It does go into closing costs. We don't want it paid ahead of time. And if the house doesn't close, it could be canceled.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, there you go. Amazing, see, that's awesome. All right, so let's go back to why should I get the? Okay, we talked about why we should get the home warranty. Okay, why wouldn't somebody get a home warranty? Like, why wouldn't they get it? Is there anybody that says, oh, I don't wanna get it because of a certain reason? I mean, what's your biggest pushback? What are you here?
Speaker 2:Well, probably it depends on who you're talking to, yeah, whether it's coming from the client or from agents. Sometimes it's just cost preventive, cause these buyers are paying so much for their homes and the interest rates are a little bit higher they're not crazy high, they're higher than they have been, as we know and they're just using all their funds and they're just saying I just don't have it. Another $6.95 or another $500 warranty. I'm just gonna take my chance and go with that. Or maybe they don't understand what it is or isn't. They don't see it as oh, it's similar than a warranty on a used car. So it's usually things like that. Sometimes it's from an agent that's had a bad experience with our competition. Maybe and you know why it's just a little bit sour.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I've heard before and you can tell me you guys are different. I used to get a lot of pushback because they would call, when they had the warranty, the other companies, your competition, well, they're not competition, obviously. Then right. But the other companies would basically say, all right, yep, you got the warranty, but when something happens, you gotta call this 1-800 number and we use our own contractors. You cannot bring your own contractor, you cannot use your own contractor. We're gonna find somebody out there that decided they would work for us. And a lot of times it didn't go well. No, it didn't go well. And a lot of times, because I think what happened is they weren't probably paying the contractors like the normal wage and the contractor would not treat them in the normal way and they would get shoddy work, they would be rushed through it, all that stuff. You guys don't do it that way, we don't. You're a little different, we're very different, very different. He's very different. Well, his last name's Felon. So you know Me personally and the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah. So at our inception the owner of the company saw that aspect of the home warranty company sending out. They either send out their own technicians that are on the payroll of the home warranty company or they contract and send folks out, still kind of on the payroll of the home warranty company. Owner of our company said that's not great for a homeowner. Let's let the homeowner choose their own license contractor in the event of the claim Awesome. So case in point maybe you have a dishwasher problem and your cousin's a licensed plumber. Call them and get them in. That's the criteria is that they're licensed. It's not a big criteria at all. We don't follow them up or check them out or anything like that. Homeowner brings them in. They start to claim with us. First We'll give them a claim number. Hey, bring your contractor in for a diagnosis. Have them call back with that diagnosis and then, based on what their licensed contractor conveys to us, is what we base denial or approval on. And it just works so much better for the homeowner because they have something, someone that they may know personally, have used before, or just even a contractor they haven't used. Your contractor you're bringing in they wanna do a good job for you normally because they want you to reform to other folks use them again. So the quality of workmanship number one is superior safety and security. Who's coming to your home? Response time that's one of the complaints I hear from agents is like yeah, your competition is telling my air conditioning customer in August, here there's gonna be two or three weeks till they come out and even look at the problem. For now, open your window. They like you know that's not, that's not that's not an option for me.
Speaker 1:That's not acceptable. What do you think, hugo? No, you wanna hear that today?
Speaker 2:No, open your windows, no. So if your contractor tells you that, you have the freedom to call somebody else, the pool of contractors that the competition has been working through has gotten smaller through COVID because contractors have been really high demand and been pulled away and paid more money. So they choose your own contractor aspect with us. I love that.
Speaker 1:That was huge. When I heard that the first time I think it was at a Keller Williams meeting or something we had down a regional thing and when I heard that cause, that was always my biggest complaint and it was that you know you get some person you don't know who they are. And the other thing is, too, is if you already have a relationship, like you said, with an HVAC person, now you're bringing somebody completely different in there, doesn't know the unit, doesn't know what they did last time to it. You know, it just never made sense to me, you know, but that ended, that's awesome and that's a big one. Now here's another thing. I wanna use it again next year.
Speaker 2:Can I renew it? Yeah, we want them to. So that's why we also carry an A plus better business bureau accrediting the only major out there that has that. We get there by number one doing the right thing and that's stand behind our coverage. If it fits the criteria for the claim you know, we approve it and pay out to help that homeowner out. And with the choose your own contractor aspect, that helps push our numbers up because they have good experience with that. To use people, like you said, somebody you know, but then they can't complain about the contractor and then they can't complain about.
Speaker 1:the contractor Takes that out. You picked them Exactly.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we want them to renew at the end of that year. If they had us going through a real estate transaction, yeah, very cool.
Speaker 1:And it's just like you're re-upping. I mean, is it the same kind of cost? Is it more expensive?
Speaker 2:So we'll reach out to them as they're getting towards the end of their year term. The prices end up going as direct to consumer with us. So our prices at that 499 or the 535 or 695, they're discounted to go through the real estate transaction. Gotcha, gotcha Past that they do get higher.
Speaker 1:I don't have exact sense, but it's not astronomical. It's really good.
Speaker 2:It's like the starting fee is a little different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, not bad, not bad at all.
Speaker 2:People do renew.
Speaker 1:So you can use your own contractor. What else sets you aside from your competition?
Speaker 2:Ease of doing business for the home owners or claims process is very easy, whether they call it in through our 800 number, start the claim or do it online. For agents also, I have great reviews about how easy it is to place orders with us to get their invoices for title and for clients, we have a great working portal for agents to work through that they can do everything through, put an app on their phone and then do a lot of it that way as well. Yeah, so, and our prices being very competitive, and really how inclusive our list of standard coverage, especially for buyers, is. There's a lot of tools in our toolbox, especially in today's market where, for agents, we're watching now for some of their E&O, air and emissions deductibles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we talked about that the other day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the value for the sellers it's big. Some would say, well, why would you put a warranty on a listing it's gonna sell in a couple of days? Well, once they understand them, as much value, risk management potential, more revenue for that seller, get them out of that transaction more so. Easier with the home, no home inspection if they desire it, which a lot still are. It just a lot built into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, amazing. One other question real quick. So once the claim is OK and everything's good, how do they get compensated? Is there a check they get in the mail? Is it like? How does that?
Speaker 2:happen? Yes, good question. So we do have the capacity to pay the contractor directly by credit card over the phone, if they're set up to do that. Normally we pay to the homeowner and we try to have that again, keeping things moving do it in a really prompt fashion. So once we know everything's been completed, we'd have a check in that homeowner's hand within two weeks post once the repair's been done so they can keep that contractor under a 30-day payment window. Awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Now, how do we get in touch with you For questions or anything else like that? How do we get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:So agents certainly reach to me. My cell number is 484-460-6615. Homeowners are best to call our 800 number, which is 1-800-648-5006. And our folks inside can help you with any questions you might have.
Speaker 1:Should they mention that they heard it through you? I mean, is that a good thing to do?
Speaker 2:They can. It's not going to change anything. But yeah, please love the opportunity to do business with you.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thanks so much for coming in, man.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Awesome, there we go. The home warranty. I'm going to say guru, he knows everything about home warranties. Let's just put it that way. Yeah, so that was amazing. So if you're not getting an inspection on your house or the house you're purchasing, you might want to consider getting a home warranty, because it's going to cover you from first year. And if you need to do that, you want to call Matt Felin here. He will get you all hooked up and if you have any questions, you can always contact me too and I'll help you out. All right, that's about it. See you next Thursday at 7 PM.
