One Year Warranty
One Year Home Warranty from Global Home USA!
Global Home USA now offers a one year home warranty at your uploaded report and it can protect you from liability!
Here's how: Global Home USA will cover any item or component in its terms of service that you pass as in working condition! No pre-existing refusals or turned down claims because of pre-existing. If the inspector passes the water heater and the bottom falls out the next day, it's covered! Better than E&O insurance and it doesn't cost you a thing. Global Home USA one year warranty will cover any item or component in its list of coverage that you pass! How's that for extra liability protection!
How can they do it? Whats the catch? There is none. Other than the warranty has to be purchased for it to be valid. Just perform a quality inspection and call it like you see it. If you do find a problem or recommend a serviceman, then the buyer or home owner needs to obtain a copy of the repair or service invoice in order for that item or component to be included. This warranty is better and has more coverage because the home has been inspected by you the professional. This reduces the amount of claims because the home has been inspected for condition before issuing the warranty. It also gives your company an edge over the competition (because you can qualify your customers for a better warranty) while adding another buffer of liability protection for you and your company!
Do some agents recommend a warranty for the referral or marketing fee? Some use to get a fee from a warranty company if they helped sell the warranty. RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) is governed by HUD and has stated back in June 2010 that agents can no longer receive money (kick backs, referral fee or by whatever name) for selling a warranty and deemed it illegal (see the ruling). Most agents do not offer the warranty, and the ones that did have been discouraged (see above link). You can turn off the option so that your buyer will never see the advertisement. But wait and think about this for a moment. If this would be your reason for turning it off, then ask yourself, does not most of your agents tell you that they have to offer their buyer a choice for a home inspector? Your customer should have the opportunity to choose the one that best covers them and their home. Does their warranty cover "undetected pre-existing" conditions? Is it fair that they only offer your customer a warranty that likely will not cover undetected pre-existing conditions?
Thank you Agents, we will take it from here!
The real estate agents played a crucial part in providing access to the public for home warranties before there were home inspectors. The home inspector now is taking the deserving role to help the warranty company decide what is covered and not covered. After all the inspector just inspected the condition of the components the warranty company intends to include in the warranty. The warranty company can save money by writing a policy on items working (as determined by a home inspection) as opposed to not working or unknown (no one qualified inspected the components) and provide better coverage and cheaper premiums in principle. A home warranty with coverage items determined by a competent, qualified home inspection report just makes sense. It also helps the customer be aware that a home inspection and a home warranty are not one in the same. Give them a choice to obtain a home warranty will help protect you from frivilous or misguided claims against your inspection company.
Does the inspector get any kind of fee or monetary compensation for the sale of a Home Warranty? Answer: No. This RESPA ruling is very similar to home inspectors ethics and some state licensing boards that state that the home inspector shall not receive compensation from a third party relating to the inspection report. The home inspector is not compensated if the home owner, purchaser etc. decide to purchase the Global Home USA one year warranty.
What makes this so special? HomeGauge arranged part of its compensation from Global Home USA to include a "Home Inspector Service Option" in all of the policies that integrate through the HomeGauge website (residential, condos, multifamily poilices) that is included in the purchase of the home warranty. Basically if an item or component is deemed in good working order by the home inspection report not requiring servicing or repair, then its covered! This program adds so much more potential coverage benefits for the inspector's customer (undetected-pre-existing conditions are covered ),whether it be a home buyer, seller or a homeowner not involved in a real estate sale! Any policy that HomeGauge offers from Global Home USA will have the "Home Inspector Service" option which means "undetected pre existing conditions" are covered!
Can I perform Warranty Qualifier Inspections on any home whether under a sale transaction, or not?
Answer: Yes! That is the beauty of a Global Home USA policy as designed for HomeGauge and the inspectors who use HomeGauge. You can perform a "Warranty Qualifier" inspection on any home and the same conditions apply. If you note a problem or something that needs servicing, it is not covered unless they get it serviced etc by a qualified licensed service provider. Afterwhich, the item can be covered and the warranty issued. Start advertising a new service to your old customers and the public! No real estate transactions required for this warranty!
Benefits to the inspector:
There are many benefits and here are a few:
1. Extra liability protection! If its covered then problem can usually be solved.
2. Your inspection qualifies them for a one year home warranty with NO PRE-EXISTING catches if you pass it.
3. You now have another service you can offer and that is a one year home warranty "Qualifier" inspection. You can offer a "Warranty Qualifier" Inspection at a reduced rate for home owners either through advertising or those hundreds of home buyers you inspected for last year! This doesn't have to be a full home inspection (but it can if desired), but must cover the items to be considered in the Global Home USA one year home warranty. Contact previous customers or advertise that you can perform a Warranty Inspection and can get them great coverage with no pre-existing conditions!
Sometimes the home buyers think that if the home inspector passed it, and it fails they expect the home inspector to pay for it. That is why your state or org recommends a client contract agreement. Now, you can easily distinguish and help your customers "know" the difference! TIP: Change or edit your client contract agreement to state: "Our company is not a warranty and items or components can fail anytime after an inspection is performed. We strongly recommend our customers consider purchasing a one year home warranty."
Obviously home inspectors have ethics, but what keeps the home inspector from fraudulently passing a component as good knowing it is not?
Answer: Most home inspectors realize that their license, career is at stake if they were to willingly defraud. The home inspector would also unnecessarily add liability to his company if the warranty company decided that for whatever reason something was not covered, or partially covered and the inspector's customer could be denied in whole or part. The home inspector has every incentive to perform a thorough home inspection and if he finds something wrong, the warranty can still cover that item as long as what is wrong is corrected and the invoice for the work is retained.
Are my customers going to get spammed or solicited directly by Global Home Warranty?
No.
This sounds like a smart business move. I do what I normally do, and HomeGauge offers a warranty from Global Home USA that can actually help protect me and my company should an item I passed as "Inspected" fails during the warranty period. I can also, add another service to my business and approach home owners to get a great warranty if they have me inspect their home to qualify it. Is there any requirement from me to offer this program?
Answer: Yes. It is required of you to:
1. Agree to the Terms of Service from HomeGauge regarding the Global Home USA warranty.
2. Be a part of HomeGauge Services.
HomeGauge has wrote code or integrated with Global Home USA and we do alot to auto-fill the customer info and to capture the report info, delivery of invoice to closing (if applicable) etc. and is all a part of the HomeGauge Services.
Turn on the Warranty offer here!
Want to offer this warranty on your website?
If you currently have a website using the HomeGauge website builder, you can add a page about the warranty by taking the following steps:
- Login to HomeGauge.com. From your dashboard, click on the "Website" tab, then on the "My Website" button to login to edit your website.
- Click on the "Page Manager" link in the site menu. Create a new page with a title such as "Home Warranty".
- Copy the code from the text block below.
- Go to the new page in your website. Click on the "Edit" icon near the title of the page.
- In edit mode, click on the "HTML" button to popup the code editor. Paste the code into the html window. Click "Update".
- Click the disc icon in the upper right of the page to save the changes.
If you have a website hosted by another company besides HomeGauge, copy the contents below into a new webpage on your website.
responding to AHW below according to your description of events the warranty worked as intended. You recommended additional evaluation and they never had it evaluated. This is admitted. The undetected pre existing condition was "detected" by you and the seller or buyer did not follow up so there is no pre-existing coverage! If the inspector recommends servicing in order for there to be coverage the seller or buyer must have it repaired and servicable and keep the receipt. Then there is coverage for undetected pre-existing. Feb 14, 2012 5:02 PM Feb 14, 2012 5:05 PM
ahw (Inspector)
Alabama House Whisperer (inspector) Careful with this warranty guys. When it comes to covering pre existing conditions and home inspector error it is not as cut and dried as we have been lead to believe. I have a customer who had a horizontal furnace flue in an oldr furnace and I wrote it up for additional evaluation-but failed to check the Repair/Replace box. I still defaulted it to the summary. The home owner bought the warranty for my client instead of paying for additional evaluation because the furnace operated no CO2. When the client moved in the furnace would not fire and he called for additional evaluation and the service company found a problem with burners and heat exchanger. The warranty company will not cover the repair under pre existing conditions or home inspector error because there was no evaluation prior to the client moving in. As with other warranty companies, there is no compromise with these guys either. SO BE CAREFUL DO NOT TO MAKE A MISTAKE! Nov 14, 2011 12:21 PM
hgmike (Inspector)
I just checked your account settings, and you are set to have the warranty be displayed to your buyers. As long as it is turned on, the information will be displayed to your buyers. If you want, you can create a fake buyer's account, attach it to a report, then login to see what a buyer would see. Sep 27, 2011 10:23 AM
MainesHomeInspector (Inspector)
I added this to my website (hosted by other) and have turned on the service. How can I be sure my clients are seeing this information? Sep 26, 2011 9:51 AM