Home Warranties: Your House's Secret Weapon

Selling your home doesn't need to be a stressful, drawn-out process. The secret weapon smart sellers are using to outperform their competition? Home warranties.

As a real estate professional who's helped countless clients navigate the selling process, I've seen firsthand how this simple tool creates multiple advantages. A home warranty gives your property an immediate edge over competing listings, as most sellers don't include this valuable protection. This advantage directly translates to faster sales and smoother transactions.

The real power of a home warranty becomes evident during the inspection phase. When buyers discover your home includes warranty protection, they're significantly more likely to proceed with the purchase even when minor issues arise. Instead of walking away or demanding steep price reductions, they gain confidence knowing that covered systems and appliances will be repaired or replaced for just a nominal service fee after closing.

I learned this lesson the hard way after purchasing a duplex without warranty protection. Just days after closing, the water heater failed catastrophically, leading to flooding and an unexpected $800 replacement expense. Had a warranty been in place, the entire situation would have been resolved with a simple $75 service call. This experience revolutionized my approach to real estate transactions – now every property I list includes a home warranty.

The financial aspects make this a no-brainer: you typically pay nothing until closing, the warranty remains a negotiable item if needed, and you gain valuable legal protection after the sale. First-time buyers especially appreciate this added security, often making stronger offers on homes with warranty protection.

Ready to sell your home faster and with fewer headaches? Make a home warranty your competitive advantage and watch buyers respond with enthusiasm and confidence!

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Office number: 215- 607-3535

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Use a Home Warranty?
• 1:17 Benefits for Sellers and Buyers
• 2:19 Personal Experience with Water Heater Disaster
• 4:14 Legal Protection and Better Offers
• 5:00 Final Recommendations for Buyers/Sellers

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What do I recommend that every seller uses to sell your house faster? Hi, it's Maria Patron, and what sells a house faster? So one of the things I recommend to every single seller that I work with is to use a home warranty. What are the benefits of using the home warranty? Number one benefit gives the house a competitive advantage over all other houses that are on the market. Most houses don't include the home warranty. It also, because it gives you a competitive advantage, it helps you to sell the house much faster than the other inventory that's on the market. The third thing it does is it keeps the deal together, because when buyers know that they have a home warranty, they feel more compelled to move forward with that transaction, even if there's things that come up in the home inspection. I have used this tool thousands of times and it shocks me how many sellers and agents don't use it. And here's the beautiful thing You're offering a home warranty. How many sellers and agents don't use it? And here's the beautiful thing You're offering a home warranty. You pay for it at closing and if somebody doesn't provide you the asking price that is on the MLS, then it's negotiable. You can negotiate it either in or out of the home. That's entirely up to you. All of the houses I've ever sold, I always include a home warranty in it because I know for a fact that it works. It gives the buyers peace of mind and after the sale which is so important it gets rid of all the possible headaches that could happen after, because you just go back. The property has a home warranty. Okay, so this is one of the reasons why I decided that all my sellers should have one.

Speaker 1: 2:17

In 2004, I bought a duplex and I was in the duplex. I wasn't there for a week I think it was three days and the hot water heater busted all over the basement and I was pretty flabbergasted, because before this I only owned a condo. So now I have a duplex, four-story house and two water heaters, two HVACs, et cetera, et cetera, and I have a busted hot water heater in my unit Two days, three days after closing and guess what? I didn't have a home warranty. So there was nothing that I could do except I had to buy a new hot water heater. Now, if I had a home warranty, I could have just called the home warranty company, paid my $75, had them come out and either they would repair or replace that for the $75. Meanwhile I had to spend I think it was $800, $700 to $800 to buy a new hot water heater.

Speaker 1: 3:28

And the last thing you want as a seller is your agent calling you saying the hot water heater, the garbage disposal, whatever broke on the house that the clients bought yesterday, and they want $800. And, believe me, this has happened before, but not on our watch, because we have the home warranty. And then if the person seller didn't do the home warranty, I don't really know what to say, because I gave my recommendation and if I'm giving a recommendation, it's something that I would personally do. I'm never giving a recommendation for anything that I personally want to do with my own homes. Okay, also, legal protection after the sale.

Speaker 1: 4:22

So there's many, many reasons and the other one I would say is the other possibility is you could even get a better offer than you would have if you did not offer it. So this is especially true with first-time buyers. They love that home warranty. It gives them peace of mind and I have firsthand experienced this. So my recommendation every seller should use is a home warranty when you're selling a residential property, even up to four units, you can still use a home warranty. So with that, everybody, make sure you get a home warranty. And if you're a buyer, I'll talk about that why you should buy your own home warranty or ask a seller to include the home warranty in your sales contract.