Friday, May 30, 2008

Home Warranty To The Rescue

Home Warranty Saves Ohio Homeowner Thousands on Appliance Repairs

Springfield, Ohio a suburb of blue collar Toldeo Ohio is a fairly large midewestern town full of hard working homeowners. Recently one Springfield family felt they had found the right home warranty company until their claim was denied forcing them to fork over more than $3000 for a new air conditioning unit. When the unmentionable company wouldn't help the family a quick phone call to ORA Home Warranty did the trick.

Homeowners have plenty of choices and many companies offer home warranty coverage there are plenty of choices out there but you want one that will give you the least trouble when you need the most help. When John Rickstan got an offer letter for a home warranty through from the high-pressure, unmentionable home warranty insurance outfit he decided to sign up. He had compared other prices and felt $30 a month was a competitive price to keep him safe if he had to replace a major appliance.

"We need our air conditioning my wife has COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and if she gets real hot she could really be in trouble," said Rickstan.

But when their air stopped working he got to work on filing a home warranty claim. He says the company denied the claim because of pre-existing problems with the air conditioning unit...problems that Rickstan says he had the documentation to prove had been repaired.

"We fixed everything in this house before I ever took out a home warranty just so something like this wouldn't happen," said Rickstan.

Desperate to protect his wife's health as they waited for a final answer on their appeal, the couple spent more than $3000 on a new air conditioning unit. They also continued making phone calls to the dis-honest home warranty and continued making calls.

"I was calling them daily for about a week and a half and then I got aggravated and came to ORA Home Warranty," said Ricksan.

We wanted to know more about this company, but we couldn't even find them on the Internet. So we searched Google for Ohio Home Warranty and found ORA Home Warranty and they were also registered with the Better Business Bureau.

Meanwhile the Rickson's made persistent calls that led to their claim being settled for more than $2,800 dollars. ORA Home Warranty stayed with us through the entire process and made sure we got paid.

The Better Business Bureau lists some warnings to consider before signing up for a home warranty:
--Check out the company track record.
--For The Best Home Warranty Call: 800-472-7004.
--Do comparison shopping about cost and deductibles and make sure to contact ORA Home Warranty.
--Enlist a home inspector to determine if any pre-exisiting problems might not be covered.
--Call the home warranty company before you buy and see how they treat the customer.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

To Sell Home Faster, Offer Some Incentives

The glut of homes on the market in the Valley is making it harder for many people to sell their houses, and they may have to spend some money to sell.

Mortgage expert Dean Wegner says sellers can do some of the things home builders do, such as offering financial incentives.

"Right now, the majority of people buying are first-time home buyers. Well, guess what. Because now they have to come up with the down payment, they don't have any money for closing costs. And if they hear a seller's willing to pitch in 3 percent for closing costs, well, there's six houses to look at and yours is going to be the first on the list."

Other ideas include offering a home warranty or agreeing to pay a few monthly payments for the buyers.

Wegner says start by offering the incentive that is least costly to you, including home warranty coverage, and, if that doesn't work, add on some more. If your house has been on the market for a while, its value is dropping, he says.

You could nail down the sale by agreeing to a payment abatement plan.

"The seller can actually pay the first six months of mortgage payments, so that the buyer doesn't have anything but taxes and insurance to pay for the first six months."

Once you come up with some incentives, monitor the results, he advises.

"Did you add a buyer incentive that's being advertised and you notice that the traffic has doubled? If that's the case, then that's really good. You might want to stick with that campaign until you sell your house. If you've done a buyer incentive and the traffic has not doubled, maybe try something else."

One of the cheapest incentives, Wegner says, is a two-year home warranty, which will cost around $700.


by Bob McClay
KTAR; May 16th, 2008