Pittsburgh REALTOR® Gets Competitive Edge With Home Warranties
Lori Hummel, a REALTOR® with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services in Pittsburgh, Pa., got her start in the industry after purchasing her first home. Inspired by the process and how smooth her agent made everything run, Hummel pursued her real estate license that same year.
That was more than 30 years ago. Today, she is a senior sales associate with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services—a company she joined while raising her children and was attracted to because it’s a family business. Today, Hummel is a Certified New Construction and Homes of Distinction specialist.
For almost the entirety of her time in the business, Hummel has offered her clients HSASM (HSA) home warranties. She understands that, now more than ever, potential homebuyers are looking for properties that check off all—or the vast majority of—the boxes on their list. Being able to offer those folks a home warranty is an incredibly powerful tool, giving homebuyers that extra reassurance that, should components of a covered system or appliance malfunction or break in their new home, they’re covered.
“First-time homebuyers want a warranty and they want to see a copy of specifics regarding what is covered,” says Hummel. “The HSA website is a great resource for homebuyers. If a question arises, they can always reach out to my account representative and she will respond almost instantly.”
Hummel originally turned to HSA as her first choice for a home warranty provider because of their years in the industry and their reputation among buyers and sellers.
However, there are two very specific reasons for why she’s stayed with them for nearly 13 years: reassurance and response time.
“If a seller has an older system in their home, it gives peace of mind to the buyer that if something happens to a covered item, they have the home warranty to help them out,” she says. “If my sellers also take advantage of the program, it gives them one less thing to worry about while their home is on the market.”
When something does go wrong and a contractor is needed immediately, Hummel says that her homeowners know they can call the 1-800 number and a contractor will be there quickly.
“They also know that the contractor is qualified and is part of the professional home service contractor network of the home warranty company,” she adds.
And Hummel says that she also loves working with her own local HSA account executive, Miranda Gula. She’s worked with Gula for years, and if Hummel ever has an issue or needs to add coverage to a warranty, Gula regularly responds to her emails within minutes.
“At the end of the month, she always sends me a reminder email to help ensure my homeowners have a home warranty plan and that we have everything we need for closings,” adds Hummel.
In today’s incredibly competitive real estate market, being able to offer potential homebuyers products like home warranties gives agents an edge—even more so when that home warranty company is an established brand with an excellent track record.
“I know that when my homeowners choose an HSA Home Warranty, they are going to be very happy with the product and the service,” says Hummel.
For more information, please visit www.onlinehsa.com.
Jameson Doris is RISMedia’s blog and social media editor. Email him your blog ideas at jdoris@rismedia.com.
