American Home Shield® Proves to Be a Winning Choice Among Brokerages Large and Small
Best friends since high school, Mike Carter and Joe Gilmore are co-owners of Coldwell Banker Legacy, which is comprised of approximately 550 agents in 11 offices throughout New Mexico and West Texas.
“We got into the real estate business together and opened up our company on July 16, 1987,” Carter says. “We run the company together, and it’s a traditional full-service shop.”
The firm was introduced to American Home Shield® (AHS®) because of its affiliation with Realogy, and over the last five years, the relationship has grown dramatically.
“We have a really strong relationship with them today, and a lot of that is because of our AHS Account Executive, Jaida Patrick, who moved to New Mexico from Atlanta, Ga. While I was skeptical about whether Jaida would be able to adapt to the culture of New Mexico, she did, and she wove her way into the culture of our company,” Carter says. “She attends sales meetings and always has good information to deliver. She attends our awards functions and Christmas parties, and I mentored her in much the same way I would one of my agents.”
The relationship is one of the best the firm has ever had with a warranty provider, and Carter notes that this is what makes AHS a winning choice.
“Even though it’s the warranty business, it’s still a people business,” he says. “It’s all built on relationships, and Jaida’s level of product knowledge is really strong.”
The Albuquerque market is something of a “warranty town,” with Carter explaining that customers typically understand the value of the home warranty because they’re part of the culture.
“When you take that one step further to AHS, they have a really good product, great customer service and the final piece of the three-legged stool being the account executive, it’s a natural,” he says. “Jaida makes herself very available. She’ll always pick up the phone, and in the rare case she doesn’t, you can rest assured that she’s going to get right back to you.”
In a business that moves as fast as real estate, Carter says that’s important to him and his agents.
“At our sales meetings, Jaida will share the claims numbers in the Albuquerque area for the previous month, and those can be quite large,” Carter says. “I think that gives the agents a sense that they’re dealing with a company that backs up their product, has deep pockets and isn’t going to let their customers hang. They put their money where their mouth is.”
For example, a customer bought a home this past winter, and while the refrigerated air unit passed the home inspection, it had problems when turned on this spring. AHS dispatched a service person and realized that it needed to be replaced…and stepped up to the plate to help cover the costs associated with the replacement.
AHS recently added some new services to the home warranty, such as rekey service and pre-season HVAC tune-ups—a savvy move by the company, according to Carter.
“I think AHS is on the right track, and I believe that having the added value services will build a tighter relationship between the consumer and AHS.”
For more information, please visit www.ahs.com/realestate.
Keith Loria is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
