Joining the Best to Be the Best

By Maria Patterson

RISMEDIA, Dec. 15, 2008-While Russell & Jeffcoat CEO Ron Roe admits that business is a “bit off,” he also explains that his Columbia, South Carolina, marketplace is protected from many of the housing market ills felt in other parts of the country.

“We’re fortunate not to have the big fall-offs like some parts of the country, but we don’t get the big rises either,” says Roe. “We’re back to more traditional levels in Columbia. Truthfully, I’m glad we’re having this correction for young buyers and first-time buyers. We couldn’t keep going the way we were going.”

So, although Roe’s company was seeing as high as 28% annual increases in the boom years of the early 2000s, Russell & Jeffcoat is not far off from its usual 3-5% year-over-year increases-a place many brokers would love to be in these days. Roe sticks to a strategy of positioning his company for steady growth-despite correcting market conditions-by delivering on standards of excellence and differentiating Russell & Jeffcoat with strong partners, such as HSA Home Warranty.

Choosing HSA as Russell & Jeffcoat’s home warranty provider helps set the real estate firm apart by providing a proprietary partnership strategy in Roe’s marketplace.

“What I’ve done with partners like HSA is try to position our company with other industry leaders,” says Roe. “You’re known by the company you keep and I’ve selected the top companies in the industry to be associated with.”

Russell & Jeffcoat has been working with HSA for approximately one year. “I did a lot of research to determine who was the most reliable company, who was the most professional and who had a good product,” says Roe. “If we’re recommending a home warranty company to our clients, we’re putting our professional reputation on the line and it’s essential to me that the company I select is responsive to our clients and does what it says it will do.”

Roe reports that the service companies HSA contracts with to conduct home and appliance repairs have proven both professional and on-time. This helps build on Russell & Jeffcoat’s solid reputation within the industry and further distances the firm from the competition.

“Associating with HSA adds to our credibility because of their high level of performance,” says Roe. “It’s more critical now to have home warranties because so many people have a lack of discretionary money. A home warranty policy, especially for first-time home buyers, is very important. For new homeowners to have to spend $1,500 on unexpected repairs a month or two after they’ve moved in is very difficult, especially when you just bought a home and may have spent a lot of money on decorating.”

Providing such a valuable, quality service also helps strengthen client relationships for Russell & Jeffcoat sales associates. “I’ve personally gotten letters from some of our consumers thanking Russell & Jeffcoat for recommending that they get a home warranty,” Roe explains. “It saved them a significant amount of money.”

Roe believes that educating clients about the benefits of a home warranty is a professional obligation. “You don’t see national advertising for home warranties,” he explains, “so it’s the responsibility of our agents to disclose to clients what a home warranty is and why they should get one.”

Choosing a dependable provider like HSA is proving to be a winning decision for Roe.

“We do about 6,000 deals a year and since we’ve been associated with HSA, not one formal complaint has been made,” says Roe. “Their staff and their representatives here locally take the burden off the agent so that agents can get out and do their thing for clients. Before working with HSA, agents would have to run down repair people for their clients. Working with HSA brings tremendous convenience for our agents and their clients.”

For more information, please visit www.onlinehsa.com.