This article first appeared in Real Estate magazine’s special-edition Women in Real Estate issue. View the entire issue here.
Cinch Home Services removes the guesswork around preventing, diagnosing and solving home-related issues
Terry Hankner has been promoting home protection plans from Cinch Home Services (formerly HMS National) for more than 20 years. As president of Comey & Shepherd in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hankner has spread her faith and confidence in Cinch far and wide—facilitating more than 1,000 plans for Comey & Shepherd clients in 2019 alone.
She appreciates the fact that the company has continued to grow over the past 40 years, with a proven track record that utilizes smart, modern tools and an award-winning customer support network to remove the guesswork around preventing, diagnosing and solving a wide variety of home-related issues.
“We have a lot of agents who are strong believers,” says Hankner. “In today’s world, buyers are rightfully picky, and sellers do not want to see transactions dissolve during the inspection phase. Having a warranty in place helps sellers address covered items found at inspection and gives buyers peace of mind that failures that happen after closing will also be handled.”
Cinch delivers by partnering with expert technicians nationwide to provide unmatched service and value, continuing to make strides with digital-forward strategies, platforms and initiatives that are modernizing home-management services.
For Hankner, Cinch not only provides quick and reliable fixes to her company’s many satisfied clients, but a real value to her entire market as well.
“Buyers are typically stretching themselves just to get into the home of their dreams, so having extra money put aside in case of a major system or appliance breakdown is very rare,” she says.
Classifying Cinch as a transactional partner, Hankner places the home protection plan provider on the same playing field as their financing and title partners. “They are an important spoke in that wheel of transaction service providers,” explains Hankner.
To that end, Comey & Shepherd provides home-protection plan training for all its agents, whether they are new or experienced. And the opportunity to market their services with every transaction keeps deals together and makes clients happy.
“If a client has something go wrong after the sale, whether we like it or not, it has some reflection on our agent,” says Hankner, who goes on to explain that any service call placed by a client generates a notification to the agent facilitating the plan, prompting follow-up opportunities.
Another key piece of the puzzle is the working relationship that Hankner and her agents have with Kathleen Oetgen, one of Cinch’s senior account executives.
“We have a very special relationship since she was one of our agents before she went to Cinch,” says Hankner. “Whenever we call, she always responds quickly and always gets a positive result in the end.”
Customer service aside, Hankner also points to the new services that have been added to the mix as a benefit to both her agents and clients.
“When the need arises, or they discover a competitor has added new coverage products, Cinch always seems to bring it on at competitive rates,” says Hankner. “And they’ve kept up with all the new technologies and systems, especially in newer smart homes.”
Hankner’s agents know that any buyer worth their salt is going to ask a seller to supply a one-year home protection plan, so she is thrilled to count Cinch as her company’s go-to partner every single time.
“The time to put a home warranty in place is at the point of listing so that if anything goes wrong, the seller can use the warranty during the listing period,” concludes Hankner. “Having a Cinch home warranty in place is a very effective marketing tool, bringing complete security and peace of mind to every buyer after closing.”
To learn more about how you can partner with Cinch Home Services, please reach out to Adam Brown, vice president, National Sales, at adbrown@cinchhs.com or visit cinchrealestate.com.
John Voket is a contributing writer to RISMedia.
