[Good news] Lower home warranty prices due to HUD ruling benefits Charleston home buyers and sellers
Recently, HUD's new interpretive rule clarified that real estate brokers and agents could not be compensated by home warranty companies for marketing services to buyers or sellers.
Most Charleston home sellers provide a home warranty to buyers providing peace of mind to the buyer when they buy a home. Sure, buyers are more than likely to have a home inspection but you never know when something will break and generally, you have a little less money right after buying a home so having a home warranty will help defray the costs of repair.
A South Carolina real estate contract provides an option for either the seller or buyer to pay for the cost of a home warranty. But what was little known to either buyers or sellers was that the real estate agent received a small compensation for "offering" the warranty. And although I did get a small check once in a while, I never tried to "sell" someone a home warranty just to get a little extra money. After all, when you help someone buy or sell a home, you're going to receive a rather substantial real estate commission and that should be more than enough.
So I'm very glad to see HUD change their interpretation of the rule and even happier that the home warranty companies have lowered their prices passing on the savings to the real estate consumer.