This Guy Validates the Savings Abundance Reaped When Extending A Home Warranty
When Team Lally nudged Bill Hobson to consider selling his Komoaina Street home rather
than relist it as a rental property before deploying to Japan, the idea felt a bit too soon — at first.
Bill had a lot on his plate — relocating his family, again, and doing it during a global pandemic.
This was not an uncomplicated task. Wouldn’t it just be easier to do what he’s already been
doing by renting it out again?
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When his longtime renters moved out, they left his investment looking more like Fallujah and less like the cozy Tiburon neighborhood of Ewa Beach in O’ahu. Fortunately, Bill was in Hawaii upon this discovery and Team Lally was right there with him offering some interesting and unexpected options. Summer 2020 was coming to an end, and there simply wasn’t much market inventory. So the odds were good that any and all home shoppers would pounce on Bill’s 4-bedroom, three- bathroom humble abode. (Fun Fact: He got SEVENTEEN offers!)
“I initially bought because I was tired of paying other people’s rent,” said Bob. “I’d been in the Army for 13 years at that point and I was basically giving away my housing allowance for that time. My wife and I were newlyweds and our rent was going to go up so I was ready to try
something new.”
That “new” was their initial 2012 purchase of the Komonaina digs. The purchase was made even more fiscally possible with the help of his VA loan. That resulted in a manageable 12 years of homeownership for them. While five of those years they were abroad on assignment with the army, they enjoyed the income of renting their property no matter where in the world they were.
Well, they enjoyed it until things went south. The To Do repair list this last go-round was a hefty one to battle through regardless of whether they were renting or selling.
Owning a home and renting it out to bring in that passive income has its pluses and minuses.
Fortunately, Bill figured out pretty quickly how to mitigate household drama as it unfolded while he was living halfway around the world. It all came down to his Home Warranty — an investment tip courtesy of his lender who emphasized the value of the oft-overlooked added cost. Armed with the warranty protection, Bill has legitimately milked his home warranty in such impressive ways that he is nicknamed “The Home Warranty Whisperer” by a duly impressed
Team Lally.
“We call Bill the Home Warranty Whisperer because he gets so many things, if not everything replaced using the warranty,” said Team Lally’s Adrienne Lally.
Of course one doesn’t recognize the value until one is really grateful to have it.
The first time Bill was able to test the powers of his warranty was when his AC broke. Lo and behold with that warranty he was able to score a new AC. After the year warranty was up, however, he made the bad call not to renew. (He didn’t know it was a bad call until, well, life happens.) It took his water heater breaking and his need to replace it for that warranty to feel very much missed.
“I was on a tight schedule and had already moved to Germany. Lowe’s and Home Depot wouldn’t come out to service it, it was a stress,” says Bill. After that momentary lapse, he decided to repurchase the home warranty and kept it up every
year after. With the warranty Bill never had to deal with all the moving parts while he was so far away. With the warranty, things could get replaced and repaired well.
An insider tip Bill accessed thanks to his persistence and his inability to take no for an answer, were the “secret numbers.”
These direct lines to a human made problem solving happen faster.
Another efficiency tip he learned for when things were urgent and he wasn’t getting a response fast enough, was to post on his warranty’s social media pages. Even the slightest complaint resulted in an instant instant message.
“It is ALL about persistence,” says Bill. “Because I am a frugal person, this combination worked for me —especially since I was ahead on Germany time. I got almost everything that needed fixing through the warranty.”
Bill also emphasizes the value and efficiency of always taking the cash out option. That gave him more autonomy to choose the quality of things being replaced, and not just end up given the cheapest replacement on the market. It also made things happen more quickly.
So when all was replaced and done, the home he bought in 2012 for $413,000, was
transformed 12 years later into a sale with Team Lally that dazzled his expectations, reaching the high $600,000s. All the effort and hard work paid off. Taking the risk, making the bold move to sell before he had planned to, and then during a global pandemic proved to be fruitful.
“What surprised me most about this process was how good the home looked when everything, all the repairs were done,” said Bill.”I never lived in it when it looked this good! If Team Lally hadn’t advised me, I would have probably re-rented and it would have put me $20-$30K behind, which would have taken ten years or more to recoup.”
HUGE Mahalo Bill Hobson for choosing Team Lally to assist you with your real estate needs and the sale of your home! Congrats once again!
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