Upgrading your Homebuyers’ Experience with Homebuyer PLUS
Homebuyer PLUS makes Home Inspectors stand out as the right choice for Homebuyers and Real Estate Agents, with an integrated experience for scheduling, payments, report viewing, and managing post-inspection requests. Additionally, we solve for real home-buying frustrations, like insurance quotes and moving.
Homebuyer PLUS will replace our Extra Care program from March 31st, 2022, with new benefits and some significant improvements, based on a lot of Inspector feedback.
As the Inspector, you will still benefit from a unified dashboard for appointment scheduling, taking payments, and managing post-inspection requests. All Homebuyers will have an opportunity to remove the headache of getting a homeowners insurance quote, but only with their EXPLICIT consent, as it was in Extra Care. Additionally, if you, as the Inspector, feel like offers related to security deals, finding packers & movers, etc., are relevant to your Homebuyers, you can choose to activate a feature that will also show those to the Buyer.
Three years ago, we launched a program called Extra Care to take the first steps towards eliminating these problems, as well as removing frustrations for Homebuyers like having to get an insurance quote, choosing a security system, and finding reliable movers.
I loved my experience and have already recommended it to people I work with.
— Homebuyer in Bradshaw, WV
It’s good for a first time home buyer who’s never bought a home and for someone to guide them thru every step of the process after closing.
— Homebuyer in Prospect, NY
Helpful to use ExtraCare, I recommend to friends and family.
— Homebuyer in South Bend, IN
Extra Care becomes Homebuyer PLUS
Inspectors who have chosen HomeGauge ONE as their inspection software already benefit from the most complete inspection toolkit available for the lowest cost in the industry. HomeGauge ONE now includes:
- ONE homebuyer account to complete all necessary steps (scheduling, payments, report viewing & sharing, requesting / negotiating repairs).
- Homebuyer dashboard for a simple, convenient experience
- Create Request List (CRL)
- Time-released messaging
- Configurable reports and templates
- Full offline report writing capabilities
- Cloud-based software, compatible with all devices
- iOS and Android apps
Homebuyer PLUS takes all that was great about Extra Care, brings improvements based on your feedback, and introduces many new benefits.
- An improved dashboard experience, with a commitment to the ongoing development of new features and benefits
- Dedicated support chat widget embedded in the dashboard for the Homebuyer
- Homeowners insurance quotes, requiring the explicit consent of the Homebuyer
- Access to deals & offers for major frustrations, such as moving & security.
- A Partner Promise, outlining the must-follow rules for the partners that Homebuyers gave their consent to work with
What’s Included in Homebuyer PLUS?
Historically, inspection reports have been delivered as a physical copy, as a PDF via email, and more recently, online in a dashboard. Using a dashboard offers the convenience to quickly view & share a report, to easily negotiate over items that you as the Inspector found, to use the report for getting insurance quotes, and being able to store all their inspections as they move from home to home.
The same dashboard account can be used for scheduling and paying the Inspector, so the Homebuyer has an experience that is seamless, and convenient, helping to support a lifelong relationship.
Create Request List (CRL) — Easy, Convenient Repair List Creation
With a 98% approval rating, CRL is one of the most favored features of the Homebuyer dashboard by our Inspectors who use it regularly, AND has received an incredible 98% approval rating from Homebuyers!
A game-changing tool allowing Real Estate Agents and Buyers to create a Repair/Request list directly from a HomeGauge inspection report, and attach it right to their repair addendum form.
This feature saves time, eliminates extra steps, and is included as part of our HomeGauge ONE subscription for HomeGauge Inspectors.
— Happy HomeGauge Inspector
The secret weapon got me a new agent this week! One of my client’s agents used this feature to negotiate with the seller/seller’s agent. A couple days later, the seller’s agent called and said she had recommended me to her sellers to inspect the new house they are buying. She loved the request list feature, and told them that mine was the most professional software she had ever seen! Thanks HomeGauge Team!
— Happy HomeGauge Inspector
Insurance Quotes — Optional Service For This Necessary Step of Home Buying
Homebuyers report that the need to obtain an insurance quote prior to purchase is just another frustration they must overcome. For the last few years, HomeGauge has been eliminating this headache in partnership with our parent company, American Family Insurance, and other select partners.
Homebuyers have loved this program, even if they only use the quote to force their existing insurance vendor to lower their rates!
With Extra Care the Inspector determined whether this feature would be on or off for their homebuyers, yet the major feedback about this program was that the homebuyer should be making the explicit choice. With Homebuyer PLUS, every Homebuyer using our dashboard will see an opportunity to get an insurance quote, or to easily bypass it if they are not interested. There is nothing you need to do to activate this feature, and as before, only homebuyers that explicitly opt-in will benefit from this service.
At the current time, insurance is only available to US-based Inspectors.
Security, Movers, & More — Inspectors & Homebuyers in Partnership
After insurance, many Homebuyers go searching for a reliable moving company and start thinking about securing their new home. While we are committed to the homebuyer having the ultimate choice in what services they opt-in to, we know that some Inspectors work with Buyers for whom security and moving are not relevant.
Therefore, just like in the Extra Care program, you as the Inspector first decide if security and moving are suitable for your customers, and only if you do will these be shown to them.
If you were a member of Extra Care, these offers will be visible to your buyers in Homebuyer PLUS, and if you were not, these offers will not be seen.
Remember that every partner we work with for insurance, security, and moving must abide by our Partner Promise, giving you peace of mind that your Homebuyer is being well looked after.
An Improved ‘Claim Your Account’ Process
As an Inspector that uses HomeGauge, you are already familiar with the idea that your Homebuyers have access to HomeGauge to complete a variety of tasks, including viewing their report.
The process by which the Homebuyers claim their account has been a hotly requested update for some time. As part of this launch, we have simplified this process, and we now ask the Homebuyer to enter their own information to ensure updates are sent to the contact information they choose to use.
This change also means that if a Homebuyer chooses to receive a benefit like an insurance quote, the information that is used for this is information that the Homebuyer entered, not the Inspector.
The HomeGauge Partner Promise — An Extra Layer of Confidence
As a Homebuyer’s Inspector you care about protecting your customer, and so do we. As a proud member of American Family Insurance, we adhere to the strictest data protection rules. We have ALWAYS insisted on an explicit opt-in from a Homebuyer to send them an insurance quote, or refer them to an insurance partner, and with HomeGauge Partner Promise, we go even further.
Homebuyer Support — Now Available Directly in the Dashboard
Homebuyers sometimes have questions about creating an account, logging in, accessing the report, sharing the report, etc., and up until now, this has fallen on the Inspector to manage. As a busy Inspector, this can mean the Homebuyer is left waiting, or you have to interrupt another inspection to help them. Homebuyer PLUS adds a live chat function to the Homebuyer Dashboard that will connect your Homebuyer directly with a support agent who can solve these problems for them.
Our support agents will only help with technical problems and will always refer the Homebuyer back to the Inspector for any questions related to the content of the report.
HomeGauge ONE Makes This Possible
If you have a subscription or services with HomeGauge, you’re already getting all the benefits of HomeGauge ONE, with even more to come. Our Home Inspector business platform allows you to have everything you need for your business under ONE roof, without the need to juggle multiple tools and pay premiums for each of them!
With HomeGauge ONE, you get:
- Homebuyer PLUS, to off the best experience to your Homebuyers
- Inspection scheduling and payment solutions
- Create Request List (CRL) (with a 98% homebuyer approval rating!)
- The fastest report writers
- Full offline report writing capabilities
- Cloud-based software, compatible with all devices
- iOS and Android apps
- Time-released messaging
- Configurable reports and templates
- Homebuyer dashboard for easy report viewing
Our Web Writer is now out of beta, so it’s available for all devices, and you can work anywhere, online and offline, at lightning speed.
We also continue to provide new releases of our products including our mobile and companion apps, payment functionality, security measures, and other responses to your suggestions we’ve collected, like making our forms FREE to use!
If you haven’t heard, we’ve also recently added HomeGauge Payments to HomeGauge ONE, so that you can manage all payment processing for your customers right through your HomeGauge dashboard, with no gateway fees and the lowest rates in the industry! Learn more about that here.
> Learn more about HomeGauge ONE
> Visit our Help & Support Center
> Check out our YouTube channel
Today HomeGauge serves more Inspectors and Homebuyers than at any time in our history, and with a record growth year for our 20th anniversary, we are very excited to partner with you in defining the best possible Homebuyer experience.
— The HomeGauge Team
Homebuyer PLUS FAQs
What is Homebuyer PLUS?
Partners that help deliver on some Homebuyer PLUS services are held to the strctest standards for data, following the HomeGauge Partner Promise rules.
When does Homebuyer PLUS launch?
The various features will be rolled out gradually throughout the month of March, with all features live by March 31st.
I want my Homebuyers to benefit, how do I activate it?
Homebuyer PLUS is free to all HomeGauge ONE subscribers. For insurance quotes there is nothing you need to do, it will automatically be activated as part of the rollout.
For Security, Moving & more, if you were a member of Extra Care previously, this will already be activated for you when we roll it out. If you were not a member, or are unsure if you were, just send a note to Support requesting that Security & Moving be activated for your buyers.
Unfortunately at this time, Inspectors in Canada can not help solve the insurance quote problem for their buyers, but we are working on a solution.
What is happening to the Extra Care program?
The Extra Care program is going away, and is being replaced by the Homebuyer PLUS program. If you were a member of Extra Care there is nothing you need to do — your buyers will have a similar experience to today.
If you were not an Extra Care member and would only like Homebuyers to see an opportunity to solve the insurance policy frustration, there is also nothing you need to do. However, if you were not an Extra Care member and would also like Homebuyers to be able to opt-in to information for security systems, moving services, etc, just drop a note to Support requesting this is activated for you.
For more Extra Care transition questions, please refer to the following Frequently Asked Questions.
Q: When will the switch from Extra Care to Homebuyer Plus happen?
All announced features of Homebuyer PLUS will be live by March 31st, and at that point Homebuyer PLUS will have replaced the Extra Care program.
Q: Is the homebuyer required to opt-in to receive these benefits?
Yes! HomeGauge has always required an explicit opt-in to take advantage of these features, and this explicit opt-in will continue. The homebuyer can simply skip this step if they wish to, and we have made improvements to the homebuyer dashboard to make it clear how to do that.
Q: Can I as the Inspector choose what opportunities are relevant to my homebuyers?
In talking to HomeGauge Inspectors it is clear we all share the same view that ultimately the Homebuyer should be the one that controls their own experience and their own data. For this reason, all homebuyers will have the choice to benefit from an insurance quote, and the HOMEBUYER MUST CONTINUE TO PROVIDE THEIR EXPLICIT CONSENT.
Additionally, beyond just an insurance quote, HomeGauge has also negotiated favorable deals for other frustrations, including moving and security. You as the Inspector will know best if these additional opportunities are relevant to your type of customer and will be able to turn these on or off.
If you were previously a member of Extra Care, these additional opportunities will be turned on by default for you so your homebuyers can continue to benefit. If you were not previously an Extra Care member, you will need to contact support to do it for you.
What are the benefits to HOMEBUYERS of distributing documents through the homebuyer dashboard instead of sending a PDF?
Homebuyer PLUS brings improvements to the Homebuyer Dashboard where Inspectors share their reports with the customers. Based on Inspector requests we are committed to the ongoing development of this experience and the dashboard will allow for many new types of reports in the future.
Consumers have grown to expect companies they work with to support viewing, sharing and signing documents digitally. Based on survey results, over 91% of homebuyers who had their report delivered electronically via the HomeBuyer Dashboard, found the process of accessing their report extremely easy.
With HomeGauge ONE, sending digital inspection documents is simple.
In addition to the above, some additional homebuyer benefits of publishing reports to the homebuyer’s dashboard include:
- Pay invoices quickly and securely with our integrated HomeGauge Pay, which supports a variety of common payment methods
- Easily share inspection reports with family members or their realtor
- Turn the inspection report into a Request List to streamline the negotiation phase
- Keep their preferred contact information up to date
- Store a persistent digital record of their documents in one place with free inspection document storage for as long as their account is active
- Technical support from HomeGauge’s Support team
What are the benefits to INSPECTORS of distributing the report through the dashboard?
With HomeGauge ONE, sending digital inspection documents to your customers is simple.
Some of the benefits to you when publishing reports digitally include:
- Provide a professional, consistent, and digital experience when interacting with your customers and building your company’s reputation
- Keep realtors and homebuyers happy with access to Create Request List (CRL) tool, to streamline the negotiation process
- Incorporate multimedia (e.g. 360 video, audio recordings, etc) inside the report to make them stand out
- Maintain a digital record of when customers viewed, signed, and shared documents
- Quick links to easily collect Inspector ratings from inside the homebuyer’s dashboard
- “My Team” section helps improve brand recall and drive more repeat business
- HomeGauge Support team is available to help your homebuyers resolve technical issues with an embedded support tool
What is changing with the collection of the Homebuyer’s contact information?
As an Inspector that uses HomeGauge, you are already familiar with the idea that your Homebuyers have access to HomeGauge to complete a variety of tasks, including viewing their report.
The process by which the Homebuyers claim their account has been a hotly requested update for some time. As part of this launch, we have simplified this process, and we now ask the Homebuyer to enter their own information to ensure updates are sent to the contact information they choose to use.
This change also means that if a Homebuyer chooses to receive a benefit like an insurance quote, the data that is used was collected directly from the Homebuyer, not the Inspector.