Example:

The chart above shows median home sales trends in the 13203 zip code over the last ten years. As you can see, the values fluctuate and, at present, we are at what appears to be a good time to sell your home, but what if these values should fall before you want to sell your home? You could lose a considerable amount of money when you sell your home if the market is down.

For example, imagine a homeowner who bought a house in the 13203 zip code in July 1997 for $70,000, when the median home value was $67,253. This same homeowner made improvements and maintained his home over the next five years and decided to sell his home in January of 2002. The median home value in the 13203 zip code had decreased to $53,000; a 21% drop! If this homeowner experienced a similar depreciation in his home's value, when he went to sell his home he would only be able to get approximately $55,300 for his home. In the span on five years this homeowner lost nearly $15,000!

Home Value Protection can help protect you from unfortunate experience.

How does the Home Value Protection work?
When you sign up for Home Value Protection you will be asked to chose your protected amount. This amount is a percentage of your home's assessed value. If you have recently purchased your home, the value of your home can be the purchase price. If you have lived in your home for quite some time, you can use an informed judgment, based on your opinion, to determine your protected value. The protected amount can range anywhere from 50% to 150% of your home's assessed value with a maximum amount of $172,632. In other words, if you have a $90,000 home you could protect as little as $45,000 or up to as much as $135,000. This protected amount will be the basis of any payout amount that you would receive through the Home Value Protection plan.

The most frequent percentage protected is 100% so let's use this as our protected percentage in a demonstration as to how the Home Value Protection plan would work.

Say you protected 100% of a $90,000 home. The fee that Home HeadQuarters requires to obtain Home Value Protection is 1.5% of the protected amount, so in this case, the fee for protecting your home is $1,350. Once you have agreed to protect your home through Home Value Protection, you must live in your home for three years before you can take advantage of the protection.*

Let's say that when you decide to sell your home, the median home value has decreased 10%. If your home sold like most houses on the market at that time the projected amount that you would be able to sell your home for is $81,000, a 10% drop from the $90,000 home value. Since you purchased Home Value Protection, Home HeadQuarters will look at the market decline and the amount that you decided to protect, in this case $90,000, and would provide you the $9,000 you would have lost due to the market's condition. It is that simple. If you protected more, while you would have had to pay a larger fee, you would receive a greater amount of assistance when it came time to sell your home if the market has declined.

Please note that the Home Value Protection plan is based on the market fluctuations. If the market does increase in the time between purchasing the protection and selling your home you would not receive any assistance from the program. If the median home values in your zip code go up, theoretically, your home value should also increase; therefore, if you sell your home for a loss while the market is up Home Value Protection cannot cover that loss.

*Extenuating circumstances that would cause you to leave your home before the initial three year contract period will dealt with on a case to case basis.