What is a contingency agreement?
Well, I'm gonna be answering that question in this video.
So whether you are a roofing salesperson, or whether you might
be a homeowner or property owner who stumbled upon this video, I'm
gonna help demystify the wonders of what this contingency agreement is.
Point out some of the fallacies behind the, the idea behind
them, and to help you understand.
Why it is actually in your best interest to both use them and to use
them with the contractor of choice.
Before we go any further, I just wanna introduce myself quick.
Uh, my name is Adam Benjamin, the roof strategist, and my mission
is to help roofing sales reps like you smash your income goal.
But this is the important part, and give every customer in amazing experience.
So this video, again, I, I recognize being YouTube that homeowners
may stumble upon this video.
And if you are a homeowner that is watching this, I just want you
to know that everything I teach is designed about, around creating
an amazing experience in the home.
My personal mission is to bring joy back to the process of working with a
contractor, cuz it's known that roofers in general have a horrible reputation.
There's deception used, there's scams that are all over the
internet and all over the news.
And what I wish to do is to create a platform for homeowners and contractors
to connect, to do business with good people and bring some happiness
through, quite frankly, usually not a happy time to replace your roof.
So I hope this video helps.
And for the, the sales folks who are tuning in this video is for you to
understand what this contingency is.
How do I communicate it to homeowners?
And maybe you even wanna share this video with them to help them
really understand what's inside.
All right, now let's get to it.
Now a contingency agreement is truly an authorization to work together.
And many people wonder, is it binding?
Is it legally enforceable?
How do I cancel it?
So I'm gonna address kind of all that and more.
And then at the end of this video, I'm gonna link to you,
uh, to a whole bunch more videos.
I've done covering those in more depth.
So let's first cover just the core concept of what a contingency
agreement is, because some roofing companies, quite frankly, use them.
The wrong way.
They make it all about them.
Like, I need this, you need to sign this.
And then it becomes very pushy.
It's very aggressive.
Many homeowners get buyers' remorse where they like autograph something and
they'd be like, oh no, what did I sign?
Do I have to buy a roof?
What if we don't need a roof?
Do I need to give them money?
And they, and they panic and rightly so.
So it's very important for both sides, the roofing salesperson and the
homeowner to, to again, communicate and understand what this whole thing is.
So the authorization to work together goes as follows, see a roofing company.
Working with a homeowner through a storm damage process, this often includes an
insurance company who may decide to cover the damages that have occurred to a home
due to a severe weather event like hail, wind, or hurricane, maybe even sometimes
like a tree falling on the house.
Something like that, meaning severe weather impacted the roof a.
Roofer who is a storm damage expert and has replaced storm damage roofs in the
past, is investing a tremendous amount of time, energy, and expertise to serve
the homeowner through that process.
As you can imagine, if I were to buy my roof electively, which in
our world is called a retail roof replacement, meaning my roof's, you
know, 25 years old, I need a roof.
I'm gonna jump, jump on Google search and call the company up and get an estimate.
When we do that, that roofing company shows up and they're like, well,
here's my estimate, and they rock and roll and get the project done.
But when serving a homeowner who has experienced some significant damage,
there is a lot more work and steps that a storm damage expert provides to
a homeowner that we do not bill for.
But as a business, the operational side, there's a tremendous amount of
work and most importantly, value that is provided to the property owner,
which includes a few of the following.
Number one, it often includes meeting with the insurance adjuster on site.
So there's a whole separate visit to the home and the.
Representative of the roofing company is there to meet with the insurance
adjuster, to act as another set of eyes and to act as an assistant
to help identify everything.
Sometimes these insurance adjusters, they are not contractors, so there
may be some discrepancies regarding the repair process where they say,
Hey, we can, we are gonna do this repair, or is this damage, is it not?
Do you need to access this?
And these questions require a contractor who's familiar with the process.
To help through the adjuster appointment.
So that's service number one.
Okay.
Service number two that the roofing company provides to the homeowner is
helping throughout the entire process.
Now, let me explain a little bit further.
When the insurance company is out in the very beginning, they can sometimes omit.
Leave out or not include items of the repair process that need to be in there.
And oftentimes this is not ill will, it's not an insurance
company trying to work an angle.
And I know that if that stuff comes up, that's a legal affair.
That's beyond my scope of expertise.
Okay.
But it, it often comes up and in fact, when I was a contractor,
And about 98%, which I know sounds crazy, but it's, it was true.
About 98% of the projects we worked on with the insurance company came
back and said, this is what they call our scope of repairs, meaning
line items of what needs to get done.
We came back with more because we understood the whole process.
We understood the.
Code items, the the updated code items that were there.
In very similar, if you were to replace a vehicle transmission,
I'm not a mechanic, and I just said, replace transmission 4,000.
The mechanic might be like, what?
But I need to, I need to pull the whole undercarriage out.
I need to detach the engine from the transmission, which is gonna
require a transmission fluid flush.
And then I gotta pull the transmission out, do the service, put it back together.
So in order to get to the transmission, we have all these other points.
And the same applies with a roof.
So someone might come up there and be like, well, we're gonna do this.
But they didn't realize the whole scope of what needs to happen to get to that item.
So as a storm damage expert, we serve homeowners through that process
to say, okay, listen, you may have received X amount or X scope of loss
from the insurance company, but we understand the scope of repairs and
we need to submit documentation.
To the insurance carrier regarding the scope of the repairs.
Okay?
That insurers, that you don't have any surprise expenses because a normal
roofing company is gonna be like, all right, here's your estimate,
and, and you're gonna be like, well, this estimate's here and this what.
Which by the way, if you are someone who's searching for more estimates and you think
that you need to get three, surprisingly, you actually don't, and, and hang with
me, I'll explain that in this video.
Uh, what to do if your insurance company tells you to get three
estimates, and that's for both homeowners and for contractors.
Okay.
Alright.
Now, as we go through that process, again, that is a tremendous value that
is provided to the homeowner because otherwise, and this happened to me, I
had a gentleman call me out for his roof.
I, I gave him an, an estimate cause I didn't know it was,
uh, storm damage process.
I start doing the roof.
There were surprises beneath it that no one saw, including the insurance company.
At this point.
I didn't know that it was insurance damage.
I thought it was just a guy that needed a roof, and the
roof price literally doubled.
We found that one layer, not two layer, three layers of roof.
We had to tear it all off the entire roof, needed to get red deck with
new plywood, and I had to call and be like, it's gonna be an extra $8,000.
And this was way back when, when the price of roofing was like half what it is today.
And the guy says to me, he goes, Adam, wait, this is, this is, uh, I'm
going through a storm damage process.
Does that change anything?
And I said, well, yes it does.
So we ended up doing, is I, I came out and I said, let's just authorize
this contingency agreement that allows me to communicate with the
insurance company regarding the scope of the, of the repair process.
I submitted all the photographic evidence.
Uh, of what needed to get done.
And the homeowner ended up only coming out pocket his deductible, which I
think was like a thousand or 1500 bucks.
So I saved him nearly $8,000, 7,000 in change because of
providing this additional service, which again, I didn't bill for.
And if we just look at this like objectively, I could have just
been like, well, tough luck.
Like I'm gonna get paid no matter what.
It's in the contract that he signed.
But a storm damage company who's an expert understands the value,
and we're here to serve homeowners through these turbulent times and make
sure there's no financial surprises.
Okay, so that's, that's value number three, excuse me.
Number two, to the homeowner.
Now, value number three to the homeowners.
What what's called, what I call our price lock guarantee.
Now, that's my language that I use, and I know folks who are using our system.
Often use that language as well.
What does that mean?
That means that your obligation is your deductible.
No more, no less without.
And there is some fine print.
I just wanna be clear.
The fine print includes if there are code items that your
insurance company does not cover.
Sometimes that might be, Hey, in order to get this to code, we need, uh, an ice
and water shield, which is like a, a leak barrier, uh, placed here, here and there.
And if there's no code endorsement of policy, we have to follow building code.
So that could be a rare exception.
So do, do communicate that with you, uh, in your working relationship.
It, it does not include elective upgrades.
So if you decide that you wanna go with a nicer shingle or a premium
color, or a premium shingle or an impact resistant shingle, those
are, those are outside there.
And then the other item that is the disclaimer is any rotted decking.
And again, there are some situations where an insurance company could cover that, but
sometimes it is not covered and we just wanna be sure that it's crystal clear.
And the billing rates for those are, are usually detailed on the agreement.
All right.
Now that price lock guarantee just ensures that it's our job to document everything
so there's no financial surprises.
And those are mitigated.
Those, those three disclaimers, again, elective upgrades, if you don't wanna
do those, that's out the window.
If you have code coverage, that's out the window.
And the third one is right, a decking.
And generally a, a prior roof inspection or a quick peek in the
attic, we're gonna get a really clear pulse on what that might look like.
So it's actually quite safe and secure to use the contingency
agreement in this fashion.
And then in terms of the big question of like, Well, what happens
if our roof doesn't get approved?
Do we still owe you?
The answer is no.
Hence the name.
Contingency agreement means that if the insurance company comes out and
determines that they're not going to cover any damage or repairs, then
that agreement's dust in the wind.
You don't owe the contractor anything, so the homeowner does not owe the contractor
anything at all to get the roof.
Done.
You're not like required to buy a roof.
So there's truly everything to gain and literally nothing to lose.
And at the end of the agreement is the important part that everyone
needs to be on the same page.
That should you sign this contingency agreement and your storm damage expert
serves you throughout the process.
They do not bill for the time, energy, and expertise to meet with
the adjuster, document any additional items that might have been missed
to again, avoid that falling on you.
The only way that the contractor gets compensated is by actually
being the contractor of choice.
To do the work, whether that's repairs or replacements.
So the contingency agreement is an authorization that says, Hey, I like you.
Let's work together.
I'm gonna autograph this and authorize this working relationship to let you, Mr.
Contractor, meet with my insurance adjuster, navigate this process.
Help if there's any items that might have been missed to avoid
financial surprises landing on me.
And we're, I'm not going to, the contractor will not bill a
homeowner at all for any of this.
And then the only way that we get compensated is by actually
doing the work at the end.
So it's like a good faith and added value and added service because what
many people realize is that, uh, don't realize is that like a traditional
roof replacement and a storm damage claim are completely different animals,
very, very different animals and much more on that in, in later sections.
So in summary, the contingency agreement says three things.
One, it allows the contractor to discuss the details of repair with
the insurance company on your behalf.
Cuz I can, you can only imagine that your information's protected, right?
It's private.
Number two, it states that your contribution is your price lock guarantee.
There are no uh, surprises.
You're not locked in anything and it is completely contingent upon approval.
So when I say locked in, I mean you will be using a contractor.
If they get everything set up the way it needs to be for you to get
the roof replacement, but you're not required to go buy a roof if they don't
need to, and there's no surprises.
Your contributions, your deductible, no more or less with the exception
of those code items, elective upgrades or routed decking.
And the third thing states that they'll become the contractor
of choice to actually do the work should it get approved.
So again, there's everything to gain and nothing to lose.
And as a homeowner, my best advice is make sure you're comfortable with the
contractor and knowing that this actually.
Provides a a very valuable working relationship for you as opposed to
something that you're locked into.
So there you have it.
That's what the contingency agreement is.
And once that roof gets approved and you begin through the process of getting
the replacement done, all the financial transactions, everything will be detailed
onto what will become then a contract.
So you have documentation of all that work, all the financial
transactions and all that jazz.
So I hope this helps you understand the big question,
what is a contingency agreement?
Now, if you want more on this topic and if you're in roofing sales, click
this playlist right up here and in that playlist on using the contingency
agreement as a closing tool, you're gonna learn how to position it
and communicate it appropriately.
You're gonna learn should you use it, yes or no.
Cuz a lot of people still do this handshake deal and I'm just not about it.
I'm not willing to do put in that much time, energy, and expertise
to serve a homeowner if they're not willing to work with me.
Because they often get canceled or we get taken advantage of, and questions
like, are they even enforceable?
And again, jump in that playlist, you'll, you'll get answers to all those questions.
So thanks for joining me.
Whether you're a homeowner or welcome, I appreciate you being here, salesperson.
I hope this video helped you understand what this contingency is so you
can not feel afraid any longer or, or nervous about bringing it up.
And if you are in roofing sales and you wanna learn.
How to present the contingency agreement in a way that that homeowner
actually truly wants to sign it.
And, and if you wanna start closing deals confidently in the house without
sounding or feeling sleazy, salesy, or pushy, then invite you to learn more
about my roofing sales training system.
And there's a link in the description, uh, or you can text
the word demo, d e m o to 3 0 3.
2 2 2 71 33.
That's 3 0 3 2 2 2 71 33.
Hey, thanks for joining me on this video and just cuz our
time here is about to wrap up.
Doesn't mean your and my time has to.
So if you are new and haven't yet done it, jump into my free
training center right here.
And if you wanna learn more about the contingency agreement, jump
right into this playlist and I'll see you on the next one.