How one builder replaced costly one-year walkthroughs with a smarter warranty strategy

For many builders, the one-year walkthrough is a standard part of the homeowner experience. It’s a chance to address issues, reinforce customer satisfaction, and protect the brand.

But for one large builder closing more than 2,500 homes per year, that standard practice had become a growing problem.

The walkthroughs were time-consuming, expensive, and largely focused on minor cosmetic fixes. The practice pulled teams away from new construction and required significant operational investments to maintain.

The builder started to question how to improve the walkthrough. The answer indicated that maybe the walkthrough wasn’t the right approach at all.

The Challenge

At first glance, the one-year walkthrough seemed like a necessary part of delivering a strong customer experience. But a closer look at the data told a different story.

Each walkthrough cost the builder approximately $1,400 in labor, coordination, and subcontractor time (adjusted for inflation). At 2,500 closings per year, that added up to roughly $3.5 million annually.

The price tag of the practice was high. But compounding the issue was that most of that effort and cost was going toward minor issues that did not pose a high risk for costly future claims.

The typical walkthrough surfaced mostly minor cosmetic items such as paint touch-ups, drywall nail pops, and the occasional floor squeak or door adjustment. These were important for homeowner satisfaction but weren’t critical defects. In most cases, they were addressed more for brand protection than construction necessity.

Those minor issues created major complexity for the builder to manage. The average walkthrough generated a list of more than a dozen items, requiring coordination across at least three trades, along with scheduling follow-ups and confirming completion with the homeowner.

Despite the time and cost involved, the value to the homeowner was limited. Fixing cosmetic issues did little to preserve the home’s long-term value or prevent more significant issues from hitting their wallets.

The builder wasn’t just dealing with a cost issue. The company was investing heavily in a process that wasn’t delivering a meaningful return on investment—for the builder or the homeowner.

The Solution

The builder turned to PWSC—not just as a warranty provider, but as a consultative partner—to take a closer look at the problem.

Rethinking the Objective

Instead of asking how to make walkthroughs more efficient, PWSC helped the builder step back and consider a different question:

What are we trying to accomplish for the homeowner? Is this the best way to do it?

The answer shifted the conversation. Rather than defaulting to a long-standing process, the builder began assessing what homeowners really valued. While cosmetic fixes had some appeal, many buyers were more concerned about the unexpected costs of homeownership. Concerns about covering system and appliance failures emerged as a top homeowner need in an environment where home affordability was top of mind.

A New Approach at Closing

With this homeowner concern identified, the builder worked with PWSC to create a simple but powerful new service offering.

At closing, the builder introduced a choice framed as a gift option:

• Proceed with the traditional one-year walkthrough to address cosmetic items, or
• Receive an additional year of HomePRO systems and appliance coverage, extending protection to two full years.

The new program wasn’t positioned as a tradeoff, but a flexible alternative to better meet the needs of each buyer. Homeowners could choose what best served them.

Aligning Value with Homeowner Priorities

While a walkthrough was helpful for addressing many surface-level concerns, HomePRO offered meaningful financial protection. With coverage limits up to $7,500 annually, the warranty provided reassurance against issues like HVAC failures, plumbing problems, and appliance breakdowns—expenses far more significant than cosmetic repairs.

Just as important, the coverage was backed by PWSC, the builder’s structural warranty partner. Homeowners were familiar with the quality of PWSC’s protections and saw the value of additional coverage from a company they already trusted.

The result was a solution that aligned more closely with what homeowners valued while also addressing the builder’s operational and financial challenges.

The Results

What made this approach effective wasn’t just the cost savings, but the shift in how value was delivered. By giving homeowners a choice, the builder reduced reliance on a labor-intensive process while offering something many buyers valued more. The company did not eliminate the walkthrough. It simply gave homeowners the option to choose something that might be better for them.

Reduced Warranty Costs

About 60% of homeowners chose HomePRO. The savings for the builder added up quickly.

• Generated $950 in savings per HomePRO selection, adding up to more than $1.4 million in reduced builder costs annually.
• Decreased reliance on labor-intensive service work, allowing the builder to reallocate staff and trades toward new construction.

Operational Time Savings

Beyond cost, the builder reduced the operational burden tied to walkthroughs and follow-up repairs by shifting the majority of homes away from the traditional process.

• Avoided coordinating approximately 4,500 trade visits annually.
• Eliminated roughly 19,500 individual repair items per year tied to minor cosmetic fixes.
• Reduced the scheduling, dispatching, and verification workload across a significant portion of the portfolio.

Stronger Homeowner Value

For many homeowners, the systems and appliance coverage offered more value than the cosmetic-focused walkthrough and associated repairs.

• Delivered nearly 7x the potential value compared to a traditional one-year punch list.
• Provided double the protection period against the major expenses of system and appliance failures—at a time when homeowners are increasingly focused on managing unexpected costs.
• Supported by builder-provided education that made minor cosmetic fixes manageable as DIY projects, reducing the perceived tradeoff between the two options.

A Smarter Alternative to the One-Year Walkthrough

For the builder, the biggest breakthrough wasn’t improving the walkthrough. It was recognizing that the “we’ve always done it this way” approach wasn’t working. By rethinking the purpose behind the process, the company was able to reduce costs, simplify operations, and offer homeowners a more relevant form of value.

The scenario is one facing many builders and serves as a powerful reminder. Sometimes the most effective changes don’t come from refining what is already in place but from asking whether it still makes sense to do at all.

Reimagining Warranty Strategy with PWSC

This wasn’t just a service swap. Better results came from asking better questions.

PWSC worked with the builder to evaluate the data, challenge long-standing assumptions, and rethink what the one-year walkthrough was meant to accomplish. That collaboration opened the door to a solution better aligned with both operational priorities and homeowner needs.

PWSC helps builders leverage warranty programs to reduce inefficiencies, rethink legacy processes, and provide solutions that make sense for how they build and serve homeowners today. In this case, that meant turning a costly, time-consuming process into a flexible option—and giving homeowners a choice that ultimately worked better for everyone involved.