Innovation Ambassadors: bidding safely and more successfully on a house thanks to “Buyer’s protection”
Buyer’s Protection is one of the 10 Innovation Ambassadors 2022, selected from 86 initiatives in 21 countries and 24 entities. Discover how Guido Wassink and his team responded to a key need in their market to be able to bid safely and successfully on a home.
Introduce yourself briefly:
I am Guido Wassink, Head of Sales of BNP Paribas Cardif in the Netherlands. I have been working here since the creation of the entity in the Netherlands, now more than 25 years ago. In my current role, I am responsible for the sales team and I am always looking for commercial opportunities in the market.
Tell us about your project: what is it about and how it came about?
In the Dutch housing market there are more people looking to purchase a house than available houses on the market. This means that there are many interested people making an offer on a single house. Potential buyers try to get hold of their dream home by significantly overbidding and omitting the financing conditions of their project. Often without knowing for sure whether they will be able to get the mortgage. With the new cover Buyers Protection, the customer can now bid safely and responsibly on their future home.
The ability to anticipate the feasibility and affordability in the mortgage process, offer the customer the possibility to predict in advance how much he can responsibly bid on the home. Irresponsibly bidding is prevented.
If the offer is accepted? Then the Suretyship is provided in a few days. If the customer can’t get a mortgage? Then we will refund the guaranteed amount (which is usually a 10% penalty of the purchase price of the property). Thanks to a clever use of a combination of data, we can give the customer more potential to be successful when trying to buy a house. With Buyer’s Protection, the bidding is done responsibly and with the protection of an insurance.
With this unique proposition, we are strengthening the collaboration with various important partners, and it opens doors to new partners that have been out of our reach for many years. We reach a large group of customers, and we have cross-sell opportunities with our Suretyship product.
What did you find most striking/surprising during this project?
We are the first and still single supplier offering this cover in the market, so we did not know in advance, what benefit this would have for the customer in the buying process.
On average 6 to 10 people are bidding on a house and with Buyers Protection 45% succeeds with winning the bid and buying their dream home. This really exceeded our expectations.
What advice would you give to employees who also want to innovate?
Innovation and some perseverance suit me best. Just go ahead and do it has always been my motto. Therefore, my advice would be: believe in your project and inspire others to do so as well.
