Home warranty.....yen or nay...............

Do you own the home or are you looking to purchase?

Best to first get an independent home inspector you trust and not one affiliated with the listing agent or even your buying agent if you have one.

I have friends who bought places that on the surface looked great but they later found at great cost that highly educated dudes who previously owned them thought they could do electrical and plumbing work themselves. Not good!

Not to say that a NASA engineer wouldn't have had maintenance work done professionally, but it pays to check.

Regarding a home warranty, it's like any other insurance policy except you aren't required to hold one. If the water heater, furnace, and appliances are in good shape the cost of the warranty may be a waste. If you would be more comfortable paying a little for peace of mind and think the warranty may be needed then a home warranty can be worthwhile.

The Title company provided a year's home warranty for free when I last got a mortgage. Of course nothing's free and I didn't need to use it anyway.

If your realtor or lender is paying for it, sure I guess get it. If not, nope.

I will say, however, that one good friend saved a TON when a pipe burst in the bathroom, flooding the house and ruining brand new $7000 hardwood floors. Our electrician knew how to work with homeshield, and they got everything paid for sans the $1000 deductible of course. So, it can be worth it but be prepared to either a) do a LOT of work to get a claim paid or b) have a person in the trade that knows how to get a claim met and is willing to do the legwork...

My experience is home warranties are a feel good measure, claims are difficult to get paid, and rarely are cost effective. If the seller is buying it great, otherwise skip it.

Glad it worked out for you, but not the norm. The warranty companies will want to half **** the fix. Leaving you to make it right.

Emlyn wrote: »

Best to first get an independent home inspector you trust and not one affiliated with the listing agent or even your buying agent if you have one.

I have friends who bought places that on the surface looked great but they later found at great cost that highly educated dudes who previously owned them thought they could do electrical and plumbing work themselves. Not good!

Not to say that a NASA engineer wouldn't have had maintenance work done professionally, but it pays to check.

Regarding a home warranty, it's like any other insurance policy except you aren't required to hold one. If the water heater, furnace, and appliances are in good shape the cost of the warranty may be a waste. If you would be more comfortable paying a little for peace of mind and think the warranty may be needed then a home warranty can be worthwhile.

One thing I would mention regarding the inspection. How many people Know a home inspector they trust? In 17 years I've worked with numerous inspectors. Some excellent, some good and some horrible.

My worst inspection issues have come from when my buyer didn't listen to me and picked their own inspector. Part of my/our job as Realtors is to screen the people we recommend and choose to work with. In WA, when we do recommend an inspector we are required to give at least 3 referrals and let the buyer choose from those or hire their own.

I wish I had gotten one. Used the inspector recommended by our realtor (realtor was fantastic), I'm not sure if he was having an off day or the company sent their scrub, but he missed quite a bit and I was forced to put in 20K-25K the first year in mechanical and some structural repairs. Old houses are money pits!

Like Ken stated, Realtors should be able to recommend inspectors and warranty companies.
They should also explain the differences between a home inspection and a professional appraisal.

As a broker I have told agents never to "insist" on a seller or buyer using one inspector, but give them at least three good inspection companies to choose from. If you know of a bad inspector you can possibly advise them to look elsewhere but do not tell them not to use a poor inspector if they insist on using them.

The reason I mention this is there was (is) a really disliked home inspector here that had learned of Realtor's emailing disparaging comments about him and agents advising their seller's not to accept an offer in which the buyer was using him as an inspector. He hired an attorney and filed a complaint with the local Board of Realtors and with the state Real Estate Commission. He won in both places. Of maybe 10-15 local home inspection companies he's near the bottom in number of inspections. We have about four home inspection companies that do probably 80% of the inspections.

As for home warranty programs, there are the big ones: Service One, 2-10 HBW, Choice, Select...
Many large real estate brokerages have a preferred or in-house home warranty company that offers more coverage items, larger additional coverage limits and usually free full (no deductible) coverage to the sellers during the listing period.

I've seen the same as Ken has, regarding the warranty many times you never use it or it gets used a lot. I've seen a warranty company replace a furnace without even attempting to fix it for only the $75.00 deductible. Other times I've seen them wasting time (several trips) trying to repair a fifty year old built-in kitchen wall oven.

If your buying you can always ask the seller to pay for the home warranty.

Best Wishes.

I'm glad I watch a lot of Mike Holmes Make it Right episodes. He gives the average guy an idea of the pitfalls buying a home.

Biggest thing about 1960s houses are to look for things at near end of life

Rag romex, ungrounded wiring, aluminum wiring, etc

Cast iron drains, expected life is 75 years to 100 years max, but if the line from the road to the house is galvanized, you can bet real money it is corroded and leaking beneath the ground

Same thing on supply lines for plumbing

Aesbesthos tape on hvac lines, etc

That's where I cringe at houses from that era

I’ve never had issues with the warranty company trying to get out of paying on a claim. They have sent a plumbing company that I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing any major work. A downside is that you’re kind of stuck with whoever they send...though I have called and requested a specific company and they were able to accommodate me.

In three years at my current house I’ve had a water heater replaced, an A/C unit replaced, had a fairly significant plumbing issue repaired, and had a few minor plumbing issues repaired. I think I pay $65/mo and $75/call, which is much less than I would have paid without the insurance.

But based on this thread, I’m in the minority on having a home warranty.