I have always been against any paid warranty. Warranty companies/insurance companies are not in business to lose money. They win. Keep the money and hope for the best.
But I’ll tell yeah, I’d be very careful buying an old house nowadays. Buying an older house (20 years old) has been one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my lifetime (to date, lol). I usually buy newer, or new houses and have something I can keep for 10-15 years without having to do little to no repairs. My “new to me” 20 year old house, just in the last year alone, has cost me $24,000 for a roof, $3,400 in chimney repair, heating system is old and inefficient (needs replacement), the two central air units are on their last legs ($20,000). The downdraft cooktop just went out this weekend, $1,800 (luckily I’m handy and took it apart and fingers crossed, waiting for a part and I think I fixed it).
And there is no one to do any of this ^^^ right now. Good luck getting anyone to even return a call, never mind show up. I can’t even get someone to clean a gutter and seal it properly. You will become a property management specialist in no time! Calling contractors and carpenters. Masons, plumbers. You’ll know more about construction than ever before! It’s wonderful (sarcasm). You’ll have strangers in your driveway every weekend, and you’ll practically beg them to stay and fix it right. And they can, and will, charge you almost whatever they want right now. I talked to a plumber the other day, he told me he is so busy that he is quoting people thousands over what he’d normally charge in hopes that they’ll turn it down. And they don’t. He’s literally making $3-4 grand per job more than he usually would because there is no one else out there doing the work. It’s crazy. A friend if mine just had a can light replaced recently, not installed, but replaced. It was $700 bucks. And it was the lowest price he could get. Hey, I’m glad tradesmen are doing well. I am. I just wish they weren’t doing THAT well off me. Lol.