Home warranties, yay or nay?

My seller sprung for one for my house. When the breaker box failed within the first year, the covered items included "electric service panel". Great! Oh no, that's not covered if it was because of corrosion and age. Um, what?
Was it old and corroded ?
 
As a buyer, I'd not pay for a home warranty if I was comfortable with the home equipment I was getting and can self insure for those type of expenses.

Warranties were a common seller offered item in a buyers market here. It helped differentiate one property over another. The home I bought had such a warranty. We never used it.

In a sellers market like we've been in - much more uncommon. No need to include one.
 
They're aggravating for expensive items like HVAC systems because they will repair and repair and repair rather than replace. If there's a design problem with regards to the HVAC system they won't replace a part which they replaced. This is from my own experience with American Home Shield. It went like this.

May - A/C coil freezing, 5 days later diagnosed a line leak, a day later warranty repair approved, a few days later HVAC leak fixed.
Late June - A/C evap coil leaking, 10 days elapsed to diag and repair. New evap coil.
Early July - Compressor failed, 5 days to diag and NO REPAIR. Different repair company claimed previous installer did not clean lines when installing coil. A few days later the prev installer came back out and said duct design failure combined with missing TXV caused the compressor to fail rather than their install. Warranty for new compressor denied.
Early August - After having no AC for the entire month because we were fighting with the warranty company we were finally given a new compressor however we were given a new package unit (Condenser w/compressor) but it was filled with R22.


My duct system is still designed in a half@ssed manner and it would take a house fire to fix.
 
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Nah, it’s a whole bunch of grands... 😝

Mmhmm. I remember coming home from work about 5 years ago after getting some heavy snow and noticing my kitchen sat about 3'' lower on one side. Someone haphazardly jacked up the kitchen and the way it was propped up didn't quite hold up to the snow load.

I bet it made a real loud noise when it kicked out that support.
 
I bought one for my sisters home and have kept it in effect for 3 years now. It has paid off having it for me. Her water heater was bad at first since the hot water smelled like rotten eggs. They replaced it. Next was the refrigerator quit and they allowed $1200 replacement. Next thing was the compressor on the heat pump died and they replaced that and the ceiling fan with remote started falling apart and they came out and fixed that. Compressor died again on the heat pump. Then the outside water faucet wouldn't turn off and again the condenser fan quit this time on the heat pump. It has been a blessing for me to have her home covered by this warranty. They charge $75 bucks for each call but it has been well worth it to me.
 
Had one for years, they were "OK" on A/C repairs, but one Thursday afternoon in 2013, my water heater started leaking on the garage floor (stream of water running out the door), and they said they couldn't get anyone over until Monday. Unacceptable. I dumped them on the spot, went to Lowes and got another one, took it home and had a plumber over at 10AM the next day. I'm not living without hot water for 4 days.
 
On the last couple of houses I bought, I asked the seller to include a warranty as part of the purchase negotiations. For my newest home which was built in 2018 I had a problem with the Whirlpool oven which was converted to run on propane. The warranty from Whirlpool had expired so I called the home warranty company.

The issue was that the broiler function didn't work. The burner would ignite but never flame up more than about 1/4' so was useless for broiling anything. The technician they sent out told me that it was a common problem with propane conversions. Something about not having enough gas pressure. It takes about 20 minutes to pre-heat to 350 degrees but eventually the oven comes up to temperature so at least that works. He couldn't fix it.
Was he F.O.S. ? In any case the warranty was worthless.
 
We bought a 10 year old house six years ago and the seller included an extended warranty through Republic, if I recall. During that first year we used that warranty a bunch on appliances, a ceiling fan, and garage door opener. There was something like a $75 deductible and if they could repair instead of replace they would, but they replaced a microwave and a stove because the parts were not available to repair them. That said, I did not renew the policy on my own dime and although I just recently had a refrigerator repair and a dishwasher go out it was cheaper to repair the fridge and replace the dishwasher than to pay extended warranty premiums for the past 5 years.
 
It all depends on your financial situation. I don't mean to go down this road however if you don't have something like $10k then you become tied into these extended warranty situations. I think nothing of car, home, electronics, appliances because instead of spending $500 or couple thousand on the warranty I throw into the emergent bank account to self insure/warranty.

Paid warranties sometimes sense your payments if a $500 or $1000 or even $5k life problem shows up and you actually get a level of stress.
 
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If you are a home owner that wishes to sell their house fast, and your target market is "new inexperianced home owners" and the warranty is $1000 or less, it will help you sell to some extent. Know in the back of your mind the warranty is just about worthless if it ever needs to be used, but it is a selling point.

If you are a home buyer and it is not completey free skip the home warranty altogether. Even when they are good and cover things, there is an issue with urgency. If you have a hot water tank blow up in the basement, you would need it replaced by the next day. I have personally seen where the steps to get it replaced exceed time requirements and the end user just buys it anyways.

In this order:
-Hot water heater breaks, you call warranty company.

-Next day the trusted plumber that they contract with comes out and verifies the complaint and reports back to warranty company their findings.

-Usually that day or the day after the warranty company starts to authorize the replacement and orders the heater or reserves it from the approved vendor / distributor that they have negotiated the lowest price with. They dictate the replacement not the plumber or homeowner. It is usually the lowest end model you can buy.

-The vendor / distributor confirms the stock status and sends an acknowledgement back to warranty company.

-Warranty company then communicates back to their trusted plumber that the unit is ready and to put on their schedule.

-Per most contracts the plumber has 24-48 hrs to respond (sometimes longer), and because of the low pay from the warranty company, they usually back burner it.

So to get a simple hot water heater changeout can take until the next business day or upwards of a week.
 
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.
Right on doublebase. Warranties of any kind are insurance policies, and insurance companies are not in business to pay claims. They are in business to collect on expensive policies that they have designed, which means the policy holder is always going to be the chump.
 
I would never buy one again, as I believe they are a scam after having a claim denied after only 1 week of living in the new house. It was ridiculous.
 
Its a personal decision. Nothing much to say, we all know insurance companies make money based on cost of policy vs what they pay out. Just depends if you think you will get more back then you pay.
Over your life time, just like any gamble most everyone will lose but like Las Vegas there will be a winner here or there.
 
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