Home warranty

[webstertroy]

So who has bought a house and gotten home warranty? Just a scam or is it worth it?

[Rotney]

I got American Home Shield. Never a problem and have had it 20 yrs on this house.


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[Grits]

If you live in the country there will be a problem for the warranty company finding a service rep to come out and do the work. Had that problem with American Home Shield and now with Total Protect. They always tell me that since I am out in the country they can't find a technician. When I know of a local company and I call them, the local company will tell me that they do not work with either of the warranty companies due to having a hard time getting paid and the warranty company refuses to replace any appliance that can have a part replaced even if it is recommended by the technician to replace the appliance or if the appliance is 20 years old or the part will just break or wear out in 6 months or less.

[dustoffer]

If you live in the country there will be a problem for the warranty company finding a service rep to come out and do the work. Had that problem with American Home Shield and now with Total Protect. They always tell me that since I am out in the country they can't find a technician. When I know of a local company and I call them, the local company will tell me that they do not work with either of the warranty companies due to having a hard time getting paid and the warranty company refuses to replace any appliance that can have a part replaced even if it is recommended by the technician to replace the appliance or if the appliance is 20 years old or the part will just break or wear out in 6 months or less.

Buy it for the first year or two, then bank the amount it costs to self-insure for any future failures. IMO, it is just like an extended warranty on a car/truck, just "ADP" or additional dealer profit.

[Boyd1212]

I have AMS on my house. It's paid for a whole new AC unit, water heater, leaking pipes, and several other little stuff. Has paid for its self with just the AC unit.

[bowhntrmatt]

As a residential hvac technician (that doesn't work with home warranties), I could write a very long book of horror stories I've heard from my customers about the poor service they received from either the warranty companies or their vendors.

If you are the kind of person that is ok having shoddy repair work done my the cheapest available contractor in a given trade, and have the time to wait for them to get to you, in the name of possibly saving a few bucks, then home warranties might be ok.

[Burnadell]

Yes. Many times the seller provides the home warranty. It was provided on a house we bought in Dallas once. The summer we moved in was one of the hottest on record, and our air conditioning went out...covered!

You can make it a condition of the sale, and I would definitely. Require the sellers to provide a Home Warranty with the sale.

[txoutdoorsman24]

As a residential hvac technician (that doesn't work with home warranties), I could write a very long book of horror stories I've heard from my customers about the poor service they received from either the warranty companies or their vendors.

If you are the kind of person that is ok having shoddy repair work done my the cheapest available contractor in a given trade, and have the time to wait for them to get to you, in the name of possibly saving a few bucks, then home warranties might be ok.

X1trillion. You beat me to it. Waste of money and a headache to deal with

[Burnadell]

Let me repeat. If you are buying a house, make it a condition of the sale that the seller provides a home warranty at their cost!

[RiverRat1]

Let me repeat. If you are buying a house, make it a condition of the sale that the seller provides a home warranty at their cost!

This is what I did and would do again.

[12RingKing]

Buy it for the first year or two, then bank the amount it costs to self-insure for any future failures. IMO, it is just like an extended warranty on a car/truck, just "ADP" or additional dealer profit.

This.

I got mine for the first 2 years paid by previous owner.

Water heater had an issue, so I called them. I knew what was wrong, just thought they're give me a whole new one. Instead they repaired it and charged me 40 bucks.

I didn't purchase it on expiration

[Bassdeer]

Let me repeat. If you are buying a house, make it a condition of the sale that the seller provides a home warranty at their cost!

This is ok, But. Be prepared for them to say no on stuff. had my AC go out and they would not cover it. Home Choice Warranty they suck.

[SKLOSS]

Scam!! Horrible customer service. They pick the service provider. You abide by their schedule. Most of the time you pay for repair service up front and they reimburse you after you've provided a receipt. We dealt with AMS when our water heater went out. It was the biggest fluster cuck I've ever seen. I've never had the pleasure of cussing so many ship dits in one day. They wanted us to wait 5-7 days so they could ship a heater from their warehouse in Mississippi to their "approved" installer or I could pick my own installer, mail them the invoice, let them review it to determine if the charges were legitimate, and wait 8-10 weeks for my reimbursement check! Uh no!! It was a nightmare. Ended up getting our heater replaced that day and didn't spend a dime. And as bad as it is for homeowners, it's 10x worse for the service guys.


Oh look a squirrel!!

[Pipeliner]

In 2015 I bought my most recent house. It was built in 2002 by Emerald homes. Home inspections noted nothing out of the ordinary on the appliances, HVAC, pool, etc. Seller gave $650 towards a Home Warranty of my choice. I settled on Landmark Home Warranty and paid additional $350 to upgrade to deluxe package and cover salt water pool. Each contractor visit is a $60 copay.

During the first year.....

Both AC went out. Warranty covered 2 new evaporative coils ($5000 estimate) plus labor

Pool Salt Cell went bad. Warranty Replaced ($800+ value)

Salt Generator Mother Board for pool died - Warranty Replaced

Existing Refrigerator stopped cooling - Warranty covered repair

Both Water heaters sprung leaks and flooded upstairs bathroom (while the damage to ceiling in bathroom was not covered, both water heaters were replaced.

I renewed my policy....and this year

My double oven control board went out. It was unrepairable. Warranty covered replacement of double oven

Dishwasher Spray arm and heating coil went out. Warranty repaired.

So, as you can see it WAS DEFINITELY worth it to me. But I did do my homework on policies and I made sure I completely understood what was covered and what was NOT covered, so I have not had any surprises. Landmark seemed to have the best online reviews. Their customer service has always gone the extra mile to make sure the work was completed to my satisfaction.

[redneck82]

I had one for a couple of years on the house we are in now. The coils in my AC unit started leaking. Total bill to replace was about $1800. My portion of that was going to be $1000 (on top of the $500 I pay a year for the policy).

I told them thanks, but no thanks and found a really good AC that did the work for $1100 and included a 5 year service plan.

I can't remember who we had the policy through......