Which home warranty company do you use?

[diskover]

I have always had good experience with home warranties. There are good and bad companies. Make sure you do your own research before you buy the policy. Never base your decision on price point only. Here is the list of home warranty companies that serve Atlanta area. It also contains reviews:

Georgia Home Warranty Companies

[lorilove]

When I bought my home in the 1990's (and based on recommendation of my realtor) it was very common to have a home warranty for 1 year and paid for by the seller. I would recommend them in that scenario to cover the what if's that you don't find during the home inspection.

That was fine when I was young, just learning about home ownership and had not established a relationship with my own handyman, etc. I had American Home Warranty. They helped with a few minor issues. My sister needed a new dishwasher and they covered that well.

But the one major issue that I had they told me could not be fixed easily and was not covered. I eventually got a good handyman that said he could fix it and I have not had a problem for 15+ years.

Overall not a big fan except in the first year or two max

[gearscout]

We had AMS (American Home Shield) for a few years and have dropped it. We got a new, though generic lower-quality outdoor compressor for the air conditioning the first year and thought AMS was a good deal.

But the repairmen being sent were increasingly from Russia or Ukraine and could manage to fix just about anything with gaffer's tape, glue and bent paper clips. (They must have re-rigged our dishwasher half a dozen times to stop the same leaks etc.!!!) Nothing was being replaced. Each time we paid the basic $40 service call charge. Add it up.

Eventually, we bit the bullet and invested in a staged replacement of appliances, HVAC system etc. Not all in 1 year. That has resulted in the realization that the amount we were paying to AMS for the "home shield" was better spent on preventive maintenance and replacement.

Now, we own a couple condos for our children at college. We plan to keep them as investment properties. We had a moment when we thought we should return to AMS or some similar home warranty company. Instead, we have gotten bids for such a warranty service and simply put away that amount of money each year to deal with repair/replacement costs.

I must say it DOES HELP to find a handyman for your property that will come out, is competent, honest and trustworthy. Home Depot wanted us to spend $1500 to totally replace a set of windows with vinyl-clad lookalikes. The handyman replaced the single broken window with a new model that tilted in for cleaning, was wood framed and exactly matched for less than $500 including all the installation, repair and paint.

Get the handyman. Save the annual fees for big ticket items.

[yuuup]

Hey LoriLove, Warranty companies dont cover pre-existing problems FYI.

[westau]

American Home Shield was what was purchased when we bought our house last year and the one time they came was HORRIBLE service. Our AC had stopped working, so the company that came over looked at it and got it running again. The guy said he didn't really know what the problem was but basically some water filled up the drain pan and it shut off automatically so it wouldn't flood. He said he drained it and cleaned out the drain pipe as well as replaced the air filter while he was in there. The guy spilled a bunch of insulation down into our laundry room and didn't clean it up but the AC was running again so I didn't care at the time.

I went up into the attic about a month later to get something else out and the first thing I notice is our old air filter just thrown off to the side and I go to look and they didn't put a new one in, they just took the old one out and left it so unfiltered air had been running through the AC for a month. Next thing I notice is the sealant tape between the AC and the start of the ductwork was COMPLETELY ripped off on one side so there was a bunch of cold air venting into our attic being wasted. Our AC had been running all the time but I figured that was just normal for the summer with an older AC unit until I found this in the attic. I fixed it with mastic tape from Home Depot and our energy bill dropped in half the next month...

So I call American Home Shield to complain about these guys. THEY COULD NOT HAVE CARED LESS. The woman only said that the ductwork/ac unit thing sounded like a new issue(which it was 100% the guy pulling it off while looking at the unit and being too lazy to put it back on) and they wanted us to pay another $60 to send out a different company to fix it.

Then they sent us a renewal a month later that bumped it up to $500 and an even higher deductible and called every day for 2 months spamming us trying to get us to renew from 2 or 3 different phone numbers even after we said we weren't renewing because of the terrible service.

Just save the money you would spend on a home warranty for home repairs in the future and you will be much better off.

Oh and if a real estate agent pushes you to get one when buying or selling houses, just know that they got in trouble a couple years ago receiving kickbacks from home warranty companies.

[roxyrn]

We had an American Home Shield warranty that came with our house purchase. I used it once for our kitchen vent fan it was fine, but didn't seem to really make sense to renew based on limitations/expense and having found that virtually all consumer advocates were against. That said, it is nice to have for the first year of living in a home since you may not know how well the property was maintained.