Home warranty service - worth it? (for sale, real estate, water heater)

[roseball123]

Sorry for hijacking the thread but I would like to know some good warranty companies that you would recommend.

[HockDad]

Here is my suggestion on a 1999 home. I would take the service for the first year. After the first year, I would partially cancel, but I would continue to insure your AC units and a stand alone ice maker. Those are the only two items in my house where it is justified to have insurance. Your AC units are probably 15 years old and due for replacement. Moreover, stand alone ice makers break all of the time and a new one costs well over 1k. The rest of my appliances will last forever, or they are fairly inexpensive to replace.

[orangecat1]

Originally Posted by HockDad

Here is my suggestion on a 1999 home. I would take the service for the first year. After the first year, I would partially cancel, but I would continue to insure your AC units and a stand alone ice maker. Those are the only two items in my house where it is justified to have insurance. Your AC units are probably 15 years old and due for replacement. Moreover, stand alone ice makers break all of the time and a new one costs well over 1k. The rest of my appliances will last forever, or they are fairly inexpensive to replace.

interesting idea, but has anybody in the history of the world ever gotten an old A/C unit like that replaced by the warranty company?

I just don't see them doing it.

[globe9]

Originally Posted by orangecat1

interesting idea, but has anybody in the history of the world ever gotten an old A/C unit like that replaced by the warranty company?

I just don't see them doing it.

You're right. When we had our home warranty, our A/C went out 4 times during the summer. They basically just kept sending sketchy techs who just kept refilling with freon. It was obvious we had a leak. The techs would not say we needed a replacement. One even told me we did need one off the record but that he wasnt telling the warranty company that. So we paid $75 or something like that a pop everytime a seriously sketch tech came out to put a bandaid on the problem. That's 4 days off of work to wait for the guy, several days without A/c to wait for them to come out etc. Just not worth it in the end IMO. My time is more valuable than that and i want it fixed correctly. We had Old Republic BTW. One of the better warranty companies.

Much better to save the $700-$800 dollars every year plus save a little more every month for repairs. Most repairs BTW are not that expensive. Most appliances are not that expensive either.

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by orangecat1

interesting idea, but has anybody in the history of the world ever gotten an old A/C unit like that replaced by the warranty company?

I just don't see them doing it.

Yes. My family has received new AC units. You are correct- they generally will try to fix it a couple of times first, even when it is past the point of fixing, but eventually the warranty company will replace the unit- at least American Home Shield will replace the units.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by HockDad

Yes. My family has received new AC units. You are correct- they generally will try to fix it a couple of times first, even when it is past the point of fixing, but eventually the warranty company will replace the unit- at least American Home Shield will replace the units.

Yup, they will.

I've had a home warranty with American Home Shield since I bought this house in '09 and it has paid for itself every year. I can't speak about other companies, or whether a warranty would be worth it for a newer house...but for my house with its 50+ year old plumbing and wiring and some appliances that aren't new (like my 40 year-old oven and 15+ year-old compressor) it has been worth it. One gas leak alone racked up over $2k to a plumber. My out-of-pocket was $60, IIRC.

[nitynity]

Thanks for all responses guys. The house has lot of repair issues which the seller agreed to fix. The inspection guy recommended replacing water heater etc. since brown water was coming out of it, but seller said he will fix it instead. So sooner or later I will end up replacing these stuffs. I would rather do it early and get it done right than spending money on these guys for patch work the first year and then replace it the next year. I doubt they will repalce it with the existing conditions on it.

[billydoc]

Originally Posted by roseball123

Sorry for hijacking the thread but I would like to know some good warranty companies that you would recommend.

I'd like to add to the "hijacking" of this thread a little bit since we are still on the subject. I have Nations insurance service, a policy which was part of our closing deal paid for by the sellers. It seems to have worked for them better than for us. They have replaced on of the water heaters as a part of our negotiated costs. However, about 3 months ago we had a leak in the wall. Thank God it turned out to be a pipe for outside faucet in the backyard. I called my insurance company, told them about what I saw at the time (water leaking through the bricks of the wall from outside). They read me a whole lecture of what is not covered. It seems they went out of their way "to make me understand" waht is NOT COVERED. Also it happened on Wednesday, and the earliest appointment i could get from participating contractor I could get on following Friday. I just got some quotes from recommended folks and hired a guy. The whole thing turned out to be under $250 for both parts and labor. It just was not worth it to tempt the fate and wait for another 48 hours with the leak in the wall, and shutting of water to the entire house till we could get someone over here via insurance. But I still would like to know if there are some other reasonable priced home warranty companies out there?

TIA.

[orangecat1]

I bought a multi-year contract with choice last summer. My home is covered through March 2017. So far, I have used it once. The plumbing company was a total pain in the a##, but they did replace our defective disposal.

I'm gonna try it again. A appliance company is coming this week to work on our dishwasher, our 10 year old dishwasher. The thing just doesn't work. This should be interesting.

I will let you know what happens.

[jhilde101]

I have had 2 different home warranty policies for my 2 homes. 1st home they replaced the entire outside AC unit with a Goodman brand. Did not need to replace the inside air return.
2nd house they have replaced the water heater, but I had to pay for the update for the city code work. They also fixed our AC unit, did not replace it but gave it new guts so it is like new.
We pay about $60/month for the warranty. I look at it as a type of insurance policy, just like for our cars. We never use our car insurance, but it is nice if and when we ever have to.