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Is a home warranty program worth it?

Question : Is a home warranty program worth it?
I bought the home 2 years ago, it’s now 16 years old.
The warranty I saw advertised was $ 40/month. Sounds expensive, but I think my A/C will be going out in the next year or two. But who knows…

Have you ever had a home warranty? Did you find it to be a good investment? Any other thoughts or experiences?
Thanks!
home warranty programs

Best answer:

Answer by Katlady
I’ve never heard of a home warranty. I’ve heard of homeowner’s insurance. It wouldn’t cover an AC. Where do you live?

This entry was posted by admin on August 30, 2010 at 6:14 am, and is filed under Home Warranties. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

Comments (4)
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#1 written by Jim S 1 year ago

I’ll never purchase a home warranty again! These companies are notorious for excluding items and refusing claims for what they call “user neglect”. Regardless of what they claim they will use any contractor that will work for their reduced rates. After bad experiences, I checked the BBB for information on the contractors the warranty company sent to work on my home. None of them had a good reputation. To get reimbursement for repairs to equipment installed by the warranty company I had to contact my state’s Attorney General’s office. My advice to you is to take the money you’d spend on a warranty and put it in the bank. Start building an emergency fund to pay for any needed repairs to your home’s mechanical systems. Pretend you don’t even have the money until you need it.

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#2 written by thewrangler_sw 1 year ago

If you read the fine print on most of those home warranties, there are limitations and exclusions which will leave you still footing most, if not all, of the costs of any major repairs.

You would be better off having regular home maintenance done. There are companies that offer ‘whole house’ packages, or you can have certain items taken care of by specialty providers, for example, an HVAC service provider can provide annual maintenance on your central air system. They can provide anything from changing filters, to cleaning the whole system, etc. I know there are a few franchise businesses that offer whole house maintenance packages.

Doing regular maintenance on your home can prevent many expensive problems from even cropping up, as well as keeping your home at its most efficient operation.

I will add this – a 16 year old A/C system should NOT being failing soon – this is an indicator that regular maintenance has not been kept up. With that said — Exchanging that old system for a modern one, will be much more efficient, and would save you more in the cost of operation – just remember to keep up on the maintenance.

Taking care of a home is a lot like taking care of a car — some folks don’t do anything for their cars, and just drive them into the ground within a few years. Yet, there are others who change the oil, filters, etc., on a regular basis, and take good care of them, and they can last decades. A home is a larger investment than a car, as well as being a larger item, so it has more things to maintain and take care of – but proper maintenance can help it be more energy efficient, and provide for more longevity.

Have Fun

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#3 written by Peter W 1 year ago

For the most part, homeowner warranties are a scam created to give a false sense of confidence to buyers. And the fine print on most of them greatly exceeds the actual body of the policy.

For example, when we sold our house two years ago (114 years old) we could get a “Buyer Protection Warranty” good on ‘all systems and appliances, roof, windows and plumbing for one year’ for $ 200. Until we read the exclusions:

Appliances had to be less than five (5) years old.
Heating/HVAC systems had to be less than ten (10) years old.
The roof had to be less than twenty (20) years old.
And so on and so forth.

Generally things that new are OK anyway. And therefore little or no risk to the insurance company. Funny thing about that.

In our present house, we have a protection plan from our water and sewer utility on the outside lines – we are over 50 feet from the street, the water line is cast iron and 70 years old, the sewer line is the same age. It costs us $ 300/year for both – and we _know_ we will have to do it much sooner rather than later. That plan, by the way, had a 90-day kick-in clause. But an overall home warranty on a 120 year old house that is also pretty complicated that actually covers things at a reasonable cost? I somehow don’t think so.

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#4 written by . 1 year ago

Here, it’s a waste of money because there is no person in this town or two towns over that service home warranties. Only buy one if you built a new house, and then only for three years. If your AC is old, the warranty isn’t going to replace it, they will probably tell you that you need to buy a new one.

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