I’m always skeptical with home warranties, but I had choice home warranty pretty much replaced my whole entire furnace when it stopped working which was a $5000 repair. I got a six year deal for $1840.00 with a $60 deductible so I would say that’s a pretty good deal think

In our area, First American or Old Republic, I have not had a problem with coverages with either (unfortunately, neither is our affiliate - but they have proven themselves many times over).

None of them anymore. The $5k cap on HVAC units is a deal breaker.

None.

Here's the deal with home warranties. They pay below market rate to their contractors, so they only get below average contractors who are desperate for work. Their business model is "Never replace, only band aid". Sure you can find the handful of folks who have actually received more value than they paid in, but they will be a tiny fraction of the total client base. If you want to give a client something of value, a gift certificate to a handyman or an annual service contract for HVAC would be more useful.

I was a property manager for years, and had to deal with crappy home warranties occasionally. It was always more of a hassle, and rarely had a better outcome than just dealing with the appropriate contractor directly. Your odds of getting good service from a home warranty company are very low.

They are a scam, and if your realtor suggests one it’s because they get a kickback for selling it/ including it in the contract.

My recommendation is to counteroffer and have them give you the $650 as a credit rather than purchasing a useless home "warranty".

Personally, I don't think they're worth the paper they are printed on.

If you are going to get one, be sure to read the fine print of what they cover and what they don't. I didn't get one on my last house because the none would cover a flat roof (my house had a flat roof) or an AC over SEER 13. It also would only cover copper piping (mine had some old cast iron).

So read what they cover vs what your house has.

Waste of money.

IE: you have a Samsung fridge that breaks down and warranty will replace it for you. They won’t replace it with the same fridge, just as long as it’s a fridge. No frills!

They're all a scam and waste of money so for you it is a matter of the least scummy company. I have heard Choice Home Warranty isn't particularly horrible.

I’ve never heard positive experiences. Even more than normal, it seems they all thrive on making all attempts to not cover issues, and even if they do, cover it in the cheapest, most bare minimum way.

If I really wanted home warranty coverage, I’d take the monthly cost of one, and set up automatic bank transfer to just move that every month to a high yield savings account set aside. That’s your home warranty fund.

It’s a little bit of a dice roll that you’ll build it up before you need it, but a good home inspector should help find any issues that’s likely present in the first few years anyway.

Don't get any home warranty. Put that money into a high yeild savings account for a rainy day.

Home warranty is in the profit making business. If someone else is paying for the warranty, why not. Otherwise, they would rather send a tech out 10 times instead of replacing. The techs are subcontractors that get paid by volume and their contracts get cancelled if they approve too many replacements appliances, etc.

It is better to take to your neighbors, friends, and family for recommendations on plumbers, appliance repair, electricians, and HVAC people.

I'd rather have $650 cash. My experience with a home warranty was that they just call out a contractor who charges you a mandatory trip/diagnostic fee and then tells you the part or fix isn't covered.

Unpopular opinion. I feel Home Warranties can be useful. I've had a home warranty on current home for 10 years. there is only one year (last year) I didn't save money. I feel that is because I've already fixed/replaced everything that could be.
Replacements are tough because it is not full replacement value. Once you understand that it is generally better than paying for a full replacement out of pocket.
All that said...American Home Shield is the only one I have experience using. Overall the experience was OK. they did jack up rates over time so we move on.

My home warranty paid for itself when my water heater died. 

But then my AC went out two months ago and I'm still waiting for a replacement. AHS is evil. They've drug out this process at every step and forced me to use sketchy contractors who wired my AC incorrectly and installed the wrong parts. 

After all that, they still found a BS excuse to not cover $800 worth of stuff.

Avoid American Home Shield at all cost. 

They sound nice but they don't full cover replacements and cover pennies for replacement

They all suck. Take the cash for a new rug, a nice dinner or a piece of furniture.

Its becoming increasingly common knowledge that home warranties are scams and most people just let the free first year with their mortgage expire.

I can't think of a single good reason to waste money on a home warranty.

To offset the potential cost of something I couldn't afford to fix or replace outright and wouldn't want to live long without.

When I sold my house, the buyer’s agent insisted on a warranty. It was like $75 dollars so I agreed.

Its a stupid ask, but if it helped them feel better about the purchase…

Because physically lighting money on fire is a hazard, and it's easier to simply give it to a company that is going to do absolutely nothing for me or my home.

I'm the one who uses and benefits from a home warranty company!

After closing, my realtor recommended that I buy a home warranty for my 30 year old home. She didn't know this, but my heat pump was bad.

The home warranty company kept it running by putting band aids on it. That works for me. I'm getting it replaced through an electric company grant and that takes a while.

I hate home warranty companies. I am forced to use them for a couple of my rentals. They are only good for kitchen appliances and washer/dryer. Dont count on them for literally anything else.

Edit to add, I'm not OP, but had a similar experience.

What actually got me action is when I asked the rep what address do they prefer summons to be sent.

When she asked what I meant I had to explain that since I had been waiting five days for their tech to show up to look my dead AC, in Florida, in JULY!!! that I wanted to know where to send the wrongful death suit to after they killed my elderly parents.

Oddly enough the tech showed up later that day.

I also did the math, I paid about $2500 to the warranty company in the seven years I had them. They had a $2500 cap on HVAC. So I paid the same in fees that I got in benefit then had to deal with their BS.

I now put a bit more per month is a specific account that I call my "home warranty" account. Next time I'll just fix it with the money I saved.

I think it depends on the home.

HVAC is a big point of contention with home warranties. If you're banking on an old system to quit on you so you get a new one for the $75 service call, it isn't worth it. They'll patch it together with duct tape to avoid replacement and when they do deem it unsaveable you'll get a portion of replacement cost, leaving you to foot a good portion of the bill. That may take many years, renewing the warranty every year. Put your $500/year into savings toward a new unit.

If you're purchasing a home that has lots of old appliances not under warranty it may be worth it. I sold a foreclosure in May that had lots of deferred maintenance and so far the buyers have a new range, new microwave, new water heater.

My house (~1910) came with a three year policy when we purchased the house. They fixed or replaced the water heater, the dishwasher, and something else (that I can’t remember). Each fix cost us $35.

Not in my experience. You will get the run around and forget it if there is an emergency like your HVAC breaking down in the middle of a heat wave. By the time they send one fo their bottom of the barrel contractors you will be dead in your home from heat exhaustion.

Our home sold with a warranty paid by the seller, but even if we use it for our HVAC we have the $2500 cap. We’re still probably pulling out $10k+ to replace our unit so it doesn’t really matter to me. My realtor was suggesting if we wanted to buy our own warranty that we go with Old Republic because they typically pay out really well for HVAC.

Waste of money. That's about $1200 per year, you could replace a single appliance with just a couple years of premiums. It's not uncommon for these things to last just fine for 15-20+ years.

Worse scam than extended car warranties

it didnt do much for us. they reminded us to get some things inspected but didnt pay for that.

I wouldn't recommend them.

Some thoughts:

1.) In general, companies sell warranties to make money. If they weren't making money selling them, they would either raise their prices until they were or they'd stop selling them altogether. This is all to say that, on average, you and everyone else who buys them will often end up spending more money on the warranty itself than what it will end up paying out.

For example: Getting a prorated payout for an old appliance that breaks down isn't very helpful when your warranty payments would have already covered that expense several times over.

2.) It's common to have to fight warranty companies in order for them to fix issues. You can expect that they will try anything and everything to weasel their way out of covering any potential fixes. So if you do opt to go with a warranty, make sure you read and understand all the fine print, because it's likely you'll need to argue against it should you have any issues.

3.) With regards to repairs: Older appliances often aren't worth repairing, as you may only get a few extra months/years of usable service life from any given repair. While newer appliances that are worth repairing often don't need repairs in the first place.

On other words, it's great that a home warranty will repair your old appliances if they should have any issues, but you have to ask yourself if that repair really had any value if it only buys you a few months of additional time before it breaks again.

Almost all home warranty companies are scams. I would do some intensive research then realize your best bet is to take that $60/mo and just drop it in a savings account until needed. No air conditioning for 2.5 months in the middle of the summer in South Carolina before First American FINALLY owned up and replaced it. It took at least 6hrs of phone calls and threatening an attorney. Even the contractors hate the home warranty companies.... Multiple times they complained about the warranty company.

Good luck though!

I never have a problem with AHS they’re super pleasant and easy to make claims. it’s the contractors that take the calls for them! they suck they find reasons why they don’t have to do any work or claim there’s nothing wrong!

We had American Shield years ago. Biggest legal scam ever. Save the premium money and use it for repairs if needed.

I have used AHS and switched or tried Home Membership over a year ago. I hae been very happy wit them. They pay what they say they will in coverage,.

https://www.homewarrantyinc.com/

I use this company and have been pleased.

On the reddit app, up at the top - you can do a subreddit specific search. Search this one for "home warranty" and you'll get an eyefull.

In general 9 out of 10 customers find they send the lowest quality techs, drag out repairs, lowball on replacement value, and generally hate them. For example, if you live in Texas and the AC dies in August, they'll spend a week fixing it when a normal AC service would have it done in a day. Put me in that camp.

1 out of 10 appear to derive value and there's always a story of "10 days after close my AC failed, but XXX home warranty service wrote me a $4500 check to replace it!".

It's a gamble but the majority consensus on this sub has been to save the $750-ish annual premium and fix things with professionals yourself.

This is a really common post - and the consensus seems to be that for most people they are at best a placebo to make them feel more secure about their home purchase - you're better off taking the money you'd of spent on one, and saving it against the day you'll actually need to hire a professional, as many times the warranty service will jerk you around.

This will depend entirely on which vendors they send out to your house. You will get many people telling you it’s a waste of money. AHS has not been a waste of money for me. I’m glad I took a chance.

All are a scam. They will give you a run around when its their time to pay.

My $0.02 - the only time home warranty makes sense is when you purchase a new house and the seller pays for the warranty for the first year. Outside of that, home warranty companies are horrible in my experience. I have used AHS and FAHW in the past.