I've had a home warranty for a few years. It saved me on plumbing and appliance repairs, but service fees add up. It’s worth it if you have older appliances or systems, but it doesn’t cover everything.

In my experience, no. Our hot water heater went out in 2018 during a cold snap. Home warranty sent out a plumber with an F rating on BBB and 1 star on Google reviews who leered at me the whole time and then said he couldn’t fix it. Was still charged $75 for a 15 minute visit. Home warranty then said it wasn’t covered because “it was an act of God” according to the creeps report. Cold weather isn’t an act of God, but whatever. Called my own plumber who installed a new hot water heater within 4 days and didn’t charge me for the initial visit.

search this sub, this topic comes up multiple times per week.

90% of comments are about how bad warranties are -- they often have hidden costs, delay and frustration in dealing with them, weasel fine print that lets them off the hook for costs, repair over replace mentality, then replacements with poor specs or inflated uncharges for the "right" equipment.

About 10% say they got lucky and got a replacement.

The gold standard advice is to put the same money into a repair fund, find reputable local service people who can learn your house and respond quickly, and have quotes for replacing major items like a water heater so you know you don't get screwed when it breaks at 10 PM on a Saturday night.

Warranties make money by bringing in more money than they pay out. So it isnt surprising that companies cut corners and rational people self-insure.

YMMV. I had my fridge, oven, AC unit and washer replaced. Had my microwave repaired. All by Fidelity Home Warranty. Worth it by about 10x the investment. Others have had bad experiences.

In general, no it isn't worth it. A few reasons --

1. they are in business to make money. Which means, they try to not pay out as much as possible. So things move extremely slow. It can take weeks to get anything done. And when it is done, they often choose the cheapest "duct tape and bubblegum" solution possible over replacement. Even if you do get them to replace, it is often with the cheapest model which may be undersized for what you need, or inefficient.

2. They tend to staff their own people who are generalists not specialists. They don't let you "choose your own repair company". So in this day and age of everywhere being short staffed, the warranty guys really have the bottom of the barrel. And the person coming to look at your a/c, was doing a disposal replacement earlier and a washing machine repair before that. He doesn't really know what he is doing, just hoping to complete the job so that your next call goes to someone else.

3. The pricing often doesn't make sense. You pay a lot each month. But many local repair professionals charge less than the monthly amount to come and look at your problem. And many warranty companies have deductibles. So you spend a lot before ever getting service. If you saved that money, most of the time, you'd end up ahead. It really is only in the case of a big replacement where you make out ahead. But see point number 1.

4. They aren't a "handyman service". If something is currently broken, they won't cover it. Jobs that are too small aren't worth the hassle of the wait + deductible.

In short, if money is tight, you shouldn't spend it on a warranty. Prioritize your list of things to do, try to DIY with YouTube and Home Depot and reddit advice.

Home warranty companies generally set up their contracts with enough general language that they can deny your claim for frivolous reasons. And worse, they're employing bottom of the barrel contractors to do the work, often unlicensed.

You can google for different companies that service your state and see what they cover. It will mostly be mechanicals and appliances (refrigerator, sump pumps, water heaters, etc). Some will cover drain line stoppages and small roof leak repair. A warranty isn't something you buy to fix things that are already broken, they won't cover preexisting conditions.

• this has been asked perhaps a 100 times so far this year in this forum, now its been asked 101 times
• the answer is always the same: NO

No. You will surely be scammed.

I had a home warranty. While they underdelivered and bullshitted me the entire way I ended up getting enough money that paid for it, so I broke even. I’d skip it unless you anticipate an issue with your appliances or HVAC.

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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.

The difference between a home warranty and a home insurance is mostly that the warranty is against internal damages (eg some appliance is broken) and a home insurance is more like if your house burnt down or a tornado or something like that. As far as I know, most people have home insurance and not a warranty

Where are u located, it depends on where your located. It is different per country or state.

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I’m not a warranty guy generally but I think home warranties have one little potential positive use case: the first year of home ownership.

That’s when things can break because the pattern of how the home is used changes. I think it’s fair to assume there’s actually a slightly greater chance of things breaking because of this.

Plus many people are depleting savings a good bit in that first year. Making the warranty relatively more valuable.

Beyond that though, they probably aren’t particularly great. Although obviously some people are winners with them if they had bad luck with things breaking.

Most of the time its a waste of money. They will actively try to fight you on paying for repairs. It usually ends up being a cheap way for sellers of a house to give buyers confidence without actually doing anything good for the buyer. Once you look at fee structures you are almost always better off saving the money and using it if you need to make some sort of repairs

Put the money you would pay monthly for the warranty into its own account for future repairs. Better use of your money this way.

Not really worth it. Getting a year or two as part of the sale is fine, but you are better off setting aside the money and repairing/replacing as needed instead of renewing. They will fight you on just about anything, and will generally only repair something instead of replacing it, so you might be in the same situation shortly after.

Just don't do it. Much better off putting that money into savings. For ever 1 person who has a good experience, there are dozens who have horror stories.

You might as well take the money you put towards a home warranty and burn it, flush it down a toilet, give it to the first person you see on the street. That's about what you will get out of a home warranty.

When people mention a house warranty, I always think of the scene from Tommy Boy when he goes on a rant about guarantees on a box..."if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will...". To me, that is what a home warranty is worth.

Figure out what kind of warrant they are buying. Read it carefully. Read reviews of that company. Expect them to fight you on everything. Ask for deductible to be kept in escrow until the warranty is up.

Good luck in your house. It will cost you more than you think so just be prepared. If you know there are things you are going to do, as in hiring a professional, try to get quotes before you close.

No home warranty is worth even a fraction of what it costs. You’ll spend more time fighting for a claim that it’s worth versus just fixing it.

Ask for cash at closing or repairs for your major concerns or make sure you offer is based on condition.

Poorly installed plumbing fixtures- think of toilet tanks with existing cracks yet not leaking- won't be covered. expect the plumbing contractors to 'always need a part' only to cut a drain pipe, put in a fitting to make it whole again and charge you for the privilege of paying it because of course they can. Read the contract carefully, it doesn't cover what you think it does.

No, they are all garbage, will fight you on every single thing.

I'm a real estate agent. 5 years ago I would have recommended the home warranty if any of the appliances or mechanicals were on the older side of life. Unfortunately the home warranty companies now spend more time rejecting claims than paying them. NONE of them are worth it anymore. Check with your state's better business bureau and you will see a ton of complaints against these companies.

I'm an agent and no, they are 99% of the time not worth it.

No. We had to get our AC fixed. The company they sent out was worthless and just tried to upsell us the entire time. They had like 1 star on Yelp and all the complaints were the same situation. I ended up getting my own repair guy who was much cheaper than a full replacement.

No. They are almost never worth it outside your first year of ownership. Even in your first year, it’s such a pain in the ass to use I wouldn’t recommend it either.

no no no no no

we have one on one of rental properties in another state. So far, we're probably negative in terms of ROI, we had a big HVAC fix that warranty covered that we would've paid 3-4k for if paying out of pocket. However, we've paid more than that in premiums since we bought the house in 2020 (~100 a month for 5 years).

Also it's a huge pain in the ass to get someone to come out, i probably could've fixed the issue in 1/2 the time if I just paid out of pocket.