Home Warranties that Work?

Question

Hi all,

Wondering if you've worked with a home warranty company that actually paid for items in need of repair.

Any suggestions would be very helpful!

Kathy

Lynn McGeein · Answer

First American Home Warranty does get repairmen out fast, they do fix it, but I know from experience that they will go way out of their way to fix rather than replace -- I'm dealing with one now where they are paying a guy to rebuild an 18-yr old double oven control panel that's not made anymore rather than just replace the appliance.  Warranties are fine if you just want to keep expenses to a set cost for a few years, which is helpful in some circumstances.  But it will just be maintaining current systems, no matter how old, as they have the right to just pay you the cost of repair or have it repaired rather than replace, which isn't that clear until you're dealing with it.

Kathy Fettke · Answer

@Kenneth Mooney That is an excellent point! An investor should probably talk to the PM first to see if they will work with that particular home warranty company. Thanks!

Jonathan Maldonado · Answer

First American Home Warranty has a horrible reputation and reviews including with the BBB, I have made a complaint personally. They just give the runaround after the first repair person fails to fix the issue.

Kenneth Mooney · Answer

@Kathy Fettke my experience is a unique one I think. I work for a property management company and every time we’ve had an owner want to use one it’s actually never benefitted them. Sure, they save some money but often times the warranty work is overflow work for the vendors actually doing the work so it’s not a priority to them. So, resident satisfaction declines due to poor response time and often times I’ve seen the poor response time cause more damage to the property from the issue.

I personally recommend people not to use them. It does put a larger importance on purchasing the property correctly and renovating it correctly but investors should be doing that anyways. That’s a big should though.

Kathy Fettke · Answer

@Kenneth Mooney its for my properties but also for our members at Real Wealth Network who buy rental properties out of state

Kenneth Mooney · Answer

Kathy, is this for a property you personally manage or is it a property management company that manages?

Joseph Firmin · Answer

Old Republic was great when I needed them for a big plumbing issue a few years back. I recently had an issue where I had a water heater break and I had American Home Shield. It was an emergency and not thinking clearly (I was traveling for work and about to go present when my wife called) I just called a plumber to go take care of it. I should have called AHS first, they wouldn't cover it or even reimburse me a portion because I didn't use their approved plumber.  I had the opposite experience with Old Republic. Good luck!

Home Warranties that Work?

Most Popular Reply