Home warranty for rental property

[Vinay Ari]

Hi, I am self-managing my rental property and looking into the option of using a home warranty service. Once I get the service activated, I will share the service number with the tenant and he calls directly the service instead. Given they manage appliance, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc, most of the calls will be diverted to them instead and it will reduce my workload.

The only downside I see is that they charge 100$ per visit and if the tenant calls too many times, then that bill is going to increase, but I live in Austin, and 100$ is nominal for a house visit. What do you guys think?

[Ryan Kelly]

@Vinay Ari As a Realtor that deals with home warranty companies all year, I will tell you it is hard to recommend any of them as a good solution to your challenge. They WON'T solve all your problems, in fact, you may get more frustrated dealing with warranty companies than just calling a plumber yourself. Most home warranty companies are slow to get contractors out to the job and often find a way to not cover the cost of the repair, so you'll pay for it anyway. The best reason to have a home warranty is if you want some chance at protection just in case your HVAC system blows up in the summer and you don't want the burden of covering a full replacement. Otherwise, I'm a fan of just saving money and pay for repairs as needed. It's faster and more efficient.