Do you use home warranty companies for your rentals?

[Stevenson Alexis]

I’m seeing home warranty companies like American Home Shield offer maintenance and repair coverage for appliances, roof leaks, etc… with prices starting at about $40 a month up to about $100 a month for the “platinum package”… Anyone have experience with these companies? Is the monthly subscription worth it or do you all deal with maintenance issues as they come up?

[Bill B.]

 Click on the magnifying glass in the upper corner, this is literally asked monthly if not more often. Home warranties are always a bad deal< but they are really bad for rentals. The home warranty’s plan is to nickel and dime you on small repairs and delay, delay, delay on bug repairs. 

As an owner occupant you can decide it’s worth it to not have ac or heat for a week or two to save money. But a landlord can’t do that to a tenant in most states so you end up paying out of pocket or putting them up in a hotel. 

Imagine it’s 100 degrees outside and the ac stops blowing. You call the warranty company. They’ll have a guy out in a couple days, it’s only $100 or whatever it is. He comes out in a couple days, says he needs to order a part, it will only be 4-5 days. The part comes in and it doesn’t fix it, he’ll order another part, just another 4-5 days. That part does fix it, for almost a week.  Don’t worry they’ll send another guy in a few days. Guess what. He’ll order another part, just 4-5 days. Just hope none of those parts are on back order. 

The ONLY warranty that I would consider is probably available in more states than Minnesota. But their power company will let you buy the warranty after your heat/ac/some appliances are broken and send the repair guy the same day. It’s something stupid like $11/mo and you can cancel it the next day after the repair is finished. 

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

No. It does not work for rentals. 

[Patricia Steiner]

Bolt.  Don't do it.  Never. Ever.  

[Carressa Walker]

I signed up with Choice Home Warranty for one of my rentals and they are about $50/month for all items coverage.  

[John Morgan]

@Stevenson Alexis

Don’t do it for rentals. When it breaks, you want it fixed asap. Especially HVAC issues

[Sam P.]

We purchased a maintenance service for $12 a month(not warranty) and cancelled because we did not get any benefit from it

[Corby Goade]

Absolutely not- these companies are a scam. If you have a claim, they'll delay over and over, waiting for their preferred vendors to check out the problem, all the while, your roof is leaking, your tenants don't have hot water, etc.

I run a property management company and we had many clients insist on using home warranty companies and we've actually had to put it in our contracts that we will not work with them. Never had a good experience and the tenant is the one who suffers, makes us all look bad. Probably attempted to work with 10 different home warranty companies and all of them have been terrible at best.

Maybe on your personal home, but not on a rental.

[Brad Larsen]

Quote from @Stevenson Alexis:

I’m seeing home warranty companies like American Home Shield offer maintenance and repair coverage for appliances, roof leaks, etc… with prices starting at about $40 a month up to about $100 a month for the “platinum package”… Anyone have experience with these companies? Is the monthly subscription worth it or do you all deal with maintenance issues as they come up?

 As a Property manager, NEVER.  You open yourself up to getting bad reviews when they do not show up in a timely manner, deny the claim, and ultimately leaving the tenant unhappy.  It will end up costing you on the back end.  

Best,

Brad