Is a Home Warranty Worth the Investment?

What is a Home Warranty?

A Home Warranty is peace of mind.  This is a policy that exists for 1 year and safeguards your budget from expensive system and appliance failures in your home.  A Home Warranty Policy will make sure repairs are handled quickly and those repairs are handled by qualified service providers.

A home warranty will cost between $350 - $650 on average and will protect you from having to shell out cash for major items failing inside your home.  With a small trade fee under $100 for most companies, you will be able to have your A/C repaired or even replaced if need be.  Home warranties like Old Republic Home Protection cover the heating system and ductwork, the air conditioner, plumbing issues, electrical systems, garage doors, central vacuums, appliances and even pools, sprinklers, wells, septic, water softeners and RO systems.

What this means for you as a home buyer:

When you're buying a home, you are completely dependent on the Seller's providing accurate and reliable disclosures as well as your home inspectors report at the time of the inspection.  You have a limited knowledge of the history of every system in your new house.  The home warranty will be there to help you while you are getting to know the ins and outs of your new home.  After a year, if you feel fairly comfortable that everything is running as intended and you plan to keep up the scheduled maintenance then you can choose not to renew your home warranty.  If for example, you bought a bank owned home with a very limited knowledge of the history and the systems and the home warranty has helped you to replace you AC unit, your water heater and came out to fix a leak at the washing machine in the laundry room, you may want to consider renewing your policy to protect you for another year.

We bought a home warranty for our first home which was a bank owned property.  Within 3 months, we had to replace the compressor in one of our A/C units and our home warranty company choose a reliable A/C repairman to perform the work.  We also had to call them when the spring in our garage door snapped in half. Again, they sent out a reliable company to perform the work quickly.  Each time we only paid $65 for the repairman to come out.  We felt confident that we had gotten to know the property over that year and chose not to renew our home warranty.   I have had clients who the warranty has saved them thousands of dollars and have continued to renew their policy year after year.

Want to learn more about how to order a home warranty or want help with your real estate needs?  Call Chelsea Elwood at (602) 748-6136 or visit us online at www.searchallazhomes.com

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