When should you consider buying a warranty for your home? Who should have a warranty for their home in addition to homeowners’ insurance?
When You Are Not a Disciplined Saver
It regularly costs several hundred dollars to have an appliance repair person come to your home and fix your fridge, dishwasher, hot water heater or pool pump. It could cost thousands of dollars to replace one of these bigger items. While the cost of the home warranty is calculated to cost slightly more than what the average home owner pays out of pocket in repair bills over the long-term, the problem is that most of us don’t save up that money for when disaster strikes. Paying the premiums on the house warranty is forces you to essentially prepay the repair bill that will eventually hit you. The only questions are what will break, when it will happen and how much it will end up costing you.
When You’re About to Put the House on the Market
If you are about to try to sell your home, you need a home warranty. This is a major selling point to the home buyers, since it means they won’t have to pay much toward the cost of repairing anything that breaks right after they just bought your house. A side benefit of a home warranty is that it may reduce the cost of repairing things that break while you’re in the process of cleaning up and staging the property. The warranty won’t pay for little things like burned out light bulbs or your kids coloring on the walls, but it may save you money on HVAC equipment failures while you’re getting ready to move.
You Don’t Know How to Maintain Your Home
Home warranties typically come with a requirement that the equipment be properly maintained. For example, they may require you to have an HVAC technician come by a couple times a year to check things out. If you want the pool pump to be covered, it may have to be inspected once a year by a qualified professional. You essentially end up forced to invest time and money in maintenance for your equipment by professionals. This is a good thing for people who don’t know how to do this work themselves. Another benefit of the warranty is that it forces you to bring in the pros for repair work instead of trying to do it yourself in an effort to save money. When you don’t really know how to replace a starting capacitor in a refrigerator or change out the control board on a dishwasher, knowing that trying to do it yourself will void the warranty you’ve already paid for this quarter can save you from making such a mistake.
When You Want Peace of Mind
Home warranties typically don’t go up with the age of the home. Instead, they go up with the type of equipment you’re covering. If you want outbuildings, irrigation equipment, pool pumps or small appliances covered, you’ll have to pay for it. However, it may be worth it if you are unsure you could pay for several major repairs in a short period of time. Others may appreciate having a warranty in place to save them from a massive repair bill, allowing them to protect their nest egg.
