Home Warranty

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
So I'm thinking about switching home warranty services. We've used American Home Shield for years (I have many posts in TI talking about them) but were thinking about using someone else.

What do the resident realtors here recommend?

I see something called Select Choice pop up on reviews and another called First American. An interesting one called Cinch came up and they supposedly have the quickest turnaround time (24 hours or less).

These warranties all cost around the same so not really worried about cheapest... just the best response and coverage.

I think we've stuck with AHS because they are one of the few that cover roof (which we've never needed).
 
You should drop the home warranty and pay out of pocket when things break. There's no point in insuring against things that you can easily afford to cover yourself.
 
The cost of the warranty, around $600/yr, is nominal vs having to schedule plumbers/electricians/appliance repair etc for maintenance stuff that I don't want to do myself.

And when you have an older home, some stuff that gets repaired is worth the cost.
 
I used First American Home Insurance.
Their service was not really that good so I cancelled them.

Last year they could not replace my garbage disposal due to inventory issues.
After 4 weeks of waiting, I bought one from Home Depot and had them install it....same day.

If you can wait for your repair, then it's worth it, but if you want to get it fixed in a couple of days...it ain't happening.
 
I've been using AHS for years too for my Eastvale and Lake Elsinore homes. I cancelled the one for Lake Elsinore because their coverage was getting worse, but did keep the one for my Eastvale home until I sold it.
 
We’ve been happy with Fidelity National. Just placed a claim this morning for the garage door opener, tech scheduled for tomorrow morning. We get good service.
 
When I want to schedule service, Yelp + a phone call usually does the trick. The warranties have a base cost of $600/yr, but they also charge a $50+ service fee whether or not the repair gets approved. Most people don't get $600 in value each year, which is how these companies make a profit.
 
I've been using AHS for years too for my Eastvale and Lake Elsinore homes. I cancelled the one for Lake Elsinore because their coverage was getting worse, but did keep the one for my Eastvale home until I sold it.

Funny, you said Lake Elsinore had no maintenance/repairs for 14 years, yet you paid for a home warranty each and every year.
 
It's like any insurance... peace of mind in case something costly happens.

Peace of mind for me is self-insuring against affordable losses in life. It makes sense to insure against catastrophic loss, but nothing else.

Young people just starting out should self-insure with an emergency fund of $10-15k. Most of the people on this board with substantial salaries and savings no longer need an emergency fund. They can pay for the occasional garbage disposal replacement out of pocket.

To me, dealing with the clueless customer service agents at warranty companies isn't conducive to peace of mind. Neither is paying $50 for a denial or partial claim. Plus you have no control over the quality or skill of the technicians they send out. Some are not very good and Yelp helps screen for that.
 
I guess it all depends on your experience. I have had mostly good interactions with AHS, had a water heater replaced, water heater serviced, AC serviced, shower leak fixed, garbage disposal replaced and a number of items which when added up... probably breaks even with the money I've spent over the years. Most of the homes we've bought have been resale so lots of mystery things come up.

I use Yelp for other stuff and that is more of a waste of time to me because you have to look at multiple reviews, then deal with them yourself and nowadays costs are not that cheap. Did a garage door spring replacement recently (as that is not covered by home warranties), and the prices varied from $300 to $800 and the response time was anywhere from same day to schedule an appointment for us to look.

With a home warranty I just make the claim, pay the $75 deductible (used to be $25 back in the day), someone comes out... if they don't fix it right, they come back out again... or the company will send a different contractor. No increase in cost or bargaining... just business.

One of the most recent things I did was have the toilet valves replaced... I can do it myself but it's not worth my time. Just pay the one fee and they will replace as many toilet valves as you need.

Last time I paid a plumber to come out for something simple like that... it cost more than the service fee from AHS.
 
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