Home Warranty

Home Warranties are designed to provide current home buyer’s protection against any major defects that might arise with the home, shortly after a transfer of ownership takes place.  Warranty companies will often cover existing homes somewhat differently than newly built homes.  In addition, the extent of the coverage offered in a Home Warranty will indeed correlate to the condition and age of the home being covered.  No matter what your preferences are, most real estate professionals will advise you to get a home warranty.  In fact, realtors will frequently offer the home warranty as a gift to you for closing on your home.  Let us now take a look at the differences in home warranty protections.

Home warranties are heavily recommended in the real estate community.  An existing home warranty will work as a contract for service between you and a home warranty company.  These contracts operate like service protection agreements, and can be obtained from any third party that represents themselves as a home warranty company.  As with any other warranty contract, there will be limitations, but the warranty will clearly outline in exact terms what is covered.  The primary focus of a home warranty is for protection against commonly misused and undiagnosed issues that occur after you have already moved into the home.  Items typically covered include air conditioning, electrics, kitchen appliances, plumbing, hot water heaters, furnaces, and other incidental working systems located throughout the home.  Each of these integral parts is expected to work properly long after you purchase a home, and when any of these components fail it can cause significant frustration.  Home warranties offered on existing properties can be limited to a degree when compared to a new home warranty, but it will give you the added protection needed to cover unforeseen disasters that could happen after you are in your new home. 

Unlike existing home warranties that only cover certain functional components in the home, new home warranties will cover everything.  It is like comparing a new car warranty to a used car warranty.  New homes are expected to be in pristine working order long after the buyer moves into the property.  A new home warranty will be the “bumper-to-bumper” coverage of the home and all its working parts.  If a complete home warranty is not made available to you by the builder, we would highly recommend that you look for another property by a different builder.  New home builders are committed to ensure their reputations go untarnished, so it is extremely rare that they would not offer a new home warranty.  Builders will vary on how they service warranty issues, but a large majority will set specific time tables for service calls related to warranty issues.  This will enable the home buyer to compile a list of issues for the warranty service technician to resolve rather than calling them out continually for minor issues.  The time tables are normally set for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days and lastly the one year mark.  Most malfunctions and defects in a new home will appear within the first 90 days; for this reason, builders will focus most of their attention on repairing issues found during this time.  The standard coverage period outlined in a new home warranty contract is one year.  There a certain things in and outside the home that will be covered beyond the one year point, but for the most part the coverage will end at one year.  If you desire to extend the coverage you will have an opportunity to purchase an existing home warranty contract from participating home warranty companies. 

I know of a selection of participating home warranty companies, including Blue Ribbon Home Warranty, First American Home Warranty, Nationwide, American Home Shield, and StrucSure Home Warranty.  There are many competitors to choose from in the home warranty market, so choose wisely.