The concept of a home warranty is a little misunderstood. It is not homeowner’s insurance; it is a comprehensive plan designed to protect home systems and appliances against wear and tear, aging, and defects. For the first year of a brand-new appliance’s lifespan, it is protected by the manufacturer’s warranty. This offers limited coverage, since there are few, if any defects that crop up in the infancy stages for appliances and systems. However, after the first year, repeated and regular use of systems and appliances leads to wear and tear on the moving components, electro-mechanical elements, and general functionality of systems.
There is no doubt that home warranties offer coverage against eventualities that will crop up. The more important question is how homeowners can benefit from home warranty plans? At a cost of $300 – $500 per year, home warranty plans can offer the necessary safeguards to protect against the breakdown, malfunctioning or need to replace systems in the home. These systems include a wide range of items such as microwaves, refrigerators, garbage disposals, HVAC systems, boilers, garage motors, swimming pool motors, dishwashers, and other electro-mechanical devices. The question is not so much about what a home warranty can provide; it’s more about what the home warranty provider offers you. Before you rush off to decide about choosing this or that service, it’s important to evaluate home warranty providers based on merit. Several factors determine whether you should buy a home warranty plan for your home. These include the following:
There are many other factors that come into the reckoning, notably the responsiveness to your requests for service, and the approval rate of work order requests. Some home warranty companies instruct their technicians to deny as much as 70% of all requests for repair or replacement. The only way to guard against such nefarious activity is to conduct a comprehensive analysis through an aggregator platform of home warranty companies. For example, consider the case of Select Home Warranty reviewed by RHW .
Review Home Warranties is an internationally respected home warranty review site. All home warranty companies such as Select Home Warranty (Shield Your Wallet) are scrutinized at the deepest level. All aspects of the home warranty company’s services are evaluated including payment delays, unexpected costs, tricky terms and conditions, and professional contractors, claim denial rates, repair delays, communication problems, quality of work, professionalism of the contractors, communication, types of repairs that are performed etc.
The in-depth reviews conducted by RHW indicate that this company offers a wide range of comprehensive coverage on home appliances, electrical systems, plumbing systems and AC units/heating systems. Coverage is limited to $400 – $2,000, and the coverage term is 12 months with a service call fee of just $60. Various plans are also available including the bronze plan, the gold plan, and the platinum plan. These are designed to offer increasing coverage to homeowners. Aggregator platforms that evaluate the reliability of home warranty companies are an invaluable resource when choosing between plans and providers.
How Can a Home Warranty Improve the Value of Your Real Estate and Can It Help You Sell Your Home Faster?
It’s better to have insurance coverage and not need it, than to need insurance coverage and not have it. This holds true for home warranty coverage as well. The costs of replacing, repairing, or maintaining all the aforementioned systems and appliances can quickly spiral out of control. The replacement costs of refrigerators, ranges, washers, dryers, and other appliances grow every year, making a home warranty plan a valuable addition to your umbrella coverage for your home.
Unless you are socking away $500 – $1,000 per year in a fund exclusively for your home systems and appliances, a home warranty plan provides a cost-effective alternative when things take a turn for the worse. Once you’re ready to sell your home, the buyer to be will be appreciative of an existing home warranty contract good for a year after the purchase. This is quickly becoming the go-to option in the real estate world. It is perceived value and real value at the same time. Home warranties should work in tandem with homeowner’s insurance to provide complete coverage and better value for the buyer.
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