What is a Home Warranty?

What is a Home Warranty?

When buying or selling a home we often get several questions from clients about home warranties. What is a home warranty? What does it cover? How much does it cost? Is it only good for a year? Can you renew?

When buying a new home we recommend that our buyer clients purchase a home warranty as well. A home warranty is a separate contract from the purchase contract. The warranty covers costly repairs or replacements of home systems and appliances due to normal wear and tear, usually for a period of one year. Often times they can be renewed year after year.

Coverage can vary widely across plans and home warranty companies. You can get some plans that cover pools, termite & pest control, a/c and heating system tuneups, sprinkler systems, etc… We always recommend that you do your research to decide what home warranty is best for you and your home.

Typically a home warranty covers items not covered under your standard homeowner insurance policy. Think of a home warranty as a “gap filler” in coverage. If your dishwasher floods your kitchen your homeowner insurance will most likely cover the replacement of your flooring, however, it won’t cover the repair/replacement of your dishwasher. Your home warranty will.

When selling your home we often recommend getting a home warranty to cover you during the listing and escrow period. This will protect you and your transaction if something costly were to happen that could delay, or even worse, cause the sale to fall apart completely.

There are many home warranty companies out there to choose some. Below are a few that we are familiar with and would recommend. Again, be sure you do your research and ask them important questions such as: how quickly do you respond to service calls? Do you have technicians on call 24 hours? Do you do seasonal a/c tuneups?

We hope this helps answer the question of “What is a home warranty?”. If you have any questions about the home buying or selling process or would like our help buying or selling please let us know. We’re happy to help!

James Plotnik & Joe Janus
Realtors®
Distinctive Arizona Homes
HomeSmart
info@joejanus.com
www.joejanus.com
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