Do you buy home warranty for your rentals? For heater, AC, water heater, cooktop, oven, frig, dishwasher, washer, dryer, etc.
I have had Home Warranties during 1st year after purchase, as those were paid by seller or agent during the transaction.
It seems like these failures comes in waves. In past year, I encountered several failures: oven, AC stopped working (in 2 different units), built-in micro-wave, dish washer. Each incident costs at least $150-200. And AC cost $500-800.
For home warranty, I used it once in my primary residence many years ago. In past year, I had 3 failures in new rental (new to me, but old house). Everything was taken care of thru home warranty for $50 per visit.
So this prompt me to think whether home warranty is worth it. What do you think?
I haven’t. I’ve had a seller paid for one before. I used it once, and it was a pain. They had a list of approved vendors who all had long wait times. I didn’t renew the warranty.
Planned obsolescence. Under heavy usage, they don’t last more than 10 years. So, after 8 years, check what are available during Thanksgiving days (now, got Prime day too). Cheaper to buy and replace during those days.
Though honestly, we’re coming up on 10 years with the washer and this is the first thing we’ve had to fix, so I’m pretty pleased. We’re going to fix instead of replace otherwise we’d have to replace the set.
The dishwasher I should’ve replaced a while ago, but I think we’re going to renovate within a couple of years… That fix was easy though–did it myself with a part off amazon. Door handle broke.
Home warranties suck. Basically they give you a voucher for $X that you can only use in network when something that qualifies (can’t be wear and tear part) for the warranty breaks. (The list is not that big). Not worth it. So not worth it on primary and even less useful for a rental because of the overhead
I used home warranty. It works fine out of state and the contractors can fix things. But Bay Area contractors they sent are mostly not capable of diagnosis and repairs. Worse, the incompetent contractors would find a reason to let home warranty to reject the claim.
We did not pay for home warranty, and even if we had, we’ve been here 1 year, so these two incidents would’ve been out of warranty. But I probably could’ve replaced the dishwasher earlier.
I didn’t expect this much to go wrong (Heater broke as well in January), but after renting for 20 years, I am tired of crap fixit jobs, and we were worried we’d get locked into repairs that were not the way we’d want to do things, so we didn’t buy the insurance.
I buy home warranty for my AZ rental every year. Whenever I cancel it, the AC would break and the tenant is requesting emergency repairs and I would be in a crisis mode to get an expensive repair. But when I have home warranty, often there’s no problem
I have had good luck with home warranties. They are a great arbitrator. If they say it is
the tenants fault then the tenant has to pay the $50 fee. Like for a clogged garbage disposal
I haven’t done the calculation in detail. My feel is that over entire rental lifetime, home warranty (if $500 per year) probably will cost more, probably not by much. But good thing about home warranty is that it kind of cap (or limit) the expenses and expenses are more regular. Whereas repairs coming in waves cause spikes in expense.
In my new rental (again, new to me but old home), I used home warranty 2x (I incorrectly stated 3x above). I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. It was thru First American. I submit online request. Then local repair company call me to set up appointment for following day. $50 visit.
I still do many of the smaller projects myself, but I have been unable to get reasonable repairs done here in San Diego. I used to have a network of handymen that my wife’s Chinese friends recommended that would work cheaply and do quality work, but that’s hard to find here. My hot water heater just went out and it cost me over a thousand to replace it, part of it was because it was in the attic, with no stairway up to it. Both the water heater and the furnace are up there due to some architects poor planning.
Our heater is in the attic as well. Did you have to break through the ceiling to get the water heater out? I’m wondering if that’s what’s in store for us when the heater goes kaput.
It was hoisted out by the plumber and his helper. They threw a rope over a 2x6 and lowered it out and hoisted the new one up. There was a crawl through hole is the ceiling.
$1000 for a waterheater is cheap. The heater alone is $800. Quotes 3 years were $2500 in Redwood City. I bought it in Nevada for $300 and my buddy installed it for $150 with my help. Hard work. They are very heavy.
from Fergusons or similar plumbing supply store? I usually buy the 40G Rheem from HD … $550 + tax. HD has now a new connection kit, 2 color-coated (red and blue) lines for the price of one (~$15). While I’m at it, I may add a new pan if it’s indoors.
If you have a guy who works for you on a /hr basis, you can surely beat the yellow page plumbing prices. I reviewed a 6plex that was for sale. Disclosures listed all recent upgrades done. They had spent over $5000 on plumbing. Turned out it was 1 new water heater with new gas & water shut-offs etc. It was not even a commercial grade water heater. I thought that job should’ve cost under $1000 at $30/hr.
Did not buy the property; they valued their 6plex as high as the plumber valued his service. A year later, it has not sold.
If you want to own property become a plumber and an electrician. Plumbers charge $150/hr in the BA. $120/hr In Tahoe.
I was quoted $6500 for WH and install for my 100 gal commercial water heater for 7 units.
