I always thought home warranties were a scam, but I used mine 3 times in a year and it saved me over $1,000

• The seller of my home refused to make any repairs, but gave us a home warranty with our house.
• I was skeptical because I thought warranties were a scam, but I loved the house so I moved forward.
• I used the warranty three times in a year and a half and loved it so much I decided to renew.
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When my husband and I bought our second home in 2019, the previous owners refused to fix any issues that came up during the inspection process. We decided to move forward with the house, though, because it came with a home warranty.

I always thought home warranties were a scam, but I was convinced during the home-buying process that it would be there for us if we needed it. And to my delight, I’ve found that to be true.

The previous owners purchased the home warranty for around $900, and we definitely got more than that amount of value out of it within the first year. 

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We used our home warranty three times in the first year

Moving into a new home can be a bit intimidating as you go through and figure out how everything works and how much everything, such as heating and air conditioning, will cost each month. One of the biggest adjustments is becoming familiar with new types of appliances around the home. 

The dishwasher

As we became more familiar with our new home, we realized some things weren’t working as they should. For example, the dishwasher in our home did a terrible job at drying the dishes. We tried a few things to see if we could fix it ourselves, but after no change, we called to make a claim with the home warranty company. To file a claim cost us $75 and we had to pay it up front. 

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The dishwasher repairwoman came out within the next few days and ran some diagnostic tests on the dishwasher. She found that the dryer wasn’t heating up to its max capacity and a new heating unit needed to be installed. She ordered the part and came back a few weeks later to install. If we didn’t have the home warranty we would have had to pay completely out of pocket for the part and the installation, or worse, buy a new dishwasher ourselves. 

The first call about the pool

A few months later, it was springtime, and we were thoroughly enjoying our new-to-us pool. About a month into pool season we realized our pool heater had stopped working. Once again we called the home warranty company, paid our $75 dues, and they came out later that week to inspect. During inspection they realized that one of the sensors had rusted out and needed to be replaced. It was only another few days until the heat was back working — a must during the cooler temps in Minnesota springtime!

The second call about the pool

Later on in the summer, during a routine backwashing of the pool (a part of the filtration proccess), we noticed that the filter had sprung a pinhole-size leak. We called our home warranty company right away, paid the $75, and they came out the next day. After inspection, they discovered that they wouldn’t be able to fix the filter as it was too old, so instead they would replace it for us. To replace the filter would have cost close to $1,000.

Because it was an older type of filter, we opted to apply that $1,000 towards a new filter that didn’t require us to backwash. It was something we figured we would update anyway within the next few years, so we got a substantial discount on it thanks to our home warranty. This in and of itself paid for the cost of the home warranty.

We renewed our warranty for another year

As the home warranty expiration was nearing, we decided it was a no-brainer to renew. We were so impressed with the service and the estimated costs we saved that it just made sense financially to continue on with the home warranty. We paid for three different claims, costing us $225 out of pocket. The cost to have our dishwasher, pool heater, and entire new pool filter fixed or replaced would have cost us hundreds if not thousands of dollars more than that. 

We also knew we were still getting accustomed to our home and that there were some older appliances that had the potential to go out on us. In fact, within the first month of renewing, our hot water heater stopped working. Luckily, our warranty covered the cost to repair it.

Although I originally thought home warranties were a scam, I was proved wrong during our first year and a half in our new home. Our home was built in the 1970s, and the pool adds another dimension to what sometimes feels like a “what can go wrong next?” list of homeownership dilemmas.

Having a home warranty is an extra layer of comfort knowing we can make a quick call and have someone out within a few days to fix whatever it is that is troubling us. Because of the value we’ve seen, it’s likely we will continue to extend our home warranty for the foreseeable future.

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