When we bought our house, there were two big issues we knew that we needed to deal with right away:
- the ancient furnace for the first floor was so poorly maintained we weren’t sure it would run
- the 32 year old roof was at the end of it’s life and there was a hole in it (it was actively leaking into the attic every time it rained)
Thankfully we knew about both of these issues when we bid on the house, and we were able to negotiate thousands of dollars back at closing to go towards those updates (since a new roof and a new furnace are hardly cheap fixes). Then it was just a matter of getting them repaired as soon as possible. So while we were on our book tour, picture us playing phone tag with furnace folks and roofers in order to get those things straight while bouncing around the country. And by some miracle, we were able to get the furnace cleaned and running along with a completely new 50 year dimensional shingle roof within a few weeks of owning the house.
It was crazy to see how much rot there was (in some cases, the entire roof, including the plywood underneath, had to be removed and replaced).
It definitely got a little worse looking before it got better…
… but Clara didn’t seem fazed by the 2′ piles of old roofing stuff around the house. Atta girl.
Ahh, much better.
Oh and as for how we chose the roofer, we used them on our first house and loved them (they’re a a fully insured family owned local business who’ve been in the roofing game for nearly 60 years). We still got three roofing estimates again, just to be sure, but they came in at the best price plus they were folks we had used already – so it was a nice easy choice.
When it came to choosing the type of roof, we looked around at homes in our neighborhood and noticed that the brick colonials that we loved the most had this type of roof (it’s a 50 year dimensional shingle roof that has nice big slate-like shapes going on, which seemed more to scale with the house) so we pulled the trigger. You can see them best on the lower roof on the left of the house (that’s over the garage) in this picture:
You get more of the slate-like look when you get closer. Here’s a photo of a smaller awning on the back of the house that shows how beefy and square-ish the tiles are. The brand is GAF Camelot 2, and the color is Antique Slate. It actually has a lifetime warranty, so although it’s occasionally known as a 50 year roof, it could hold up longer (knock on wood). Plus it has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, which is nice, but I always wish there was an actual seal (you know, with a ball on his nose) in the logo. Missed opportunity.
But while the new roof felt like a nice long-term fix (which was especially comforting after we confirmed that there was no long-term damage or mold from that leak) we continued to have issues with the furnace. So that initial fix felt like a band-aid while the new roof was a nice solid improvement. Apparently the furnace was original to the house (32 years old) and had never been cleaned. Never! They didn’t even think the filter had been changed once. So yeah. It was, in the words of Rob Lowe on Parks & Rec, LITERALLY a hot mess.
And since it was so old and has never really been serviced or maintained, it was incredibly hard to find parts. So finally after our 5th service call or so (we were smelling gas in the garage, which was SCARY and we worried there was some sort of leak or carbon monoxide issue) we got a pretty amazing call from our home warranty folks. We were getting a brand new Goodman furnace (which comes with an awesome warranty). On the house! As in, it was going to be free thanks to the 1 year home warranty that we got when we bought our house (we paid about $500 for it at closing because we knew if anything major broke in that time, it would be covered, and that peace of mind seemed worth it to us). Let me tell you, when they pulled into our driveway with a new 5K furnace (which included free installation and some new duct work)… that $500 was the best money we ever spent!
So those are two updates that we did way back when we got the house, just because they couldn’t wait. Sorry it took so long for us to share them, we had to clear out some moving chaos that we had amassed in the garage to get that breathtakingly gorgeous after shot of the furnace that you see above.
On one hand it felt really nice to check two major things off the list so early (especially since one was free from the home warranty company and one was paid for with money that we got back at closing), but it was also a nice early lesson that juggling two houses was a lot more overwhelming than one. In fact John’s parents had to meet the service folks at our new house for an emergency furnace appointment once because we were on a plane coming back from a tour stop in Palo Alto.
So we got these two big important things taken care of as quickly as we could and immediately clicked back into “current house mode” in the hopes of avoiding immediate brain combustion (that’s a thing, right?). Then once we wrapped up the tour, the holidays, and the rest of the projects we wanted to complete at our last house, we finally allowed ourselves to switch gears back into “new house mode.” Which was so exciting it made me want to write one word 3,000 letter posts like this:
Squuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
While doing this dance.
So there’s gotta be a lesson in here somewhere, right? Maybe it’s “seriously consider the $500 home warranty, just for the peace of mind!” And I think there’s something to our roof-picking method (we literally just drove all over our neighborhood staring at the ones we liked best and tried to analyze why we liked them). Did you do a “neighborhood crawl” like we did? Have you ever gotten anything for free within the first year of home ownership thanks to a home warranty?
Update: It has been really interesting to read everyone’s experiences in the comment section. While a bunch of folks have scored new items thanks to a home warranty (and some people renew them every year since they find them to be so worth it) others haven’t been as happy with theirs and have terrible stories of frustration and disappointment. It seems to really depend on the region, warranty company, and each individual situation.
Lisa says
When we hired a guy to install central ac in our house soon after we bought it and he told us it would take more work for him to hook it up with the houses original furnace than to completely install a new one then hook the ac up to that. So he sold us a new furnace with no labor charge which was amazing! Especially because the guy who inspected our house suggested we replace it in a few years anyway. I’ll take it now with no labor charge please! Then later we got a $500 rebate for having a high efficiency ac and furnace which made that furnace an even better deal!
Stephanie says
Perfect choice on the roof!! We just redid ours recently, too (thanks to our wonderful insurance company–just as important as a good home warranty, at times!) and it makes the house look brand-new! And, yes, you can’t beat a home warranty–that’s what they’re for! Way to go, guys!
Stephanie says
When I bought my house, the sellers purchased a home warranty for me for the sale. Everything came back squeaky clean in the inspection, but within about a month of moving in, the A/C started crashing. I paid $50 for the first service call, and they did a quick-fix, but the guy said he thought it was going to require a replacement. In the end, it did. I had to pay a special fee of something like $300, but I got brand new inside and outside units for my A/C. I paid $350 for something that would’ve been about $5,000! The design of the houses put a lot of stress on the A/Cs. When I walk my dogs around the neighborhood, I look at every one else’s, and I worry for them, and every time I remember this story with gratefulness!
Crystal says
We got a new stove right away, we knew one brunner was broken, but the oven stop working a week after moving in. We didn’t have to buy a warranty it came with the house.
We also negotiated a new roof. Thank god, that is a big expense!!!
Sarah says
When trying to figure out whether to go mullions or no mullions on our replacements windows, we did a neighborhood crawl to see what people who had already replaced the windows were doing. Old windows definitely had the mullions and replacements were about 60% mullions, 40% no mullions. We felt like we could go either way, but I like the look of the mullions, so we went for it! :) Checking out how others are doing it nearby really helps us know how much to invest in our house!
Amanda L. says
How ironic that you just wrote about your love of your home warranty after I JUST (I mean, seriously, 20 minutes ago) got done reading an article on msnbc.com about how so many people feel like they were a waste of money. I’m glad you guys ended up on the positive side of that issue!
Amy says
The biggest lesson we ever learned was to fork over that money for the home warranty! We negotiated a 1 year warranty in with the sale when we bought our house, but LITERALLY 2 days after it expired our a/c went out. We had thought about renewing it, but decided against it because we hadn’t had any issues that first year. Of course, it was in the middle of the summer and the hottest week of the year! So when they were fixing that, they told us the furnace needed replaced also! Luckily we had a couple months to soften that blow before we had to fork over another few thousand dollars, but we certainly learned our lesson the hard way! Unless it’s brand new, I think we’ll be making sure we have a home warranty that continues the next time around!
Cheryl says
We live in a beautiful historic neighborhood and I am constantly checking out the neighbors’ houses and yards when I walk the dog. Watch out if it’s night and you leave your curtains open. Kind of creepy, huh? Except I’m only interested in your furnishings.
We were on the other side of the stalking when we came home and found a couple on our front porch. They actually had paint swatches and were trying to color match our front door. I chose to be flattered.
janet says
I have nothing constructive to say other than I am just so freaking excited that you all made this huge life move when you did. We recently purchased a home that is so similar in layout and condition, its crazytown. I am giddy with excitement to watch your process and will probably just do whatever you do! :-) I especially love how you know at the outset that you’ll take your time with this one, knowing its a forever(ish) home. We have so much paneling and wallpaper, some days it can be hard to practice patience. Love you guys!
Josette says
We scored with having the home warrenty our realtor insisted be a part of our contract at signing. In the first year we had to replace a $800 waterheater (JUST the unit was that much)and fix one of the high end ovens. Parts along were $800. Each visit was about $80 for the service call and that was it. Needless to say, we have kept up the warrenty going into our third year in the 14 yr. old house!
Laurel says
just curious–did you get a say in what kind of furnace was put in? Did you go for an energy star one for more efficiency?
YoungHouseLove says
We didn’t, it just showed up and went in, but it’s new and has a good reputation from what we could find online (it’s said to have a great warranty and be tons more energy efficient than 30 year old models!)
xo,
s
Donita says
The roof looks great! Perfect choice for your house. WOW so scary on the furnace. That is great that you had the warranty. I have never heard of that.
Somewhere along the way, I missed the fact that you bought your house clear back during the book tour. WOW you guys are great secret keepers. :-) I can’t wait to see all that you do to that house, it has amazing bones.
Tirsa says
Our experience with home warranty has been positive so far. In our previous house the warranty was paid by the seller and the washing machine broke within a month of moving in. after fixing it one time, they replaced it. Close to the end of that year the dryer also broke and they replaced it. On both occasions we got good but simple machines, which was fine. With this “new” house the warranty was also paid by the seller. We got some plumbing fixed and partially replaced and they should be coming in to look at our heating system- last winter we had days at 57 degrees inside the house. Currently DH is going back and forth thinking whether or not we should pay for another year of warranty as the A/C unit is from 1987 and we keep waiting for it to break down. It probably will the day after the warranty expires when we don’t renew. :)
KathyG says
Is there any other way to figure out roofs or columns or colors than stalking neighbors and friends houses? HA. I literally had color chips in my hand and would jump out the car and hold them up to a house (yeeks yes I did!) or a fence to match the color. Kinda hard to do to a roof, but same principal, right?
Terresa says
I have had very negative feelings about the homeowners warranties as my parents had one and got no help whatsoever when they had major plumbing issues within the first year. Then again, my parents aren’t very aggressive and I think if they can tell you no they are going to because its a business. I think in most cases you have to fight for what you know is covered.
KathyG says
Sorry me again…I had a thought. I’ve bought 4 houses now, and I STILL feel like I know nothing about how it actually works. They’re always years and years apart, and while they are all typical money down, normal loans, all the points, closing, credits is confusing as heck.
I THINK I get it at the second I’m signing, but obv I don’t assimilate it since I certainly can’t explain it to someone else. BUT, my question at this moment is, when you get money from the seller to do repairs, doesn’t that money actually go into your mortgage? You do literally get cash at closing, but it’s not ‘free’ because the seller is a sweetheart, it’s just a way to convert some cash out of your mortgage. Is that correct?
YoungHouseLove says
I think it always depends, but in this case they gave us the money at closing, so it was as if the seller payed our closing fees so that freed up the money we would have spent that day to put towards these fixes.
xo,
s
Anne says
When we closed, our seller literally gave us a check for $150 for some repairs that needed to be made after the inspection. Obviously, that amount is not covering a large expense like a new roof, but they can just bring a check.
EFritz says
Our free item was a new roof. But it was paid by insurance. We had been in the home for 4 days and a horrible windstorm knocked a tree into the house. The adjuster totaled the entire roof, which was 20 years old and had two large holes in it, from not being kept up. No one was hurt and no other damage, so score on that value increase :)
laura says
Our Old Republic warranty was included by the sellers when we bought our current house. It seems pretty common here in our area. One of our AC units died literally 3 days before the warranty was set to expire! We got everything fixed for free just in time!
Annette says
Our water heater decided to self-destruct the first month that we lived here (thankfully, in the garage so there wasn’t any water damage), so we were incredibly relieved that we had purchased the home warranty!
Mikala says
We’ve been scouting out houses to see what color combinations we like. I am not quite loving the light yellow with peeling hunter green shutters. And I’m actually praying that our 15 year old water heater breaks soon because we got a home warranty from our broker as a gift :-)
Christen says
Our home warranty story was quiet the opposite. We got it with the same thinking as you. Two months in our garage door stopped opening. So I called them and told them it looked like “the spring” was broken. They sent out people who couldn’t fix it. We had to pay them $75 for their trouble and then the warranty company said they didn’t cover our type of claim. I was annoyed because I spent 75 when I told then what was wrong in the first place. They told me I said spring when it was actually a coil and refused to refund the money. Our agent called the warranty rep who said that was ridiculous & she would get our money back…& then this is the not funny part…she died. At that point I just said it was only 75 & so not worth it anymore.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh that’s terrible! I would totally appeal that. Sounds insane to draw a distinction between coils and springs. I wonder if you call back and get a different person on the phone perhaps they can help. It felt like we got someone different each time we called and some were less gruff than others…
xo,
s
Martha says
I got my HVAC unit replaced (yay) using the insurance purchased at closing, but they wanted to replace it with a larger and, more importantly to them, cheaper unit. It ultimately wouldn’t fit in the space, but in the process they cut a large hole in the dry walled ceiling that took 3 years for us to fix. In the interim, the cats got to explore the space between the ceiling and the roof. Luckily we live on the top floor.
Cindy says
I have to agree that we didn’t have much luck with the home warranty either. Our water heater started leaking just a few months of moving in (water all over the floor too!) and in an extreme cold spell in January. They replaced it, free, but it was the cheapest model they used and it completely failed just after the warranty period expired and we had to replace the replacement. Three water heaters in about 15 months is not fun.
Farris says
The downside of the warranty issue is that the warranty folks are not insurance folks completely. What happens now is the warranty company goes to the previous owners and sues them for the furnace. We just had to put in a septic tank from a house we sold 5 years ago. Sad for the previous owners.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh that must be regional, it’s definitely not what happens here (the warranty takes the loss occasionally, but in many cases nothing breaks in that first year so they make $500, which is how they make a profit). I have actually never heard of previous owners getting sued. What a bum deal!!
xo,
s
HeatherM says
No, that isn’t regional. Insurance companies can sue previous owners anywhere. Say the previous owner Jerry-rigs a bunch of stuff so it looks nice, but they intentionally don’t fix the problem. Garage doors are a good example- it breaks, and they either don’t fix it or just put the same spring back on, because it won’t be their problem much longer, and the buyers’ home warranty can cover it if they want. There is a huge grey area between previous-owner negligence and insurance fraud, and most home warranties are not willing to cover problems related to previous owner negligence.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, I’ve never heard of that! I always heard that a house is “as-is” so after you sell it, anything that goes wrong with it is no longer your issue. Of course you have to disclose anything that you know to be dangerous, so maybe that’s where it comes in (if you knowingly solved something the wrong way and it hurts someone in the future you’re still liable?). Very interesting! I do wonder if it’s just in those cases of obvious and dangerous negligence though, since we have never heard from friends or relatives (many of whom have owned a whole bunch of houses) who have ever been sued.
xo
s
antiquechase says
I had a few things go wrong.. two were covered. We had to pay our own warranty which was $750 and the oven part that was covered was $450 and a part we needed for the heater was covered too, which I’m sure was at least $300 so we broke even! :)
I’m actually surprised you would get a new appliance. If was iffy in the first place. You go SO LUCKY they covered you.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes if they had been able to find those old parts and fix the crack/leak they would have done that for sure! We just got lucky they couldn’t, so that’s the only reason they replaced it.
xo,
s
MMingo says
Wow! Sweet deal on the furnace!! I don’t even think we have a home warranty where we live…I don’t remember hearing about it when we bought our house. Our furnace is also original with our 1975 house which makes it a whopping 38 years old! It’s still kicking and has been serviced every year. We’ve decided to not replace it until it bites the dust. Although I’m sure a new one would be much more efficient and save us $$ in the long run…I’m sure it’s just a matter of time!
Jen says
Before I became a stay at home mom, I was a Realtor. I always, always, ALWAYS recommended a home warranty. Even on a new construction, something can go wrong. We used ours twice in the first year when we bought our home. It’s worth every penny!
Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says
I really like the new roof. And Celine can move huh? I am getting that inkling feeling in my gut that we may want to look into purchasing one because our water heater is looking a little scary these days. I’m pretty positive it is original to the house (1974) and my hot shower days are numbered. Thanks for this reminder!
My best, Lynn
Catherine says
The first house we bought was one we had built and we looked at every single coloured brick on every single brick house we drove past before we finally chose the one we wanted. We were a little obsessive maybe… We are expats right now and living in rentals but I cannot wait until we buy our own house again! Although it is much easier to have the landlady pay for repairs than ourselves sometimes. :) We chose an older house to live in this time because of the fabulous neighbourhood and feel bad every time we have to tell our landlady about something else that has broken.
Jessica says
If the furnance was never cleaned in 30 years, does that mean the ducts were also never cleaned in 30 years? I can’t even imagine what 30 years of nastiness could collect in those ducts!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, that’s definitely on the list!
xo
s
Julia @Cuckoo4Design says
A new roof makes such a huge difference! You house looks so beautiful!
Susan (Between Naps on the Porch) says
I would probably still go with a home warranty for extra protection but my experience with them in the past has been poor. When I had to replace the garbage disposal, they put in the cheapest model available on the market and it was LOUD! Plus, it didn’t last very long. When it died, the home warranty was out which was fine since I’d had such a bad experience. I bought a quality garbage disposal and it’s still going strong, plus a million times quieter. Often the home warranty companies replace with low-end brands, the cheapest they can get by with. I’m sure some companies are better than others but the experience I had was pretty awful. Your new rook looks great! :)
Ashley says
In Ohio, it’s somewhat common for the buyer to ask the seller to include a home warranty with the purchase. We did, and the seller happily obliged. We had hot water heater issues within the first week, and got it replaced within a day after we called. We also had some service to our AC done. We actually considered renewing it after it expired.
Kristin says
We had our warranty with First American included in our closing costs covered by the seller as well. First service call put in the week of move-in, house never cooled after having all the doors open while moving. We paid $60 service fee and(after a week of waiting on parts)got a 1K new coil and had to cover around $350 for updates to the duct work not included to adapt our unit and refrigerant. That worked for about 2 hours until some crazy thunderstorms came through and then the outside unit stopped coming on. We called back in and they fixed the capacitor two days later for free since they considered it part of the old service call.
Minus the waiting on hold, delays in approvals, and inconvenience the warranty company requires– the end result has been well worth our sanity in this first month of home-ownership!!!
Shannon says
In the purchase of my first house ever I negotiated that the seller pay for the $500 warranty and I ended up with new plumbing, new heat/air combo, and new air ducts under the house. It took almost a year with lots of visits from different companies to try and fix everything but ended up working out in the end. Minus the freezing nights with no heat it was totally worth it! I will always pay the extra (even on a newer house)…you just never know what kinds of problems you will run into that first year!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah you made out well!
xo,
s
Danielle says
Random question but after looking at your last post when you removed the shower doors, how do you feel about doing that to a step-in shower? Does it look better to just replace the doors?
YoungHouseLove says
Johns parents did that and replaced old doors with a curtain and were really happy with it (it looked great!).
kate says
I can’t believe you had to replace a roof after only 32 years! I think we must have very different construction methods in the UK because that would be pretty much unheard of here. We certainly don’t have shingles, what are they made of?
YoungHouseLove says
They’re cedar shake, so they’re made of wood. Sadly in a wooded area they rot if they don’t get enough sun.
xo,
s
Sandra says
Congrats in the new roof! Looks excellent. It was always my favorite improvement to make since its so important. Can’t enjoy a nice rainstorm if your worried about leaks or how many shingles will blow into the yard when it’s over. New roof = peace!
Picked ours by driving through neighborhoods also. It’s the best way.
If I can ask, y’all have a plan for the windows? I’ve looked around and haven’t seen if you addressed them or not. I see they have the “storm windows” on them, somebody’s dumb idea to protect windows, ranks right up there with vinyl sofa and lamp shade covers!
Can they be removed and the original colonial look restored, or do y’all want to replace them and upgrade for energy efficiency? Thank you for all you do! Love this site!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, they’re easily removed, but for now we’re happy to leave them in place for energy efficiency reasons. The windows are actually in pretty good shape, so we don’t have any immediate plans to replace those so that’s a relief (we were so glad to hear at the inspection that they’re all in great shape since this house has lots of them!).
xo
s
Kaija says
That roof pulls the house together like Sherry’s black jacket pulls her look together!
YoungHouseLove says
Woot woot! Oh that blazer. I love it but I’m intensely tired of it after about 30 events with it…
xo
s
Emily says
It’s amazing to me how similar our “new” homes are. We are also working on stripping tons of wallpaper and we also had a 30+ year old furnace. Our inspector said we should get a warranty just in case because they aren’t intended to last that long. Thankfully it was a higher end furnace that had been meticulously maintained over the years so we were hoping to get one more winter out of it. But sure enough it died two weeks before closing and the sellers had to replace it. I hated it for them but was so grateful the timing worked out so well for us!
Julianne says
Wow…What a lifesaver! Congrats on getting the home warranty. I wish we had something like that up here! That would be a no-brainer for us when purchasing a home. Nice to have that peace of mind. Good pick on the shingles…the new roof looks fabulous! :O)
Jennifer Laura says
After reading about people asking about the furnace maintenance I thought it might be an interesting post to share about how you both handle your home maintenance. I’m still a renter but the idea of owning and maintaining seems so overwhelming- would be interesting to see how you guys keep track of routine maintenance and how often certain things need to be done!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, my friend Kristen asked me for a “monthly maintenance post” about… four years ago?! Looks like we should get on that! It really does vary by where you live and what systems you have, but I think it would be fun to share what we keep up with (and ask others what they do as well).
xo
s
Kate says
First off, the new roof looks fabulous! I’ll have to keep that “style” in mind when we redo ours (which might be our big project to do next summer…)
Second off, EWWWWW!!! on the furnace. I’m awestruck that it worked at all if it has never been serviced in the 30+ years it’s been around. I have super bad dust allergies, so we change our filters at least once every 3 months and use the best allergy filters we can find. I am literally shuddering at the thought of them never getting changed. YUCK!
I’m sure you guys will/have noticed a difference in your utility bills with the new roof/furnace. I’d be curious at how much, percentage wise, they dropped(or if they stayed the same).
YoungHouseLove says
That’ll be interesting to see! It’s hard to tell since the house was vacant when we bought it (not a lot of utilities were being used, etc). But I’m sure it’s a lot more efficient. Will have to compare bills!
xo
s
Carrie says
Reading the roofing part of your post, felt like deja vu. We bought our old house a few years ago. However as we bought it ‘AS IS’ we didn’t have a lot of recourse regarding the roof. We desperately needed a new roof too, however it was the gift of a really bad hail storm that brought us ours. Our home owners insurance paid for our new roof and siding, and not a moment too soon. Like you we also drove around the area and did nothing but look at roofs. Our house is red brick, so every red brick house got scrutinized. In the end we decided to mimic the roof our house would have had 100 years ago when it was built. So we went with dark green, and it looks great if I do say so myself. It’s so bright and really stands out. We have also been replacing the windows and bringing them back to the original style, with the divided glass panes. Too bad that there is no insurance $ for that. I hope that you don’t have to go there. Continued luck
Krystle @ Color Transformed Family says
I think we bought the home warranty for the first year but fortunately/unfortunately nothing happened. But boy would I be happy if buying the home warranty saved me a couple of grand from having to replace the furnace.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, that’s how I think they make all of their money. It’s a gamble whether something will break, and for every 5 people who pay $500 and nothing happens there’s probably only one person who gets something fixed and probably only one in twenty has something break so severely that it gets fully replaced. At least that’s how we hear it goes…
xo
s
cts3a says
Looks like the original roof had cedar shakes for the roof — did you all consider replacing with the same? Just more cost efficient for shingles?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes the old one was cedar shake but it’s not as fire safe (so insurance is higher along with it being less safe) and its about twice as much to get replaced (which definitely put it out of our budget).
xo,
s
HeatherM says
I’m amazed you got a new furnace out of a home warranty. That is almost unheard of. Home warranties are often HUGE scams. We got one because our roof was old but not leaking when we bought our house. Then we read the fine print and saw it excluded the top 20 or so causes of roof leaks and also excluded “acts of God” (aka inclement weather). So basically it would only cover roof leaks caused by rare things that no one had ever heard of, but it excluded the vast majority of roof leaks. The same was true for every other part of the house they supposedly insured. They also are notorious for not paying their claims- basically it is cheaper for them to bet that people won’t take them to court than it is to pay the claims right away like they are supposed to. And since home repairs usually cost less than court costs, most people just eat the repair costs and don’t go after the insurance companies. Also, never trust a realtor on the best home warranty- they get kickbacks on them.
You guys got LUCKY! I do think you should put a disclaimer up that this is not indicative of how all home warranties operate.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow! Well, from these comments it sounds like it’s a fair mix. There are many people telling us how they got free items (and even some folks who renew every year since it’s so worth it to them) while others have been disappointed or frustrated. We’re as shocked as you are about our experience with it since we have heard they’ll pay $5 for a part and keep your machine limping along before they’ll replace it. Haha! I’ll add an update to the end of the post about how interesting it has been to read everyone’s experiences since it’s clear that everyone hasn’t been as happy with theirs and it seems to really depend on the region, warranty company, and individual situation :)
xo
s
Jessica R says
One of the great things about the home warranties is that they’re renewable year over year. When we bought our 1946 cape in 2010 our realtor negotiated a warranty (2-10 was the company, I believe it was $365 for the year) to be included with the purchase of our home. That first year I don’t think we used it once and because of that, we didn’t renew. Fast forward to the derecho (we’re in Northern VA) which blew our fridge, then an AC issue and a rusted out water heater – all in the last year – we decided it was time to renew. I happily forked over $350 last month($400 originally with a $50 “we want you back” coupon) and we will never forgo a home warranty again. I am so glad to hear it has worked out for you as well!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome Jessica! So glad you were covered during that crazy derecho!
xo
s
Brent Carvalho says
First year on home warranty, didn’t get anything. It was a “gift” from the realtor upon closing. I was weary about renewing the second year, but sure enough, the furnace stopped working and similar situation where they couldn’t find the parts to fix it. So after just a $60 service call fee, a brand new $4k furnace was installed. It’s definitely worth the peace of mind once major things like this are fixed!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah, that’s awesome Brent!
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Dena says
Just got a new roof 2 weeks ago here in my 1989 house in Richmond – got the dimensional shingles and I’m so happy with them. At the same time they replaced our two plastic skylights with glass ones – it was like replacing cataracts – big difference. If you have skylights anywhere it’s worth looking into! I don’t think it was too expensive either.