Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

When buying a home make sure you don’t confuse a home warranty with homeowner’s insurance. Homeowner’s insurance would cover situations such as theft and disasters. It wouldn’t however cover repairs or replacement of  systems and appliances in your home when there’s trouble. I like to use the example of a home’s water heater. If your water heater failed and destroyed the finished lower level family room, your homeowner’s insurance should cover fixing the damage to the finished lower level but they wouldn’t replace your faulty water heater. Side note: someone told me one time that their insurance did NOT cover the damage caused by a faulty water heater. I checked with several insurance agents who said damage to a finished area WOULD be covered. It would be worth your time to call your insurance and find out for sure.

Kansas City Home Warranty

It’s easy to make the argument that home warranties are a good idea when buying a home. Many home sellers are even willing to pay for the home warranty. But even if the seller won’t cover the cost of a home warranty, Kansas City home buyers should consider buying one themselves. The costs vary but if you figured $500 for a home warranty you’d be in good shape. There’s also a “trade fee” that is charged when a service technician comes to your home to make a repair. Those trade fees vary as well, but $50 to $75 are very common.  A typical warranty covers a one-year period – with the one-year period beginning the day of closing. A home warranty can provide great peace of mind when a buying a home that really you know very little about. Yes, you (hopefully) had home inspections done but home inspections are designed to determine whether a home is functioning properly on that given day. A home warranty is designed to cover break-downs going forward. Of course, you also have the option of self-insuring and saving the $500 for now, with hopes that nothing breaks down during the next year.

Keep in mind that home warranty companies are a type of insurance company, so there are always going to be some claims denied that result in unhappy consumers.  Fortunately there are lots of options out there from which to choose and the one I recommend most is Old Republic Home Warranty Protection.  Others I see used often in Kansas City real estate transactions include First American Home Buyers Protection, HMS Home Warranty, A.B. May Home Warranty and  2-10 Home Warranty . The peace of mind you get from a home warranty  doesn’t have to end when the one year is up either. Home warranty companies are happy to continue extending coverage one year at a time for as long as you’d like. Take some time to look over this national list of home warranty companies, which includes some consumer ratings, costs and deductibles associated with each policy.  A.B. May is a local company and won’t appear on the list and keep in mind some of the companies don’t serve the Kansas City area.

Posted by Jason Brown