Home Warranty

[PurpleHeartX5]

Recently moved to The Villages and will soon close on our house. Looking for recommendations on a Home Warranty service. All recommendations are welcome on a service that is responsive, reputable and reasonable.

[villagetinker]

Frank Dangelo 352-250-7818 is great!, he did our house and several neighbors, found stuff i would never even have noticed. He also handles all of the paperwork, really great service.

[retiredguy123]

There are several threads on this topic, with company names. Personally, I think they are a waste of money because the contractors they use will not be high quality, may be from out of town (like Ocala or Orlando), and you will be locked in to their schedule when a better local contractor will always be available to fix something immediately. Also, I understand that warranty companies typically only pay out about 8 percent of the premiums they collect to pay for claims.

[PurpleHeartX5]

Thanks for the input.

[stings]

Frank Dangelo 352-250-7818 is great!, he did our house and several neighbors, found stuff i would never even have noticed. He also handles all of the paperwork, really great service.

I agree. He and his Son completed our inspection. Great people, professional, highly qualified, and highly recommended.

[retiredguy123]

OP, just to clarify, Frank D'Angelo is a home inspector, not a home warranty service. He is a great inspector, and, if your house is new, you should hire him to inspect your house a month or so before the one year warranty on your house expires.

[Velvet]

I have American Home Shield as home warranty - they have different plans some include appliances, some only the building and HVAC. My real estate person put it into the sales agreement. So I did not pay for it. I haven’t used it yet but the company keeps sending me emails reminding me I have their services.

[retiredguy123]

FYI, American Home Shield has a B rating with BBB, and 10,973 customer complaints.

[Velvet]

Yikes! I guess I’m fortunate because I never had to use them for anything yet. My plan doesn’t cover appliances.

[vintageogauge]

I had American Home Shield for years as did my son. Between us we had many claims and all of them were taken care of satisfactorily. Probably the one thing they could do better on is getting the repairs done more quickly. If you have a furnace broken when it's 20 below zero, so do many other people in the area so you have to wait your turn. They will not however make you wait long enough that your pipes would freeze. Well worth the cost of the policy if you have an older home, new homes I don't believe are worth covering with a warranty. One more thing we do is use our Citi card when purchasing items with a warranty and they will double the length of the warranty period just for using the card, does not apply to vehicles though.

[EdFNJ]

One more thing we do is use our Citi card when purchasing items with a warranty and they will double the length of the warranty period just for using the card, does not apply to vehicles though.

Better check your CITI-CARD terms. They and many other credit card banks have eliminated that benefit and MANY others. CITI was as of Sept 22nd. They may have a couple specific cards that still have the coverage but I would check before assuming. Purchases made previous to the cutoff date remain covered. I believe the CITI COSTCO card still has it if that's the one you have because of their contract with COSTCO.


Citi destroys most card benefits in September (https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/citi-destroys-most-card-benefits-in-september/)

[villagetinker]

Recently moved to The Villages and will soon close on our house. Looking for recommendations on a Home Warranty service. All recommendations are welcome on a service that is responsive, reputable and reasonable.

OOPS, I completely misread the original post, sorry, I thought this was a 1 year home warranty inspection question. As for a warranty covering the equipment in the home, I self insure. I have heard too many stories of these companies using loop holes to get out of paying. IMHO, check with Seniors against crime and the BBB before signing on.

[Challenger]

Not a good investment. Have looked at them several times over the years. If they did not make a large profit on their product, the would not sell it. Chances are that you will be better off saving the amount of the premium and using the saved funds to self insure.

[bern916]

Would never recommend American Home Shield. The home warranty came with our home purchase so we had them for one year.
Air conditioning went out about 5 months into owning our home, it took nearly two weeks to fix. Would have been a heck of a lot faster if we would have just used a local HVAC company and paid out of pocket.

[retiredguy123]

Would never recommend American Home Shield. The home warranty came with our home purchase so we had them for one year.
Air conditioning went out about 5 months into owning our home, it took nearly two weeks to fix. Would have been a heck of a lot faster if we would have just used a local HVAC company and paid out of pocket.
Two weeks? This summer, my air conditioning stopped working on a Saturday. Munn's was at my house within 3 hours and fixed it. I don't have a contract with them or anybody else. I hate to think what would have happened if I had called a home warranty company.

[Velvet]

If you try to deal with American Home Shield, make sure you call them before you do anything else and don’t expect much from them.... or you will be disappointed. Not a company I recommend, just as other posters have said.