I'm at my wits end here. I've signed an ageement on a house and had it inspected. During the inspection a few things popped up, probably some I should have noticed before making an offer. Electric box is obsolete, water tank is near death, furnace is 19 yrs old, AC is 19 yrs old. Furnace life is estimated at 20 and AC is 15. Anyone bought a house with warranty? Horror stories or good feedback? I'm looking for outside feedback other than the realtor, parents, etc. I can still negotiate more or walk away, but have a bit invested in it and I'm on a time frame of my current lease ending so I'm really trying to make this one work.

 

1) electric box
2) furnace
3) AC
4) water tank (I assume you mean water heater)?

I'm curious as to exactly what you have "invested" so far, and wonder why you did any investing before the inspection. Regardless, what's done is done. But, you'll have to check with your state regarding laws and "backing out of a deal" for any refunded monies.

Ok, one thing I would do is negotiate a MINIMUM OF a 60/40 split on the cost to replace these items, and it would have to be a package deal or no deal. The seller gets 60% of the expense. Unless you are really willing to walk away, then they'd have to pay 100%. (Which is exactly the way it would have to be for me, or I won't buy).

Average cost to replace the furnace is about $3000 depending on size. AC, you'll have to check on that but near the same. Electric box is no big deal. Pick up what you need at Home Depot or Lowes and have an electrician do the work....probably looking at $1000-1500, and I'm trying to overestimate.

The water heater is no big deal. You can hire a plumber to do it and let them use the brand they like, which you will probably get a good deal, or buy one yourself and pay labor, which might be about the same, or maybe not. Same for electrician.

Otherwise, I'd walk away. Hope you had the roof inspected too. There are THOUSANDS of houses for sale in just about every city across the country. Right now is a buyers market, not a sellers. The cards are in your favor.

 

By investing, I mean time spent going back n forth across town to look and relook, the inspection price, the hand money, my agents time, etc.

I agreed to the sale and made it contigent on the inspection results, so I have an out if I need it minus the inspection cost.

The house comes with a one yr warranty on mechanicals. It's a $50 deductible and they replace whatever breaks, this is what my question is about...anyone dealt with one of these???

We're discussing what we're going to counter with: a) replacing the items b) spltting costs c) lowering the sale price to compensate these issues d) something else. I just wanted hear if anyone had warranty experiences, good or bad.

 

I'm guessing you're talking out these 3rd party warranties?
Like this:
http://www.firstline.com/morefree.html

Here are the pdf files:
http://www.firstline.com/solicitor/i...icon_small.gif

http://www.firstline.com/PDFs/hoa_program.pdf

If this is what you're talking about, save your money.
I have a friend who works directly fir said insurance company, and they don't approve any claims - ever.

How dothey get away with this? Easy.
If you read the fine print, they cover any mechanical break downs which are not associated with "regular wear and tear".

That's the magic phrase, "regualr wear and tear"

This lets them weazal out of paying any claims, and it gives the home owner a false sense of security thinking they are covered - when in reality they are not.

I hate insurance companies, they are all the same, doesnt matter what country you're in.
They are designed to take your money and screw you over when you are most vulnerable.

These places give it to you free for the first year of your mortgage, hoping that you will continue the payments after....and forget about it.

Good Luck
Habibi

 

Habibi is right.

Once you buy the house, you can forget any "warranty" crap. It's yours, and if you want it fixed, it's on you.

I have a bunch of real estate agents as patients and you can forget about any "mechanical" warranty coverage.

I'd walk away, or get the seller to replace all the items of concern, unless you are willing to split the costs somehow.

 

I'd get an estimate from the most expensive contractor I could find, then knock that much off my offer.

 

i had good luck with my home warranty. i made the seller pay for it. about 2 months after i moved in the water heater went out they payed 100% and i went from a 35 gallon to a 60 gallon for free when i called them they asked how big it was i said 60 gallons so that is what they put in. but to give you and idea what a new furnace and ac cost i just had one put https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?num=14360 it was about $4200 but i got prices as high as $6100. the other things dont cost that much. if you like the house buy it. think about how much the house is if you like the house dont let $4000 stop you. talk to the bank you maybe able th make your loan bigger for the furnace and ac i bet you payments would only go up $50 -$75 a month

 

Old Republic is one of the best warranties, check them out.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. The warranty in question at the moment would be through the selling realtor, but there's a bit of confusion at this point. It was listed with a realtor, then a month later it was listed through Prudential as a corporate sale. App, there is a job for the seller and his new employer is providing the Prudential coverage, but that's speculation. I can't really do much until I get a printout of the warranty. Once I see the warranty then I can make a counter-counter offer.

 

I don't know how things work in America with regards to this topic, but me being a reasonable minded fellow, I can't see it being much different from our system.

I've bought and sold 5 houses in the last 7 years, picking my moments and taking advantage of the real estate boom.

With that being said, everything pretty much comes down to "Caveat Emptor" ~ Buyer Beware.

Suppose I have my house for sale, and you the potential buyer come through to take a look, and you notice a few things which are broken.

You are more than welcome to list those items being repaired as a "condition of sale", and that's your right to say "look, I'm not buying your house unless these things are fixed to my satisfaction"

I as the seller also have the right to say "sorry Charlie, the deal is 'as is', and I'm not budging". "You want to buy this house? You take it as you see it and fix it yourself".

There are many circumstances when a seller might do this such as "a sellers market", or perhaps the seller already dropped the price to reflect the repairs.
I've had more than my share of sellers that think just because they snap their fingers, you should jump through hoops, and I've noticed that many young and first time buyers have unreasonable expectations and don't have a clue how things work.

Chris, how do you mean you made the seller pay for it? Did you include a condition that the water heater had to remain in a serviceable condition for x number of months?

I'm a little confused because in all the houses I've sold, I've never agreed to warranty anything in the house after the closing date.

There are exceptions mind you.... Suppose my furnace is shot, but it's only working a little (after I give it a few kicks), If I represent to you that the furnace is in excellent working order, but I know it's not, then this is fraud and I am liable (as long as you can prove it)

My last house had an In-Ground swimming pool, the buyers asked in the offer for me to warrant the liner for 12 months. (we sold it in Nov)
I told them I'm not warranting anything because what if say by chance, the liner goes in the spring because its 18 years old and it was going anyway.
I just said no, take it or leave it. At that time it was a sellers market and my house sold for more than the asking price.

You can "ask" the seller for anything you want, there's no law against that, and make it a condition of the sale, if he says no, well that's the way it is. Go find another house if the seller won't deal.

One more point though, when you put in the offer to buy my house, everything must be in the same condition or better on the day you take possession
A good example is 3 days before our last closing, the electric garage door opener failed. I couldn't just say "oh well it broke down, too bad" I went and bought a brand new one and installed it in time for closing. Sure I wasn't happy about it, but that was my responsibility as the seller.

Suppose the opener failed 2 weeks after they took possessionat's too bad, but I'm not liable for things that fail after closing as long as
1) I didn't misrepresent
2) I didn't lie about it
3) caused it to break because of my negligence.

Regards

 

the sellers real estate agent offered a home warranty for a price that was 6 years ago i dont remember how much it was. i had my real estate agent put it in to my offer that the seller pay for the home warranty.

 

Also, beware that a warranty may not cover to fix and/or replace items due to city and/or state code. They will say, "The (insert issue) was not up to code so we are not responsible."

 

I got ya.
Glad they paid the claim because like I said, my friend who works for the home owners advantage co. told me they pretty much deny everything.
He even told me he feels bad sometimes denying a claim, because its a single mom with a bunch of kids or whatever.

The protocol is set from up top "deny everything" and only approve a claim when you have a gun to your head.

It's really sad that's how the majority conduct their business.
I know it's a bit OT, but look at State Farm and the Katrina victoms, they all got the shaft.

Regards
H

 

We've had a home warranty with American Home Shield (ServiceMaster) since we bought our house. The first year it was thrown in by the seller, but we have opted to renew it every year since. I can say that it has paid for itself many times over and I would definitely recommend it. They have rarely turned down claims and have repaired or replaced pool and A/C parts, hot water heater parts and garbage disposal parts. What has not been covered was repaired by the technician they sent out at pretty decent prices. If you are able to determine the problem, go to Home Depot and buy the part and fix it yourself, it may not be worth it, but for us it definitely is.

 

Holy moly the webmaster replied!!! And not even to tell me to cool my jets
Steve, I believe the warranty is AHS, curious if you could tell me a ballpark figure what it costs to renew the warranty.