Home Warranty

Birds fly, fish swim, and stuff breaks. And when we own a home, all that broken stuff is not only our responsibility to fix, it can also get...expensive.

Which is why some homeowners buy something called a home warranty: it’s a policy that will cover certain home repairs for a monthly or yearly premium. It’s not insurance, but it’s insurance-esque; it’s helping us protect our investment against the unknown.

Let’s say that, one day, while we’re changing a lightbulb in the kitchen, a fuse blows and half the house goes dark. If we have a home warranty, we can call our warranty company and they’ll send somebody out to our house to fix it. We’ll probably end up paying a service call fee, but if the repair needed is covered by the warranty, then that’s all we’ll pay.

Home warranties can be great if we buy an older home or one we’re not sure has been well-maintained, or if we’re crazy busy and don’t have time to interview, select, and schedule an electrician, for example. It can also be great if we’re just not that handy; paying a policy premium and a service call fee can be a lot cheaper (and would be a lot smarter) than burning down the house because we’re not 100% sure how to change a fuse.