When you purchase an investment property, you have a lot of decisions to make. One of those decisions will be whether or not you want to buy a home warranty policy. Today, we’re talking about whether that’s a good idea for your rental property.
Home Warranties: Good for Owner/Occupants but Not Property Investors
In some cases, having a home warranty works well. However, we have found it works better when you are living in the home and you’re the one dealing with the warranty company. For a property manager and a tenant, making a claim with your warranty company can be complicated and time consuming. Often, we’re on the phone for 30 or 40 minutes just to make the claim. If we try to do so online, they won’t process the claim until the next day. This takes a long time, and it’s a tedious process.
Vendor Selection and Customer Service
Typically, home warranty companies hire the least expensive vendors. The vendors we have experienced with warranty companies have really bad reviews from other clients, and low customer satisfaction. We don’t get to work with our own vendors, which means we don’t get the best service. Tenants are inconvenienced because the vendors have to return to the property twice or three times to get the repair done properly. Vendors in the home warranty network have no loyalty to us or to the tenants or to you, the property owner. They just want to get the job done as fast as possible so they can move on to the next thing. They are required to contact the tenant within 24 to 48 hours, but then they might schedule the work for a week later. That’s not acceptable to us.
Before you buy a home warranty policy, give these considerations some serious thought.
Please contact us at Windsor Pacific Property Management if you have any questions about home warranties, or if you need help with San Ramon property management. We serve San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, and surrounding areas.
John Moulding
Jackelyne Ferreira
Antonio Ferreira