Selling Your House--Would you offer a home warranty?

hmd · October 2011

Our realtor said we could include this for prospective buyers for $300. It would repair furnace and a/c which are about 22 years old.

Tweetysvoice · October 2011

I'm not selling, but the house we bought has a warranty. We made a contigency that it had to include the warranty before we would buy. Given the age of the furnace and the A/C - as a buyer - I'd either want a warranty or ask for the replacement cost of the two.

car_ramrod · October 2011

We offered a warranty and we also got a warranty on the house we are buying. It is very little cost in the scheme of things and worth it to a lot of buyers for the peace of mind. Our warranty actually covers us while our house is on the market which is nice!

razamataz · October 2011

When we sold, I was totally prepared to offer a warranty - our furnace and AC were at least 25 years old and when I bought 8 years before, the inspector told me they would likely need replacing sooner rather than later. They lasted me the 8 years, but I anticipated an inspection upon selling would again reveal that they were well past their best. I figured offering a warranty would soften the impact of that news.

The first realtor we interviewed was eager to add a warranty on to our listing - - - however, that was because the warranty came from her firm and would simply put more cash in her pocket!

The second realtor we interviewed (and went with), said to hold off on offering it. She said we could always throw it in to sweeten negotiations once an offer came through. Well, we got an offer 2 months later and there was no request for a warranty. The inspection when through and again, to my shock, there was no request for a warranty.

In the end, we ended up selling without any warranty and no requests for repairs to the current furnace/AC. I was shocked - but really happy that we never brought a warranty into the picture. We were already losing so much money, another $400 for an unwanted/unnecessary (to us) warranty, would have stung.

So in short - - you can go with it now, or hold out to see if they buyers want one or if it can be tossed in as a bargaining chip in negotiations. You may find you don't need it!

ETA. To be honest, when looking at houses, when I see "Warranty included", I often think something pretty major must be wrong with it. I know that a warranty is intended to cover that something, but it only lasts a year or so and then what? If the furnace/AC doesn't give out in that year, great - but then if it gives out 18 months from date of purchase, you are screwed. I know these are things that you can encounter in any home, warranty or not, but when I see a warranty is mentioned in the listing, a lot of times I see it as a red-flag for issues I will have to deal with down the road.

lilyaster · October 2011

I would certainly be willing to pay for a home warranty if buyers wanted one. We aren't offering one yet but if the house doesn't sell we may drop the price and add a home warranty.

LouRN09 · October 2011

When we sold our home, we did offer a warranty. And as pp mentioned, it also covered us while we still lived in the home during the 5 months we had it on the market. Our neighborhood was saturated with homes for sale, and many were cookie cutter homes that all looked similar, so we needed to do anything we could to stand out and bring buyers to us. And our home was more for first time buyers, and a warranty would offer them a peace of mind as they probably wouldnt have alot of extra cash available for repairs after paying for the DP/CC of a new home.

May-Bride · October 2011

If a house has a 22 year old furnace and a/c, I'm going to take the cost of replacing those items into account when making my offer, home warranty or not. However, I'm not a first time buyer and my previous experiences with warranties haven't been positive. A first time buyer will probably view things differently and if your agent thinks it will help, I would offer one.

jacksjerseygirl · October 2011

I think it depends a lot on your market. In the Iowa market we were buying into (though we decided to build) ... virtually all older homes we looked at offered the warranty (however we were looking at a higher price point of home).

So if one doesn't offer a warranty in this market, it would look bad.

If you are in a highly competitive market ... lots of homes like yours on the market ... then the warranty being offered up front makes your home look more attractive.

If warranties on older homes in your market are not common and there isn't a lot of competition to your home ... then I would hold off on it.

atlcatlover · October 2011

I didn't offer one, but my buyer asked me to include one and I did.

Pamela05 · October 2011

We offered it because it was standard in our area (only thing possible old in the house is the gas water heater so not a super expensive replacement). We declined it even though the sellers offered on the house we bought because we didn't think it was worth the money and would rather get a lower contract price out of them.

grahamsm3 · October 2011

I wouldn't b/c they are not common in my area - but in your case $300 is cheap to give buyers peace of mind for about the furnace.

jennylove1084 · October 2011

May-Bride:
If a house has a 22 year old furnace and a/c, I'm going to take the cost of replacing those items into account when making my offer, home warranty or not.

This exactly but we did both because the house we bought was built in 1929, so while we were prepared to replace the furnace, we didn't want any other things to hit us right away that first year.

emisi · October 2011

We requested (and got) one. If there was an issue with the furnace/AC, I'd offer one if they asked for money to replace it, but not necessarily offer one upfront.

Selling Your House--Would you offer a home warranty?

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