Home warranties can be a Sandwich Generation, tool-challenged, property owner’s friend! It doesn’t matter if your investment properties are your home, your aging parents’ property, or used as rentals. It’s important to stay on top of repairs and routine maintenance. For many of us in the Baby Boomer Generation, that can be easier to say than to do. That’s where home warranties can help.
We bought our first house as a fixer upper over thirty years ago. My husband was young, lithe and very good at repairs. Even so, with his busy work schedule and our tight budget, home and appliance repairs were sometimes tough to deal with.
When we moved a few hundred miles away 15 years later, we were thrilled to buy a house that offered an Old Republic home warranty. Because my husband and I were no longer as lithe as we used to be, and his overtime requirements were even higher, we gladly paid to renew it each year. It wasn’t cheap but it more than paid for itself over the years when the dishwasher broke on Thanksgiving, the garbage disposal broke on Christmas, and the air conditioner broke in the middle of a heat wave in the summer!
When I, as a widow, bought a new property on my own, there was no question about it. I definitely made sure I bought a home warranty, in spite of the house being brand new. Once again, my policy about home warranties paid for itself in the second year, when the new air conditioner broke down just AFTER the manufacturer’s warranty ended!
That whole incident also led me to discover one of my easier ways to save money. It always pays to shop around AND to read the small print. Because I did just that, I was able to take advantage of a major savings by getting a five year warranty plan under their new house option for a fraction of the normal cost. My real estate agent hadn’t even known about that. It was a great deal that I almost missed out on!
If you or your spouse are very talented at home repairs and have plenty of time. you could probably skip buying home warranties. On the other hand, I personally think the headaches they save make them worthwhile for me, even if I wasn’t tool-challenged. 
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