Home Warranty Shopping? One Site Aims to Make It Easier

It seems like just about everyone has an opinion about home warranties, and just about everyone has a love/hate relationship with theirs.

Shopping for a home warranty company, therefore, can also be difficult. Asking friends and neighbors can yield subjective and varied opinions, leaving you just as unsure about which company to choose as you started out.

But reviewhomewarranties.com aims to change that by providing objective reviews and easy-to-understand breakdowns of what each company offers, said James Edwin Surrey, Marketing Manager and Head of Operations for the company.

Surrey said he knows that it’s hard to get an unbiased opinion, and that the perception is out there that home warranty companies are hard to deal with.

“Home warranties are problematic by nature for two reasons — like insurance, it’s all about the fine print. There are plenty of limitations, and each plan covers different items, different malfunctions, and with a different cap,” he said. “And being a loosely regulated market, there are bad seeds — companies that don’t honor the agreements.”

And when you’re standing ankle-deep in water from a hot water heater malfunction, or your air conditioner fails during a heat wave, you never want to find out that home warranty company fine print means you’ll be paying substantially out of pocket to fix it.

“There is a substantial number of disappointed customers who pay their monthly premium but when they need service they don’t get it,” Surrey agrees. “Some customers are rightfully disappointed and others were just not aware of the terms of the contract.”

“Those who get the service they need are obviously content.”

But Surrey thinks that people searching for home warranty coverage should be able to easily compare companies and what they cover, so creating a site where that could happen was a priority.

“ReviewHomeWarranties.com provides a complete, comprehensive, and comparative analysis of each company and plan offered by each company — enabling prospective clients to learn exactly what is covered, how much does it cost, and what other existing clients think of the firm,” he explained. “The site automatically presents the top rated companies based on location and shows clear pros and cons of each company.”

Rankings are based on data from several different sources, Surrey said.

“Review data is collated from the provider’s website, the service agreement itself, and all big client review sites across the Internet,” he said. “We have more data than any other site dealing with home warranties.”

“Then this data is processed by experts and we assign rankings in various criteria to formulate an overall score.”

Other factors include things like pricing, which the company said doesn’t necessarily mean which home warranty company is the cheapest, but which one gives you the most bang for your buck, comparing the type of coverage clients go for at each price bracket.

With a quick toggle, you can even find the best home warranty companies in your state — or you can go directly to the Texas page. The site also includes a blog that covers everything from when to DIY or hire an expert, how to avoid having a claim rejected, and how to maintain appliances so they live longer.

At the end of the day, Surrey said that good home warranty companies do save homeowners money and make repairs easier, making the purchase of one worthwhile.

“Home warranties can save customers money, make the repair process easier by having a one-stop shop for all repairmen, and most importantly, make sure there is no situation in which an expensive appliance or system breaks, and the consumer is unable to pay for repair or replacement,” he said.