Do I Need a Home Warranty? Frisco Texas Property Management Education

Home warranties can present problems for your Frisco rental property, and we always recommend that property owners consider the drawbacks before spending money on them. A warranty might be a good idea for your own home when you live there. However, a home warranty can be problematic for a tenant and a property management company. Here’s why:

  1. A home warranty company does not have a contractual obligation to the landlord, the tenant and the property manager. The only obligation they have is to the landlord. However, when something is wrong with the property, the tenant will call the management company. Then, the management company has to call the home warranty company. It can take up to 24 hours just to get a response from that warranty company. Think about what that means here in Frisco, Texas, if it’s summertime and 110 degrees outside. If an air conditioning system breaks and the tenant has to wait a long time to have it fixed, you’re going to have a very unhappy tenant. The property manager has a hard time doing his job properly when a warranty company is involved. The warranty company won’t call back until the next day and that phone call will only be to schedule an appointment. You don’t know when they will actually fix the problem, and that’s not going to go over well with your tenant.

  2. There is no sense of responsibility. At Plat Realty, when we send a vendor to fix something in a property, we take responsibility for that vendor’s work. We expect it to be done quickly and we expect the quality to be outstanding. A home warranty company does not feel responsible as far as the work is concerned. They will try to blame others if something goes wrong or the problem does not get fixed correctly.

  3. Small problems become large problems. The problem could be a small issue, such as a water leak. When that problem gets reported to us, we send a plumber out right away to take care of it. A home warranty company will take several days and over the course of those days, the water continues to drip. This might cause further damage. Maybe the carpet will get drenched. The warranty company might fix the leak, but not the other resulting damage. This will upset your tenant and it will cost you money. Please contact us at Plat Realty if you have any questions, or you’d like further information about home warranties and whether they are a good idea for your rental property.