Maintaining a home warranty on your home can prevent a lot of headaches and financial upset. Unlike home insurance, which covers your home’s property and structure against natural disaster, a home warranty can cover appliances, heat and air, plumbing, and other components of the house when they break down or need replacement.

Homeowners often skip the process of purchasing a home warranty plan because it is not a requirement of most lenders, whereas home insurance is usually required. However, buying a home warranty service plan can be an important safeguard for the things you need functioning within your home. We’ll discuss why below.

1. Policies are typically inexpensive and easy to purchase

Often when we hear a warranty being offered with any purchase, we think “expensive” or “unnecessary.” Home warranties are different in that they typically average and affordable $300 per year, and they’ll most definitely be used to maintain your home.

Home warranty service plans are also easy to obtain. You can easily sign up online or over the phone, and there aren’t usually lengthy inspections and mounds of paperwork required.

Remember when signing up, however, to compare companies and plans in detail. Not all companies offer the same benefits with their warranty plans, and not all warranty plans will cover what you need. Be sure to distinguish what’s necessary to be included in your plan and choose accordingly.

2. Savings in repairs

When something like your stove breaks, it can be costly to replace or repair when you don’t have a warranty in place. With a home warranty, however, you would simply place a claim with the warranty company and pay your deductible (average about $50-$100) and service call fee (often around $60). A service technician would then come out and repair or replace the stove.

3. Ease of use

Taking care of repairs through a home warranty service can save you a lot of hassle. When something breaks in your home, it can be a complicated process of finding a reliable repair company or person, comparing costs, and then fitting those repair costs into your budget.

With a home warranty, you get to skip all of the headaches as your rates are pre-negotiated and they will send their own service technicians typically.

4. Keep things running smoothly

When something breaks, and the repair or replacement is outside of the homeowner’s budget, that important component within your home may get neglected, this both inconveniences those living within the home and can make problems worse and more costly if they aren’t dealt with promptly.

Having a home warranty service plan ensures that when problems arise, they can be dealt with quickly and you can breathe easy.

5. Good buyer incentive

Buyers love to see that a home warranty has been kept on a home as it displays good care and effort has been taken. Offering a home warranty with the home when you sell it can also be a great incentive for buyers. Buyers feel comforted knowing that the components of the house are covered if anything goes wrong.

6. Debt Prevention

When something goes wrong with an appliance or system within your home, you might not always be financially prepared to take care of it. Depending on the issue, replacing or repairing an appliance or other systems can cost upwards of a thousand dollars. If the problem is severe, homeowners sometimes take on new debt to resolve the issue.

Taking on a large amount of new debt can place a severe strain on your and your family’s finances. Having a home warranty service plan in place is more budget-friendly and will prevent the need to take on new debt.