<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-sR9gnFEVBg" width="480"></iframe></div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’re looking to buy a home here in Silicon Valley, you may be wondering whether you need a home warranty to protect it against potential problems. Today I’d like to answer some common questions about home warranties:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is a home warranty?</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In essence, a home warranty is an insurance policy that protects your home from issues with things like the plumbing, electrical wiring, or appliances after you move in. Even if no problems were spotted during your initial inspection, complications can crop up unexpectedly.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How long do home warranties last?</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Home warranties will generally last one year.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How much do home warranties cost?</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Basic home warranties usually run between $400 and $500. This cost can vary depending on what you’d like to have covered.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-89687b0b-997a-c388-8460-6631a9d58fd8"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4.</span><span style="color: #222222; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who pays for the home warranty?</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Typically, we can get the seller to pay for the cost of the home warranty as part of our offer; however, if you’re competing with multiple offers on a property, sometimes it’s best not to include it, as the seller is going to look at the total net proceeds of your offer and take that into consideration.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="border: solid 1px #03506a; display: block; margin: 0 auto; padding: 20px 10px; width: 80%;">
<span style="color: #03506a; display: block; float: left; font-size: 100px; line-height: 50px; position: absolute;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“</span></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
Potential problems with your home can come up unexpectedly.
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #03506a; display: block; float: right; font-size: 100px; line-height: 50px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s important to note that </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">home warranties are not catch-all insurance policies that will completely cover everything</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There will usually be a service fee attached to a claim, which can run anywhere from $60 to $90 per incident. The warranty company will send contractors out to fix any problems, but you will be charged for each incident reported. While a home warranty provides some nice peace of mind for new homeowners, they are not the perfect solution to every problem you may encounter.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve learned this from my own personal experience. My water heater had gone out on my property, and though I was covered by a home warranty, codes had changed between then and the time the house was built. So while the installation and the new water heater were covered, the code upgrades were not. Though I ended up spending about $400 on that, I did end up saving nearly $1,000 on the water heater itself, thanks to the warranty.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have any specific questions about home warranties, companies that provide them, or different types of coverages, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to talk you through it.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-89687b0b-997b-3b98-6648-b2b8abd609d3"></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
