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Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu break down why home warranties often fail homeowners: denial loopholes, code upgrade exclusions, long delays, and contractors you can’t choose. They share horror stories including a mismatched HVAC replacement that forced costly auxiliary heat and a technician caught going through a homeowner’s underwear drawer. Alternatives include thorough inspections, maintenance plans, and building a repair emergency fund.
00:00 Creepy Contractor Story
00:46 Podcast Intro and Outfit Talk
01:47 Home Builder Show Recap
02:53 Vegas Chaos and Temu Elmo
05:42 Sticker Shock at the Expo
07:20 Orlando Traffic Meltdown
09:04 Home Warranties Are a Scam
10:50 What Warranties Claim to Cover
13:16 How Claims Get Denied
17:05 Code Updates and Aging Loopholes
20:12 You Don’t Pick the Contractor
21:38 HVAC Horror Story Begins
25:44 Warranty HVAC Scam
28:01 Why Contractors Cut Corners
29:17 Claims Delays No Coverage
31:21 Not Insurance Arbitration
38:11 Are Warranties Ever Worth
43:43 Safety Risks Bad Techs
46:42 Smarter Alternatives Inspections
51:15 Emergency Fund Maintenance Plans
56:03 Final Takeaways Call To Action
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Creators and Guests
Host
Jessica Abreu
As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.
Host
Mikki Paradis
President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.
What is Chicks in Construction?
You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.
From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.
The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Abreu, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home.
After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.
Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/
36 Chicks In Construction
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Mikki: . [00:00:00] Well, this poor little, and she was like, like 20 something at the time. Um, she was like, she was so scarred from that experience of finding this guy going through her underwear drawer that like, she is terrified to hire anybody to come in her house now to work on anything in her house.
Jessica: Be putting locks on my underwear drawer.
Mikki: I mean, I just, I, I feel so bad. I can't even imagine. I'm like, first of all. Really what is wrong with you? Like, but I guess that's, who
Jessica: are you looking for for
Mikki: real? I guess that's like the bigger issue is what is wrong with people.
Jessica: Then I'd be wondering like, did he take a pa, like I'd be going back, I'd be my drowning.
Be like, alright, do I have all the ones that, the
Mikki: friendly ones?
Jessica: Yeah. Or did they take something?
Mikki: Oh God, I didn't even think about that. That's terrifying. Ugh. She was just trying to not get murdered in her own condo Well, hello and welcome back to the Chicks and Construction Podcast. I am your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my illustrious co-host.
Jessica: Hi, [00:01:00] I'm Jessica Abra.
Mikki: We're kind of matchy today. Like you, you're blue on the top and blue on the bottom.
Jessica: Yeah,
Mikki: look at us. We could make a whole little, whole little number.
Jessica: Yeah. Yellow smurf.
Mikki: I I, I got, had to get dressed up today. Just wasn't a podcast. People, we love you and, and I'm, I want, I wanna put my best foot forward with you always. But this level of dress up is not for you. I had to do a thing, I met with my congress person today. I was very excited about it. So I felt like I had to put on my fancy pants for her.
Mm-hmm. Because I was like, eh, she's in Congress. I probably, if I ever. If forever, ever get in a lot of trouble one day I want her to like me, so lemme put on my fancy pants.
Jessica: You look stunning.
Mikki: Thank you. So do you I like it. I like, I like this color for us.
Jessica: Yes.
Mikki: Very good. Um, um, I, I went to, as Jess knows, but so that you guys know.
I went to the Home Builder show, the International Home Builder Show in this year. It's, it is where we launched the podcast from. Oh, it
Jessica: is. We launched
Mikki: last [00:02:00] year. Last year they did it in Vegas last year. This year they did it in Orlando. And here's the, here's the thing. Neither one of those places are I, am I a fan of?
I just, no. I grew up in Orlando, so we all know, we all know how I feel about Florida. I was told to stop talking about it. Um, I can't, but I'm gonna try to talk about it less.
Jessica: So we're gonna, we're gonna, um, poop on Vegas instead. So,
Mikki: I mean, honestly, like Vegas was, I don't understand. I don't understand. I didn't get it.
I don't get it either. Like we, it was so much
Jessica: stuff
Mikki: all at once. I guess the thing is too, I don't gamble. 'cause like, listen, I work too damn hard for my money that like, I would maybe give myself like a limit of like $200 and like the second that's gone, I'd be one, I would be done gambling and two, I'd be pissed off that I spent $200 on nothing.
Jessica: Yeah.
Mikki: So, um, I, when we went, I was like, I don't know if you remember this, we were walking. [00:03:00] To the convention center. Mm-hmm. And these, we were walking behind these guys and they smelled like a dumpster.
Jessica: Mm-hmm.
Mikki: And apparently this is pretty common in Vegas that like, because they go and the casino like rigs it to where you don't know like how long has passed.
Jessica: Yeah. There's no actual windows.
Mikki: Yeah. So you're just like, you think mm-hmm. It's only been an hour and it's been three days. Smell like you haven't showered in three days. And we were walking behind them and it was nauseating. I actually had to get off the sidewalk, go into the street and walk around them.
'cause I was like, I'm gonna barf if I have to keep breathing these guys in.
Jessica: And do you remember the guy that yelled at me because he was in like a co, he was in some kind of costume and. I think it was like a, it was like a cartoon or something. It, a character and was like character. All my kids would think that this is hysterical.
So I,
Mikki: but it would, but pause. It was like, I think it was off Brand Elmo or something like
Jessica: that.
Mikki: It was not like a real, it was a generic Elmo costume that [00:04:00] Timo. It was Temu. I was gonna say Amazon, but that would be rude to Amazon. It was like a Timo Elmo costume.
Jessica: Yes. So I took a picture of him before. Going into a store and
Mikki: first of all, a target.
We were going into Target and she took a picture of him
Jessica: just quick, just like, not even just
Mikki: to be like, Hey kids, look how weird Vegas is. Yeah.
Jessica: Just a picture of him and he comes running up. Oh, he came
Mikki: for you,
Jessica: came costing me because I didn't pay him to take his picture.
Mikki: Yeah.
Jessica: And I was like
Mikki: what is that?
What is, sorry. He needs to be compensated for his image. Yes. Just like somebody we know that needs to be compensated for voice, for their voice, her voice that does not matter and knows nothing about anything. Anyway, we digressed. Yeah. Yes. That was intense. Yeah, he, he was aggressive
Jessica: and he wouldn't let me walk until I showed him that the photo was deleted off of my phone.
Mikki: Yeah. First of all, um,
Jessica: rude.
Mikki: I'm just gonna say, come at me like that. I'm gonna put hands on you, Elmo. I'm gonna put hands on. This is still America. Okay. I'm gonna put [00:05:00] hands on you. It's like I'm from the south.
Jessica: Okay.
Mikki: Just as a little bit more polite, I would've kneed you right in the groin. So Elma got real lucky he did that.
It was you and not me. 'cause it'd been, it'd been full on hands. I actually don't think I knew what was happening until later. 'cause
Jessica: it was so,
Mikki: it was so weird.
Jessica: So weird. And like. We got kind of step, 'cause like you guys were walking into the store. I was this and he was,
Mikki: yeah. And
Jessica: then all of a sudden he was in between those and I was
Mikki: like, wild.
It was wild.
Jessica: And I was like, I'll just do what you want, sir, because I don't need to get shot today.
Mikki: Yeah. Un unlike me, I'd have been like, do it. I'll be like, 50 cents got shot nine times.
Jessica: No, I'm,
Mikki: I don't
Jessica: really
Mikki: wanna get shot. No, don't. But listen. I'm down for it. I'm, I am. I'm here for it.
Jessica: All right. So you went to the home show.
Mikki: Okay. Went to the home show.
Jessica: We're wrapping it back up. It was a
Mikki: lot. It was a lot. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be honest, I was trying to get content for like, for, for us, but like I was in there and I was like, none of this makes sense. Like, it was just like walking through it. I understood why renovating your [00:06:00] kitchen costs as much as it costs to build a house.
Like I was just like. What, who is this for? Like for me, I was going into it thinking maybe I can find information about how to like make things more affordable.
Joe Woolworth: No,
Mikki: that was not the event for that. There's not the event for that. There was nothing affordable about the entire thing. Like I was walking past like 5,000, $10,000 bathtubs.
And they're like, look, a great bathtub. And I'm like, how much is there like $10,000? What a bargain. I wash. I was like absolutely not. Like, it's like by the end of it I was like, this is nonsense. I don't wanna be here anymore.
Jessica: I wanna know what people do for work that can afford those things. So that, not so that I can do it, but so that I can tell my husband to
Mikki: go get that job.
I feel like the, the, like, it was like this, this is people whose money works for them. Like they don't even work their money, do the working. Oh. And it, it was just wild. And I was like, so [00:07:00] we need it. The, the Orlando Convention Center is 7 million square feet and it was full. Of unaffordable things. Oh God.
And I was like, this is gross. This is giving gross vibes. So, well, yeah, I'm home now and and today tears the deal decompressing
Jessica: from all that
Mikki: I am decompressing. One of the things that happened that was like, this is why I don't live in Orlando, and this is also why I talk very badly about Florida.
So my hotel was one mile away from where we were having lunch with our dinner with Hydro Block, which they were our first podcast.
Jessica: Mm-hmm.
Mikki: They were, our first guest on the podcast was Hydro Block, and I was having dinner with them and my hotel was one mile. And it took me 45 minutes to get one mile.
Jessica: You could have walked,
Mikki: I could have walked. I, oh, I was almost crying in the car. I was like, I just, I don't understand, like I left 30 minutes early to give myself plenty of time, which is very rare for me. Just so you know. Very rare. I'm not an on time [00:08:00] individual, and I think that was part of what was making like the emotions rage, because I was like, I was gonna be on time.
For the first time in my life, no, no. I was 15 minutes late and it was rage inducing. It was rage inducing.
Jessica: 45 minutes to
Mikki: go a mile. Yeah, it's one mile. I can't
Jessica: Were you near like Disney?
Mikki: Um, it was, it was on international drive, which is like universals right there. Okay. And they're all kind of like there.
Yeah. But just like in the distance. But it's just, it didn't make any, it was really 'cause of bad road construction, but not even bad road construction. Just construction, bad lane design.
Jessica: Yeah.
Mikki: And. There's just too many tourists in Florida for you to pull off some, like, some, some weaving and wobbling. Oh, there's, you just gotta go straight.
Or people get real confused and Oh my God. I was like, I can't, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I was just pulled my car. I didn't die, but I, I almost cried. I will tell you that much. It was so [00:09:00] frustrating. Yeah, I don't know how people live there. And I say that as someone who used to live there.
So, speaking of crazy making, we've got a fun one for you today. Um, and this has been actually been brought up by a couple different people that I've interviewed for the podcast, but we're talking today about this scam that is known as the home warranty.
Jessica: Ooh.
Mikki: Have you ever had anybody try to sell you a home warranty?
Jessica: I get an A letter.
Mikki: Yeah.
Jessica: I would say. Monthly.
Mikki: Yeah. I go
Jessica: one every month. Everybody saying that? Like your home, American
Mikki: home
Jessica: warranty, your home warranty is almost up. I was like, I don what Home warranty? I don't think I have a home warranty, but thank you. Um,
Mikki: it's a bigger, I would say as somebody who once did buy an extended warranty on my car, that actually panned out very well.
I had a, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that was a diesel.
Jessica: Oh.
Mikki: And let me tell you that warranty paid for itself like five times over. 'cause there was a massive recall on the, on the. That vehicle. It was a [00:10:00] nuts.
Jessica: But that's not typical.
Mikki: It's not typical. So I'm not saying go and extend your car warranty. That is not the advice I'm giving you.
I'm just saying I think that home warranties are a bigger scam than the extended car warranty, and everybody makes great jokes about that. So we need to start making jokes about how scammy and shammy the home warranty industry is because mm-hmm. I have some doozy of stories, but listen guys, we have been.
Trying to be more consistent with doing a script. Now, I didn't print them out today 'cause I felt we should save the trees, but I do have the script on my phone. Save the trees. So we're going to try, and I say try and I use that loosely to be more intentional with our mm-hmm. With your time, but because we really wanna help you.
So home warranties is the topic. Um, so let's talk about what home warranties. Are and what they're s like what they're supposed to be. So on paper, a home warranty is supposed to [00:11:00] cover major systems like your HVAC, your plumbing, your electrical, your appliances when they fail or when they, um, you know, stop working from wear and tear,
Jessica: which is why most people wanna buy them, because that sounds like a great idea, right?
Oh, this is going to break and I'm gonna have a warranty to help pay for their. Repair or the replacement. Yeah.
Mikki: And they're normally like pretty mild in price. So what's really interesting about home warranties is the more times than not, they're actually sold to or geared towards people who are in a lower income bracket because they can afford a very small monthly payment.
But if their HVAC were to go out or their. Washing machine or whatever it was, there was some, some, one of their larger appliances, they don't have to, that were to stop working, they wouldn't be able to just go out and get a new appliance. Mm-hmm. So they market the home warranties to people who, one, don't have any, you know, handy person experience, but two are limited in their budget.
And that in and of [00:12:00] itself is. Crap really crappy because it's not like, it would be great if home warranties were actually effective, and it was a great way for people who were on a smaller budget. Mm-hmm. To be able to have that peace of mind, like, okay, it's gonna be great. They sell it as that, but that's not.
At all what happens And we, we have some homeowner stories to like feed into this.
Jessica: Yeah. 'cause the home warranty is actually written to protect the warranty company.
Mikki: Right.
Jessica: Because they wanna keep their money. It's just like all things, all companies, they wanna hold onto that money as much as possible.
They want as many people pulling in and giving them a whole bunch. And they don't wanna, they don't wanna give it out.
Mikki: And like, and, and that where I think there's probably nothing we say more than the importance of reading your contracts. Like, like I am that person. I am that person. The one you got really irritated at, 'cause you were behind me in line and I was getting my rental car agreement and I read it and, and it made you mad because you wanted to get next in line.
But I was holding the lineup 'cause I was reading the contract. [00:13:00] But that's why it's important to read the contract. Mm-hmm. Because then, you know. What's in there. And unfortunately, these contracts are loaded with exclusions with caps and really vague language that gives them a lot of wiggle room to say no to you.
Jessica: Yes.
Mikki: So let's talk about some of the common denial reasons, because that's one of Joe our studio got over here. He was, and I told him today we're talking about home warranties. He's like, oh, I actually, you know, finally got a yes out of a home warranty after. 18 months of them denying us and saying no.
And so that's like the first thing is like, you, you pay this money every month. You think you're covered, you've got this home warranty and something goes out in your house and the first thing they say is, oh, that's not covered. Mm-hmm. And so, um, one of the biggest things is that they used to deny you is saying that it's, it was a preexisting condition.
Um, even though one, you as a homeowner have no idea. That, that [00:14:00] something is preexisting. Obviously if you had known that there was an existing issue, you would've taken care of it, or you wouldn't have bought the house either way. Right. Or you would've had
Jessica: the
Mikki: other home
Jessica: do it.
Mikki: But also, isn't that what a home warranty is supposed to cover?
Like it's supposed to cover you for something that exists that you don't know about.
Jessica: Yeah. To fix.
Mikki: Right? And they're like,
Jessica: no. If something is fixing, you need to fix it.
Mikki: Yep. They're like, Nope. Sorry. Another reason that they'll deny you is, um. Improper installation. So,
Jessica: which again, how would you know, like if I'm looking at a wall, I don't know if it was
Mikki: right, and if you, if your dishwasher is installed and it's for, for a time working,
Jessica: right.
Mikki: How are you, the homeowner supposed to know that it wasn't installed properly?
Jessica: Right. Or your washer machine. Right. Or your dry, unless, like something when you go to do, when they do the inspection. That you can, they'll tell you like, oh, you know it's leaking water. Right? Well then maybe you might know, but other than that, [00:15:00] you are not gonna know if anything's installed.
Right. It
Mikki: was installed incorrectly.
Jessica: Even if like they came to my house and installed something now I'm not gonna know if they did it right. I'm just going to assume that you are the one doing it. Right. You're doing it right.
Mikki: Right. So like the fact that, that using proper installation as a reason to deny people is, is kind of wild to me.
Jessica: It's, it's crazy.
Mikki: It's, I know it took one of yours.
Jessica: No, it's alright. You
Mikki: can take mine.
Jessica: Normal aging.
Mikki: Yeah. I mean. What, why am I paying you monthly? If like, and like I understand that there's like limits to things like, you know, like the phone, like your, the warranty on your phone. It's like obviously it doesn't cover it if you ran it over with your car.
Jessica: Oh, I don't even have a warranty on my phone.
Mikki: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And can, that's probably
Jessica: another one.
Mikki: That's one time Hector ran his, um, his phone over. Not, this is a, not sponsored, but it an OtterBox. If you want to let me know, you can sponsor us. They're like, absolutely not. Um, Hector had his phone in an OtterBox.
Okay. If you work in construction and you have a cell phone, [00:16:00] and it's not in an OtterBox, get it in an OtterBox right now. So the the otter, the phone falls out of his pocket. Mm-hmm. He's driving a forklift. He runs his phone over in a forklift. Oh my gosh. It was fine. OtterBox s Gotch back. So
Jessica: it must have landed this
Mikki: Yeah, it was face, it was down.
Yeah. But it was one of those otter boxes that has the cover. It was like a fully encapsulated mm-hmm. Because Hector has dropped his phone in a port-a-potty before lessons were learned. Thank, thank you, OtterBox. We got him a new OtterBox after that. I was like, there's
Jessica: no cleaning
Mikki: that. But given, given the things that Hector puts his phone through.
Jessica: We need
Mikki: to, we have to have protection in box. Yeah. I'm sorry, what? Like what? Okay. What do you protect with the home warranty? Like that's really the question.
Jessica: Yeah. Because normal aging, that's literally everything in the house. Everything is going to age even the people inside of it,
Mikki: right? Like that's unfortunately for all of us that is happening.[00:17:00]
So to me, this one really, really just blows my mind. They don't cover things that. Like when, when the code changes. So if a code changes and, and you have something happen with your, with your system, they're not going to cover that. And I'm just like, wait, how are you the homeowner? Responsible. If, if the, if the code changes, like why wouldn't it be covered if there's a code upgrade?
Jessica: So like if there was an electrical thing that needed to be upgraded.
Mikki: Yeah. So it says they wouldn't cover that. Um, so code upgrade updates not covered. Meaning that they'll pay for the broken part, but not what it takes to legally fix it.
Jessica: Cool.
Mikki: Yeah. So like,
Jessica: sounds
Mikki: good. Yeah. Like if, um. So let's say you, your house was built when the electrical panel needed to be this type of electrical panel, and then you have something that happens and like something gets [00:18:00] shorted.
So they have to come in and they have to fix that. That part that is broken. But now. In order for your, your, your, the fix to be in, in compliance with code. It needs this other thing. Well, they're not gonna pay for that. And again, it makes sense on one level, but when you factor in the fact that you think as a homeowner that you're paying this money and it's gonna protect you, no matter what happens.
Yeah. It's not, that's,
Jessica: that's nuts. It should be like up to a certain.
Mikki: Per amount.
Jessica: Amount or something.
Mikki: Yeah.
Jessica: And like if something broke, because if it hadn't broken Right, then you wouldn't need to get it back up to code. Right? Right, exactly. Because like if I don't do certain things in my house, like I don't have to worry about like the code change or anything.
Even though it's an older home. It's not really that old. But my C Count house is,
Mikki: what year is that one built?
Jessica: 1969. Oh yeah.
Mikki: Hmm. Oh yeah.
Jessica: Yep.
Mikki: Yeah. There's gonna be some code issues in that,
Jessica: that boy, there's gonna be some code issues that bad boy. And then even when we updated it, we have an island that has [00:19:00] the plug
Mikki: Yeah.
Jessica: On side and like, that's not allowed anymore.
Mikki: Oh really?
Jessica: Yeah. You're not, you're not allowed to have an electrical outlet.
Mikki: So in North Carolina you actually can't have an island that doesn't have electrical in it. It has to have
Jessica: power in it. Yeah. So you can't have it on the side because, um, kids were like pulling on the cords apparently.
Mikki: Oh,
Jessica: so they seems like theyre afraid of would do kids. Pulling on them and like the toaster falling on 'em or, or like starting a fire or something. I was like, oh. Or you could just, you know, make sure you don't have feral children that run around pulling on cords. Oh,
Mikki: feral children are the best thing.
We've gotta have. All the feral children just is like, or just discipline your kids
Jessica: or just tell 'em Don't touch that. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Um, but yeah, 'cause like my kids all grew up with the.
Mikki: Yeah,
Jessica: there and they were fine. But yeah, I saw something that said like, no, you can't have that there anymore.
So
Mikki: Interesting. Yeah. When we did, when we renovated our kitchen, we put in an island and we had to run electrical to it [00:20:00] because in North Carolina, code requires that your island has, now listen, it could have changed since then. Because it, when it changes, it changes. But, um, yeah. Interesting. Fun fact.
Another fun fact. Mm-hmm. When you have a home warranty, you don't get to choose your contractor. And this is where, that's crazy. Yeah. And I feel like in some cases. That's fine. 'cause it's like part of the problem that most homeowners have is they don't even know who to call. So like
Jessica: Right. So they're gonna
Mikki: give
Jessica: you a list of
Mikki: people to call.
So it's helpful in that situation. But so what I have found, and we had a homeowner horror story, well, I don't know if it was a homeowner horror story. We had a homeowner write in about a home warranty company, and it was. It, it was exactly the way that you would imagine. She was kind of, she was elderly, like kinda kind about to retire in the retirement age and so she was like living off social security and she had a very limited budget and so, and she was, um, 80 divorcee.
If you will. [00:21:00] So she was just like living her best life by herself. But so if anything came up in her home, she didn't really have anybody to help her fix it. And so the home warranty gave her a lot of peace of mind thinking that, okay, if anything happens in the house, if my dishwasher goes out or my garbage disposal, I'll have somebody that will come fix it.
And so when she first signed on with them, she k kind of had better luck and especially in like the small appliance area. Mm-hmm. So I think she said that it was either her dishwasher or Or her disposal, one of them went out. Mm-hmm. And they sent somebody to come fix it.
And the guy, she had a really good experience. He was really nice. He was very helpful. Fix your dishwasher or disposal, whichever one it was. Yeah. And it was fine. Um, then her. So in your, with your house and your HVAC unit, you have an inside unit and you have an outside unit. Mm-hmm. And these two units communicate with each other.
So they like, you know, the one unit tells the other unit like what the temperature inside is and like, you know,
Jessica: turn on, turn
Mikki: on [00:22:00] how much we're, how much air we're blowing and whether it's hot or cold. Um, and those, they have to communicate. So they have to be the same brand. So she had an issue and I think her outside condenser it, it went bad.
Jessica: Mm-hmm.
Mikki: So she calls her home warranty company and she's like, Hey, I have this home warranty. My eight, my air, I think her heat was not working. Mm-hmm. So they came and they swapped out her outside unit.
Jessica: Okay.
Mikki: Her heat never worked again. And when I say, and they did replace
Jessica: the inside one too.
Mikki: They did not, they only replaced the outside.
Mm. And when I said that it never worked again. I mean that, so it only. Turned on her auxiliary heat. Now, if you don't know what auxiliary heat is,
Jessica: no we don't.
Mikki: It is. So inside your internal unit there is something called auxiliary heat, which should only turn on in like extreme situations. So like when there is a drastic cold drop and your outside [00:23:00] unit cannot.
Make enough hot air to be able to warm your house. The auxiliary heat or heat strips inside the house that will turn on and they'll, it'll help to get the house up to that desired temperature. Okay. But it's supposed to be really short term because it's extremely expensive energy. So those, those, um, the heat strips will drive your.
Your electric bill through the roof.
Jessica: Okay,
Mikki: so she brings these people in. They replace her outside unit, her next. Electricity bill was $400. Oh my God. Because the entire month her heat was running off on the strips, the auxiliary heat strips. Oh
Jessica: my God.
Mikki: And she had no idea. So like with I have the Nest, um, thermostats.
Mm-hmm. And they will turn red. When the auxiliary heat is on.
Jessica: Oh, okay.
Mikki: So that's the only reason I would know that if the, when like, because I think, I think when we had that crazy cold snap or like auxiliary heat turned on and I was [00:24:00] like, whoa, this is gonna cost me. And so that's the only reason I knew because it turned red.
So if you don't have the nest, or even if you don't know what the red means, you could not know that for an. Higher month
Jessica: or you could just not know that that was a thing that happened.
Mikki: Right. Or you could just not know. That's a thing. You would not know why your, your
Jessica: electric bill is going through the roof.
Mikki: So she ended up, because she's on, she's on a budget and she didn't know why her electricity bill was so high. She had no idea that her unit was running off auxiliary heat. Mm-hmm. She opted to leave her heat off all winter long and just used her Woodburn fires fire pl place. Gosh, gosh. To warm the house.
Jessica: Oh my gosh. I mean, I love a Woodburn
Mikki: fireplace. I mean, it's great for aesthetics. It's like it's, it wasn't like one of those ones in Alaska where it like heats the whole house. Like if it's an aesthetic fireplace, then like, I'm sure added some heat to the house. But like. It was not warming the entire house.
It didn't. That's because like, because
Jessica: blowers and
Mikki: everything, right? No, it doesn't have that. It wasn't, that's not the [00:25:00] purpose of it. Mm-hmm. It was like, it is that family room wood burning fire moment. It looks stunning, which is cute, but it's not warming the house. Mm-hmm. So she went and I think she went through an entire winter without having access to the heat.
So she called an HVAC company to be like, listen, I don't know what's going on. You know, my heat is not really working. My electricity bill was so high. They immediately knew
Jessica: what it
Mikki: was, that there was an issue with her ex auxiliary heat. So they come in, they go out, they see, they look at the inside unit.
Mm-hmm. And they look at the outside unit and they're like, well, we know exactly what the problem is. When was your outside unit replaced? And she was like, last year. They're like, okay, well the unit that they replaced it with. Was made in 2008. So they put in a, almost, I think at the time it was a 15-year-old.
So basically what happens is these home warranty companies don't pay nearly enough money that they need to, to these, to these trades that come in and do the work. [00:26:00] So they take units. That they took off of. It's like, let's, so this house, this unit was on somebody else's house
Jessica: and it
Mikki: didn't work. They replaced it mm-hmm.
With a new unit. And when she needed her unit replaced, they took this other unit and installed that unit and said it was a new unit. On top of that, my
Jessica: God,
Mikki: it wasn't the same brand. So the two units were not communicating with each other. So the inside unit was the only thing that was doing any of the work.
And those auxiliary heat strips were the only thing that they were using the
Jessica: entire house, the entire, they didn't know that needed to turn on.
Mikki: Right. So she's like outraged because she's like, I pay, and she was still paying all this money every month to the home warranty company, and she reaches out to the home warranty company and they were like, oh, that's not our problem.
And she's like, what do you mean it's not your problem? You hired these people to come into my house.
Jessica: Yeah, you basically, you did it wrong.
Mikki: Right? And, [00:27:00] and like, not only are they saying like, oh, you know. We are not gonna, like I said, they think, she was like, I need to be compensated for my $400 heat bill.
Mm-hmm. Also, and then come out and fix this HVAC unit. And they were like, no. And also that's laughable. We're not paying your $400 electricity bill, even though their. This home warranty company is the sole reason, right. For that electricity bill getting so high because they didn't do the work. Right. And
Jessica: she probably doesn't even have the contact information for the contractor who did it because No, the home warranty company is the one that sent him
Mikki: out.
Yeah. Because they're the one that set it all up. Mm-hmm. So that idea that like you don't get to pick your contractor, it's not even just that you don't get to pick your contractor. There's nobody. That's going back and checking this work that's actually working for you, the homeowner, to make sure that whoever did this work did it correctly and it's not gonna cost you $400 on your electric bill because they took some unit from some job they just finished replacing an HVAC at.
That's crazy. And installed that in your house. And there's [00:28:00] no repercussions for them.
Jessica: Yeah. And if they're paying, if they're low paying, then contractors who are really good aren't going to wanna do
Mikki: it. Oh. And that like, and so, and they have these like national contracts with like these big HVAC companies and it's like the reason why Big HVAC companies or whoever, plumbing companies, all the things, the reason why they'll do that work is because they get.
It's like guaranteed amount of work. So like dur during slow seasons. 'cause like HVAC has like slow seasons when like people aren't using their systems,
Jessica: right?
Mikki: So like it's guaranteed a little bit of work, but. The people that are going to do that work are not the ones who are actually getting the money from that.
Like, it's the company and then these guys are just getting the bare minimum. They're also not like, if, like a really honest guy is working on a home, like a mm-hmm. Home warranty situation, and they go back and they say, Hey, this, this unit is garbage. The whole, the, the owner of that HVEC company will say, okay, take the, the [00:29:00] one that you just put in at so-and-so's house.
Install that and then we'll tell the home warranty company that we put in a new unit and there's no way to check whether that's actually what happened or not. Oh my gosh. So it's like very scammy,
Jessica: very scammy
Mikki: all the way around. Very scammy all the way around. Um, so the other issue is, um, is time. Um.
Claims can t take a while. Like Joe was saying, it took 18 months for the home warranty company that he was working with to approve. This is crazy. So if you're, if you're dealing with not having your HVAC for instance, you, you could go up to an entire summer without having cool air. Because I know last summer didn't one of your units go out.
Jessica: Yep. So we've now had two summers. Square, we get one bad storm and both times our unit, one of our units has cropped the bed.
Mikki: Ugh. Yeah, that's
Jessica: an expensive
Mikki: fix.
Jessica: It's, it's a [00:30:00] very expensive fix. So the first time, um, it had to be the whole outdoor, indoor unit.
Mikki: Mm-hmm.
Jessica: And it was for upstairs. Um, so luckily we still had window units from Yeah.
When we lived up north and central AC isn't really a
Mikki: thing there. Yeah.
Jessica: I mean, there, it's there, it's just not as big as it is down here. Yeah. Yeah. We only have hot a few months of the year. So we just stuck window units.
Mikki: Yeah,
Jessica: they cooled off and then the next summer they let we. Um, the lightning hit somewhere near our house.
Yeah. And it blew the control panel to tell the things to turn on and all that. And luckily it was under warranty. Not a home warranty. Not a home warranty. Not home warranty, but warranty from Yeah. The company itself. And we were able to get that.
Mikki: And that's an important distinction because these home warranties, they don't warranty their work.
So in, in the situation with the lady [00:31:00] who had the, the HVAC units, that it would, it was just a wild, wild scam. There was nobody to say, oh, okay, well we installed it so we'll come back and fix it. They would not warranty it. They would not, they would, they just, they would just ignored her.
Jessica: It's terrible.
Mikki: Yeah, it was.
It's wild. So there's that, there's the issue of how long it could take. Um, and the thing too that I think a lot of people think is it's, they, they treat home warranties like an insurance policy. And it
Jessica: is not,
Mikki: it is absolutely not an, an insurance policy. Um,
Jessica: I mean, you're better off just doing it through your homeowner's insurance.
Mikki: Yes and no because like homeowner's insurance is not gonna cover, you know, if you're h like, they'll cover a water incident, but they're not gonna cover if your HVEC goes out. So your home insurance is not gonna cover that. Yeah, it's not gonna cover if your dishwasher goes out. So like, there I, there is a gap, right?
Like, um. In, in coverage [00:32:00] for things that happen. And that's part of like why it sucks that owning a home is so expensive, especially these days. Mm-hmm. Is like if, if you're just barely getting by paying your mortgage and you don't have extra money to, to, to set aside for like, if something happens, you're kind of up a creek without a paddle.
Mm-hmm. But whereas like. You know, 'cause I, I hear a lot of people talk about how, you know, this younger generation, they're not buying houses, they're renting and everybody's like, oh, that's so dumb because, you know, home ownership is the biggest path to wealth and all this stuff. And I'm like, is it if you can barely pay your mortgage?
Mm-hmm. But you can't afford to have anything else fixed. Like when you rent that HVC goes out, you're calling somebody. Yeah. Like you're not,
Jessica: and you're hoping that you have a good landlord that will come and fix it. Yeah. 'cause if you have a bad one.
Mikki: See, I grew up in apartments and I guess like at like, it was regulated and so like if something happened, the, the maintenance guy was there the that day.
Jessica: Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
Mikki: It, I don't know if that was regulated or like how we [00:33:00] just got lucky, but like. That was the beauty. That's, that really is the beauty of renting is like if large systems like that go out, it's not your problem. Whereas if you own it is your problem. And so it is,
Jessica: all of it's your problem,
Mikki: all of it is your problem.
And so like understanding and, and I really, I think the way that these, these home warranty companies kind of sell their product is they do make it sound like it's an insurance policy. Mm-hmm. It's genuinely not. It is a service contract, which means that they are, they are, they're not regulated or they are regulated, but differently.
And it usually requires arbitration in, um, instead of like going to court. So if, like, like the situation with the lady in the HVAC, she didn't have the ability to sue them. Because in the contract they have an arbitration clause, which means it basically says like, if, if there is ever any problem, you won't sue us, you'll agree to go to the go to arbitration or like mediation.
Um, which. [00:34:00] You have to have lawyers for, so you can go to court, you can sue somebody without BRI hiring an attorney. Mm-hmm. But you can't go into arbitration without an attorney. So it's like they set it up so
Jessica: that they're protected. Yeah. Again, they're protecting their warranty and their money, not the homeowner.
Mikki: Yeah. And the other issue is like. It's, it's, it's the concept of like, I don't know if you've ever seen, I don't know if it was, I think it was The Simpsons and it, this is just, and I
Jessica: probably haven't seen it
Mikki: probably. Yeah, you probably has just doesn't watch grownup cartoons.
Jessica: Mm-hmm.
Mikki: Um, but it was, I remember seeing this when I was young and it was like, Homer Simpson.
And he was like trying to buy something, but he didn't have the money. And they're like, oh, can you, can you pay a hundred dollars a month? And he was like, oh no, I can't afford that. And they're like, okay, can you do $10 a week? Or whatever it was. I was like, he, they broke it down to this smaller payment, but at the end of the day, it was actually gonna be more than a hundred dollars a month.
Jessica: Oh yeah. They go like, if you can, you pay $30 a week.
Mikki: Yeah. And they're like, oh yeah, I can afford that. And so. That's what they do with home [00:35:00] warranties. They, they make it this like, it seems like a really affordable, it's this cheaper installment payment.
Jessica: You should just put that money in a separate bank account.
Mikki: Yeah. I mean, but sadly, a lot of people don't think about that and they think, okay, well, you know, if I paid 30 or $50 a month and it's gonna co, it's gonna cover, you know, I mean, HVEC systems are spicy price.
Jessica: Oh, it was stupid.
Mikki: Yeah. The
Jessica: amount of money that we had to pay to fix that,
Mikki: it's really dumb. We're really lucky that.
Hector's nephew is, he owns an HVAC company and I trust me y'all, I am not, it is not lost on me. How lucky I am. 'cause we actually had a situation last week where I did not know this. You probably didn't know this either. Your power can go out at your house halfway. So we woke up one day and the power on half the house was out.
Now I obviously thought, okay, this is something with the electrical, because like the power can't go [00:36:00] out halfway. Like the power's either on or off. No. So how,
Jessica: how does it go out halfway?
Mikki: It's a phase issue so that your, the power goes into your house in certain phases,
Jessica: okay?
Mikki: And you can have a low voltage issue.
Jessica: Hmm.
Mikki: The power line can have a low voltage issue and it will send some power to your house, but
Jessica: not
Mikki: enough. But it's limited. It's not enough to run all the systems in your house. So we wake up, it's freezing in the house, like some of the lights are turning on. None of the appliances are on. And I, I, I call a friend who's an electrician and he goes, oh no, you don't have an electric electrical issue.
You have a power issue. So sure enough, we call Duke and they're like, oh yeah, you have an outage. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's why I'm calling you. You know, like, obviously Barry, I'm not calling you for funsies, like as much as, as calling like as my day is not going well. He was shocked. He was like, because the, I guess because it was.
It wasn't a full outage. It wasn't showing up on their [00:37:00] system as an outage. Huh. So, but we knew that it was an issue. 'cause like right as I was about to call Duke, our neighbor texted me and was like, do you guys know a good electrician? Only half our house has power. And I was like, call Duke. So they came out and fixed it and everything was fine, but our thermostats weren't working.
So I have the. Privilege of being able to call my nephew and being like, Hey, can you troubleshoot these 30? And he helped me. We had to like switch off a bunch of breakers, but not everybody has access to that. Mm-hmm. And so it is one of those things where it's like you, they sell you on this idea that, okay, if anything happens, I'm covered.
But in all reality it is. A service thing. It is not an insurance thing. Yeah. And they're looking for every possible opportunity
Jessica: to not
Mikki: pay it. To not pay it, and to not help you. Even though they want you to think in the beginning that, oh my God, oh, at the beginning
Jessica: they're gonna be your best friend.
Mikki: Yeah.
I mean, the same thing with the lady in the beginning, like, and any problems that she had, and they were all little problems. Mm. It was when she got into that [00:38:00] bigger issue that they were like, oh, we helped. They helped. But then when it wasn't working and it wasn't functioning, they didn't, they wouldn't even take her calls.
Jessica: Mm.
Mikki: So it's just like, okay, what are we doing? So the, the question is like, are home warranties ever worth it? I, I'm gonna say no, but to be fair, um, home warranties aren't always useless. Um.
Jessica: Just mostly,
Mikki: but, but they should kind of be treated more like a coupon situation rather than like a, like an insurance or like a protection plan.
Mm-hmm. Um, because the reality is, I. This is a, this is a very discounted work that you're getting. So like you, you are paying monthly and, you know, hopefully you're not having problems every month. So you're, you're kind of like paying installments and then one, when something big happens, ideally they're working with you and they're helping you, but.
There are so many [00:39:00] reasons why, like Jess was saying, you're better off taking that $50, putting it into a savings account. Mm-hmm. And just having access to funds, um, so that you can choose your own contractor so you can make sure. That the work is being done so that, that, because they provide a warranty.
So like when, when I'm sure when you got your new units installed mm-hmm. It came with a warranty. Hence why when your control panel got fried, it was okay 'cause it was covered by the manufacturer's warranty. And a manufacturer is gonna take their warranty much more serious than sadly a home warranty company.
Jessica: Right.
Mikki: So thinking about it from that perspective mm-hmm. Of, you know, it's not always a total scam. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie, I haven't heard of a situation where it wasn't, but like in, in, in, in trying to be fair, um, I could see where on, on small repairs and things like that, there is a benefit, but like.[00:40:00]
Again, the return on your investment there, I think you'd be much better off. Like if you're disciplined enough to pay making emergency fund right to, to put that every month into a fund where mm-hmm. It's just in the bank now. I think, again, this is where home warranty companies are really preying on lower income people.
Like the woman that, with the HVAC system, she was putting on her credit card, so it wasn't even necessarily that she had the money.
Jessica: Oh, that
Mikki: to put into a bank account. She was paying, putting on her credit card and like, I didn't ask her how her finances are, but it wasn't giving, she was paying that every month
Default_2026-02-20_1: she
Jessica: has to, if they send somebody out that does it wrong, they're not gonna send somebody else to fix it.
So then you have to pay for the person to fix it.
Mikki: Yeah. So she ended up having an entirely new HVAC system.
Jessica: Mm.
Mikki: Now the, a lot of HVAC companies, like especially these bigger ticket, um, expenses that are. In some places [00:41:00] essential, like I, listen, I don't know, I, I'm sure it can be done living in the South without HVAC.
I mean, people have done it. People have. We're, we're very spoiled now.
Jessica: Yeah. We're not gonna, we're not roughing it.
Mikki: We're not roughing it. So it's more of like an essential service where if you don't have HVAC, it could be dangerous, especially when you're elderly. Um mm-hmm. So there is financing available for your HVAC system and things like that, but.
Again, she had, she was paying money every month for a home warranty. They installed something completely improperly. It ended up costing her so much money she couldn't run, couldn't afford to run her heat. Mm-hmm. They wouldn't help her fix it. They wouldn't take responsibility for doing it incorrectly.
And after all of that, and all the payments that she made and all that, she still had to pay a separate company to replace her entire system. So like. Are they ever worth it? Mm. I feel like legally we have to say maybe, [00:42:00] but,
Jessica: but probably for small, I haven't seen it. Probably just for the smaller things, like it's, you still need to like have a plan for Yeah,
Mikki: like
Jessica: something, and
Mikki: that's the thing, like we had a situation where, um, a tree fell.
In our yard and it, it hit the power line, but it didn't completely pull the power line off of the house. It damaged the power line. So the power line was putting like an insane amount of watts into the house because it had been damaged. Mm-hmm. And it was just like flowing wild electricity into the house and it fried all of our appliances.
Jessica: Ugh.
Mikki: I mean, and we had, ugh, I loved, we had an Electrolux. All of our kitchen appliances were Electrolux and I freaking loved those appliances. And so when I realized that it was dead, I didn't wanna replace it. I wanted to repair it 'cause I loved because like good.
Jessica: Mm-hmm.
Mikki: This was the highest end refrigerator I've ever had in my life.
And I loved it. And even like the insurance company was like, yeah, we're not gonna give you that kind of [00:43:00] money for a refrigerator. We're gonna give you this much money. So that's a situation where your homeowner's insurance would cover it. And they did. But I tried with my whole soul to fix this electro refrigerator.
I loved this thing. Um, and so I, I brought, I paid a cervix guy to come out and it was like $115. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, okay, so that's what, three months of your, of your home warranty payment
Jessica: Yep.
Mikki: To have him come out. And unfortunately, he, he was like, yeah, it, she did like it ain't coming back.
Jessica: There's no
Mikki: reviving her, there's no reviving, there's no CPR for this refrigerator, but like.
At the end of the day, like even for the smaller appliances, like I'm, I just don't see how home warranties like Right. Really are worth it. We've also had, um, I don't know if I told you this story, but our social media strategist mm-hmm. Her name's Liz. When I met with her the first time and we were talking about the podcast, she was like, oh, I have a really.
Interesting kind of story. It was with a home warranty company where she, [00:44:00] she has a condu in Atlanta and she had a home warranty and she had an issue with her HVAC and the technician that came out to her house, um, she caught him going through her underwear drawer. Mm. So, and like the, she was like terrified 'cause she had kind of caught him red-handed, like in, she didn't know if he was going to assault her or not because like she, he'd kind of been caught doing something Yeah.
That he could get fired for or
Jessica: like kill her.
Mikki: Yeah. And so she ran out of the house. What kind of
Jessica: psychopath are you
Mikki: Ran over to her neighbor's house and was like, I need to come inside. Oh my God. And she was just traumatizing. So like in that whole situation, the issue was. Again, it went back to not being able to select the contractor, not being able to say, okay, like as I know, you
Jessica: wanna know who's in your house
Mikki: a hundred percent.
I mean, so honestly, in the last like five years, I feel like I. Service companies like, especially like even Stanley Steamer. So I had [00:45:00] my, our, our carpets cleaned before Christmas. That was a real doozy. He came to the house and was like, I'm sorry, in advance for the condition of our carpets. Um, but I got a text from Stanley Steamer when he was on his way of like a picture of who the technician was gonna be and his name.
And that's happened for several different companies that I've worked with, that they have these like, like. Customer experience softwares that it kind of, it sends you a text right before somebody comes to let you know and lets you know who they are. That's not happening with home warranty companies. You are, you kind of get what you get and so this poor,
Jessica: they probably don't even know who's showing up at your house.
Mikki: Probably not. I mean, they, they, they contract, you know, it's probably like several d. Mm-hmm. Cha changed his hands several times, so they're just like, well, did it, did it get taken care of? Then you're welcome. Well, this poor little, and she was like, like 20 something at the time. Um, she was like, she was so scarred from that experience of finding this guy going through her underwear drawer that like, she is terrified to hire anybody to come in her house now to work on [00:46:00] anything in her house.
Jessica: Be putting locks on my underwear drawer.
Mikki: I mean, I just, I, I feel so bad. I can't even imagine. I'm like, first of all. Really what is wrong with you? Like, but I guess that's, who
Jessica: are you looking for for
Mikki: real? I guess that's like the bigger issue is what is wrong with people.
Jessica: Then I'd be wondering like, did he take a pa, like I'd be going back, I'd be my drowning.
Be like, alright, do I have all the ones that, the
Mikki: friendly ones?
Jessica: Yeah. Or did they take something?
Mikki: Oh God, I didn't even think about that. That's terrifying. Ugh. She was just trying to not get murdered in her own condo and I was like, cool.
Jessica: I wasn't saying right. Then I would count it, be like, I wanna count them all.
Make sure
Mikki: Yeah, you're like, later them later. So some smarter alternatives other than doing, um, these home warranties. Yes. So if you're a homeowner or some smarter alternatives that we'll recommend instead. Would be to hire, oh, this is a really good one. So when you're buying a home, [00:47:00] listen, I don't care.
What year this house was built. You are getting a home inspection. I also don't care how much this home inspection costs lately, and I think it's because I've been watching our reels so much. Mm-hmm. My algorithm on the Insta has changed a little. Oh. And so I'm getting, I think I, I've said you a couple, I am getting so many reels of these home inspections of brand new homes where like.
Everything is wildly bad, so. Mm-hmm. A lot of people think, oh, because it's a brand new home, why would I need to get a home inspection? Because you need to get a home inspection. Mm-hmm. Um, there are so many things. Just the idea of like trusting that something was built properly, that would be ideal, right?
Like that'd be, that's a great world. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world. So when you are buying a house, you need to always, always, always get a home inspection. Mm-hmm. [00:48:00] And that is a great way to circumvent. Needing a home warranty because if you get an a very thorough and comprehensive home inspection,
Jessica: then you'll know what's going wrong with your home
Mikki: before you buy.
You can negotiate those things to be fixed or you're a price reduction so that you have the money to fix them yourself in the buying stage of it. Mm-hmm. So you don't need to come up with the money to fix it later. Now, I know a lot of people find themselves in, um. Situations where the buyer's, the seller's like, well, I'm not gonna sell it to you if you want me to fix all these things, but at least you know that there's problems and you're not going into it blind.
Mm-hmm. Like if you choose to buy the house anyway, you choose to buy the house anyway. But having that home inspection mm-hmm. Saves you, I think, really in a large way from needing a home warranty. Mm-hmm. To do, you know, in general, um, getting an independent HVAC and plumbing inspection. If you are on a budget, I feel like this is gonna be an expense that you [00:49:00] don't really wanna pay.
Jessica: It's actually not that expensive.
Mikki: Yeah. It's really not.
Jessica: So the HV, like, I don't know about the plumbing one, but we had an independent, so we had our home inspection done.
Mikki: Mm-hmm.
Jessica: Then we had an HVAC inspection done because it was an older unit. Yeah. And we wanted to make sure I wasn't going to die the minute that we signs smart.
Mikki: Smart.
Jessica: Um, and then we also had another independent roof inspection done. Good job. Because also older roof. Yeah. Old. And we wanted to make sure that the roof wasn't gonna collapse in our first year of owning the home when we're putting so much money into it. Yeah. So, and they weren't like, it was just like a couple hundred dollars extra for each one.
Yeah. Which is an expense when you're going to be buying a home. Right. But at the end of the day.
Mikki: What's worse, $200 on a roof inspection or 10 grand on a roof. And honestly, 10 grand is a bargain,
Jessica: like, right. And we went back to the seller and we're like, you know,
Mikki: there's a couple
Jessica: things here, here. There's a couple things here that like in a few, in a year, [00:50:00] maybe less, we're gonna need to do some things.
So. We're gonna need you to
Mikki: reduce that price a
Jessica: little bit, reduce that price. And then he actually just covered our closing costs, which
Mikki: Oh, that's nice. I
Jessica: mean,
Mikki: yeah.
Jessica: That works too. Yeah. You know, you figure something out. Yeah. So that it works
Mikki: for both and that's the whole thing is like, it's, it's again, the more you know mm-hmm.
And so having those home inspections so that you know what you're getting into. So, you know, okay. You know, my, my HVAC system's good. My, my roof is good. I don't need to. Spend $50 a month for problems that I Right. Am not going to have. Mm-hmm. Um, and then just understanding that like, okay, if you do have this home inspe, you know, this home warranty.
It's not insurance and it's likely not going to cover the things that you need to get done. And also you're, can you really trust that the work was done correctly? So that's the other piece where it's like they're really kind of preying on people who kind of don't know what they don't know.
Jessica: And they make me fearful of things that are going to go wrong, like.
They are [00:51:00] going to make you so fearful and think that like this is the thing that's going to save you.
Mikki: Yeah.
Jessica: And it's really just
Mikki: not, I mean that that poor lady like didn't have heat for an entire winter 'cause it did everything but save her. The other thing, and you've talked about this. Is, is instead of spending money on a home warranty, having a home repair emergency fund.
So if you're in a position where you know you're paying $50 a month, instead of paying that to the home warranty company, putting that into a higher yield interest saving situation where you are putting away and just saving it and not touching it. And, and, and this is the fun. Mm-hmm. I have that for my dogs.
I have a. Emergency or just like this is, this is our life choice fund for the dogs. Because like Optimist Prime had pet insurance when he was a puppy, which I was very proud of myself 'cause I was like, this is gonna save me so much money when he gets older. They went out of business.
Jessica: Oh, great. So
Mikki: yeah,
Jessica: you paid all that money and
Mikki: nothing.
I paid [00:52:00] that money and it was like, it was just, it was like just two years ago, so I paid for like, what, five years of this. It was like $50 a month for him to have pet insurance. 'cause it was like, I knew. This is gonna cost me so much money. If I had taken that $50 and just put it in a dag on fund in, in a, in a savings account, you
Jessica: could have paid
Mikki: for his I'd be fine.
Jessica: Yep.
Mikki: Now it's just coming out of pocket Every time Prime has to go to the vet and it costs me a thousand dollars every time. Mm-hmm. So. I have that, but for my dogs. And so that's, it's, it's a really important thing to think about, like really weighing the odds. What are the chances that, you know, something's gonna go out in your house and one, the home warranty is actually gonna cover it.
Mm-hmm. Are you better off just putting that money into a fund and saving it? And, and honestly, more times than not, you are another thing to consider. And I hear this from literally every trade, especially HVAC, is to proactively maintain your system. Yes. We also heard this from the plumber, Jamie.
Jessica: [00:53:00] Yeah. Oh yes.
We heard it
Mikki: from talking about having your, your hot water heater, um, drained every, was it, what was it? Every year?
Jessica: Yes, but if you hadn't drained it and like,
Mikki: don't drain it, don't do it now, don't drain it. Don't start draining. Wait until that thing blows, and then you have to put a new one in and then drain it every year.
Jessica: Then you drain
Mikki: it. But they, they even had a maintenance thing where you paid like a hundred dollars for the year. And they came
Jessica: and did all the things,
Mikki: they would come and do the maintenance for you. That is a much better use of your money than paying it towards a home and inspection, because also when you have that maintenance relationship with a company, I know for the HVAC, it's the same thing.
You one, get faster service because you're an established client. Mm-hmm. A lot of times they kind of do this thing where if you have the warranty program with them mm-hmm. You get a discount on the labor. Or, you know, so there's a lot of benefits to having like a maintenance. S plan with an HVAC company or with a plumbing company [00:54:00] and proactively maintaining your system.
I know for us, our HVAC, it gets maintained every season change. So every summer and every winter they come out and they clean the unit. They kind of check in and make sure, sure everything's good. They check the Freon, they do all the things to like make sure that the unit will run and we just pay yearly for that.
They call us. They schedule it. We don't have to do anything other than just answer the phone when they call and they come out and do it. And then that way we're not having any major system failures. Mm-hmm. Because they're maintaining it. Every season change and that makes a really big difference. Um, the other thing is to, and you know, this is a lot easier said than done, so like, don't get me wrong, I understand that this is not as easy, but having relationships with reputable, reputable contractors kind of before you're in a crisis, and again, why would you have that relationship if you didn't, you know.
What didn't work in construction and I get that. [00:55:00] But there is really something to be said about, you know, my ability to call my nephew and say, Hey, my. Thermostats aren't working and we, we literally just, he was like, okay, go to this. Go to the breaker box. All right, turn that off now go check. Okay, turn, turn this.
We spent like 15 minutes on the phone and I was just like going from one room to the other, like flipping switches, and then finally it worked. That's because I haven't established relationship. Now obviously I don't think you would be able to have that if you weren't related to somebody, but when you do get the opportunity to, to meet.
Because like let's say your system went out or you had you, you needed your free on charged or whatever. Trying to be intentional about building relationships with them so that when you do have something that goes on, you have access to somebody, you have an existing relationship. I mean, that's like perfect world situation.
We know that that's not. Always going to be available. 'cause if it was, you probably wouldn't be watching the show, but we're [00:56:00] still throwing it out there just in case. Yes. So some things to keep in mind that home warranties are often sold on fear, as Jess was saying. Um, fear that something will break and you won't be able to afford to fix it.
Mm-hmm. Um, you won't be able to afford to fix what they break. So keep that in mind when they put the wrong system in in, in your house and it's not communicating with the other systems that it needs to communicate with, and your electricity bill is $400 for a month. Um, it really, the fear that you, that they should be selling you is the fear of how badly they're going to screw you over.
Mm-hmm. Not how badly or how, how badly everything in your house is gonna fail and they're the only ones that can help you. That's not really how it shakes out. Yeah. Um, so. Fear-based protection usually does disappoint. So keeping that in mind, um, real protection comes from education, preparation and knowledge of who to call when something goes wrong.
So understanding [00:57:00] that, you know, things will go wrong, having relationships with people to call when they do, but also keeping your house and main as best maintained as you can, and really factoring in the cost of doing those those warranty or those maintenance plans with certain companies. And realizing that the return on your investment there is probably a lot higher.
Jessica: So that's why we talk about this stuff on ticks and construction is to help the homeowners, you guys to make smarter decisions and with your money, with your contractors, with your home, with your renovations, and so that you don't.
You know, have to learn the hard way.
Mikki: Yes. Because as we've said many times, learning the hard way is, is overrated. Overrated. Um, so if you have had a homeowner warranty situation, um, we would love to share your story. So, you know, homeowner horror stories is how, how we make the donuts around here. So we would love for you, no matter if it's a home warranty situation or if it's just a homeowner horror story, please go to chicks and construction.com and share your stories with us so that we can share them with other [00:58:00] people and everybody can learn.
And have better experiences 'cause that's what this podcast is about. So you can go to chicks in construction.com, scroll down, and we have a little form that you can fill out. Tell us your story and we'll share it on the pod.
Jessica: Absolutely.
Mikki: And then where else can they find us?
Jessica: So we're on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at Chickson Construction Podcast.
And you can find us on TikTok at Chickson Construction.
Mikki: And apparently I'm not doing a good enough job with my call to action for, for, for our videos. So my call to action for you, my friends, is please subscribe,
Jessica: like, and subscribe.
Mikki: It's free, like, and subscribe because it's free. But also the more. People that subscribe.
And the more people that like, and the more people that leave nice comments the more people get exposed to the content. And the whole purpose is we just wanna help people have better experiences. Mm-hmm. So if you could like, subscribe and leave a nice comment. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.[00:59:00]
I don't know if your mom taught you that, but let me be the one to teach you that. Okay. All right. We'll see you guys in the next one. Bye bye.