The latest house I bought (the one I'm living in), I demanded a
warranty as part of the selling terms. The seller agreed...and it
cost him $120. He obviously felt it was a reasonable cost to close
the deal.

In my area, few homes are sold without a warranty. I don't know if
this is a national trend or not.

As an aside...

I can't image ANYONE going to a closing without an
attorney...especially if its a new house. If yer spending $250,000+
on a purchase, how much will an extra $100 or so...for insurance...set
you back?

If it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling then great, but how much protection do you
think you are getting for $50 (there is at least a 50% margin for commissions
and profit)? You couldn't be getting much protection--as I recall the warranty I
refused to provide was ~$500. And even at that price they are worthless. These
warranties are filled with weasel words and exclusions and they get to choose
what kind of fix is implemented. They are just an extra profit generator that
takes advantage of new home buyers and the loss of clear thinking that seems to
affect people when making major purchases.

A case in point--my supervisor had a dream house custom built and the contractor
left the insulation out from below the windows in several places which caused
the windows to fog up in the winter time. He complained numerous times about
the problem and all he got was some guy with a caulk gun trying to fix that
which couldn't be fixed (at least not with caulking. When he finally found out
what the real problem was, the warranty company refused to fix it and he
eventually sold the home as is.

My uncle bought a fifthwheel trailer and a dual wheeled pickup with dealer
installed fifth wheel and towing package. The dealer also sold him an extended
warranty on the engine and drive train. It was supposed to be good anywhere in
the US. When the transmission died in Phoenix he spent a month fighting to get
the local deal to honor the warranty. I think he finally got some satifaction
because he was retired and could wait out the excuses.

No deal is too good to walk away from and if you don't have that attitude then
you will be repeatedly taken advantage of in deals through out your life. One
estimate is that the average consumer will lose $20,000 over a life time to
fraud and abuse in the market place and this study was 20 years ago, today would
probably be twice that.

Regards,

John