Whoever the purchase contract says: a seller-paid first year is a common concession and listing incentive where buyers have the leverage, a buyer buys their own where sellers do, some listing agents provide one as part of their service, and nothing outside the contract decides it.
There is no custom to appeal to here, which makes it different from the transfer tax or the title policy. A home warranty is an optional product somebody chooses to buy, and which side buys it moves with the market. What is worth knowing is what it costs, what it is legally, and why a seller might want one before the buyer exists.
Which side pays, and why it moves
Where listings are sitting and a third of them have already cut, a one-year plan bought by the seller is a cheap way to answer the objection a buyer has about a fifteen-year-old air conditioner without touching the price. It appears in the contract as a seller-paid item, comes out of the proceeds at closing, and behaves like any other concession: it is worth less to the seller than the price cut it prevents.
Where homes are selling in a fortnight, sellers stop offering it and buyers who want one buy it themselves, usually in the last week before closing so coverage starts on the day they own the house. In between it is one of the smaller things a buyer asks for alongside a repair credit, and one of the easier things for a seller to say yes to.
The third case is the one people do not expect. Some listing brokerages provide a plan as part of what they do, and many plans cover the seller for the same systems while the home is listed, at no extra premium. That is the version worth asking about, because a water heater failing during escrow is a repair request either way.
What it costs, whoever writes the cheque
A standard plan runs a few hundred dollars to around a thousand a year in public figures, depending on the tier and the add-ons, and every claim costs a service call fee of its own, commonly under two hundred dollars, paid to the contractor the company dispatches. Two calls in the first year is the ordinary case, so budget the premium plus a couple of service fees rather than the premium alone.
Add-ons are priced separately and are where a Las Vegas house differs from the national plan: pool and spa equipment, a second refrigerator, a septic system. The premium is the least useful number to compare between plans; the per-item cap and the service fee decide what a claim is worth.
What it covers, and the exclusions that matter at a sale
The plan covers mechanical systems and built-in appliances failing from normal wear: heating and cooling, plumbing, electrical, the water heater, the built-in kitchen appliances, with more at higher tiers. It does not cover the roof, the structure, the windows, the foundation or anything an insurance policy covers, and it does not replace homeowners insurance, which is a different product for a different risk.
The exclusion that bites at a sale is pre-existing conditions. A system the inspector wrote up as at the end of its life is precisely the one the company can decline as pre-existing when it fails in month three. A seller who offers a warranty in place of fixing something the report found is often offering less than it looks like, and the buyer's side usually knows it. That is a reason to read what the plan says about conditions known before coverage started, not a reason to turn down a free one.
In Nevada it is a service contract, and it is regulated as one
A home warranty is not insurance and is not sold by an insurer. In Nevada it is a service contract under NRS chapter 690C, and the company behind it is a service contract provider that must register with the Nevada Division of Insurance under NRS 690C.150 and file the contract form with the Commissioner before selling it here. The Division publishes a licence lookup, and checking a provider against it before the plan is written into a contract takes a minute.
The distinction is not academic. Because it is a service contract rather than a policy, the protections and the complaint route are the ones chapter 690C sets out, and the contract itself is the whole of what is promised: read the covered items, the caps and the exclusions in the document, not in the brochure. Nothing here is legal or insurance advice, and Kouzr is a research and marketing platform rather than a brokerage. We do not sell warranties, insurance or homes.
Questions people ask
Is a home warranty required to buy a house?
No. No lender, no law and no contract requires one. It is an optional product, and the only reason it appears in a purchase agreement is that one of the two sides asked for it and the other agreed.
When does a seller-paid home warranty start?
At closing, for the buyer, normally for twelve months from the recording date. Coverage for the seller during the listing period, where a plan offers it, runs from when the home goes on the market until the sale closes or the listing ends.
Can a home warranty be added after closing?
Yes. Plans are sold to owners at any time, though most companies impose a waiting period of about thirty days before coverage begins, which keeps somebody from buying a plan the week the air conditioning stops.