Closing on a property in two weeks. Seller is offering a home warranty which I will take him up on. A choice of three companies (Choice Home Warranty, America's Preferred Home Warranty and American Home Shield). Are these companies all the same at the end of the day or is there really a difference?

Maybe keep it for the first year. And not renew after. Just know the people they send to fix anything are probably not the most honest or top of the line companies. You will pay a service fee for them to come out even if it's to spend one minutes to flip a breaker switch.

When I was young and we bought our first house, we had it for a few years. Got a complete HVAC system (after putting bandaids on the old system) and a few other big fixes. Eventually dropped them.

I think most are pretty similar to each other.

Take this with a gallon of salt

https://www.consumersadvocate.org/home-warranties/lp/best-home-warranty-m?pd=true&keyword=home%20warranty%20reviews&gca_campaignid=320703422&gca_adgroupid=15584422262&gca_matchtype=b&gca_network=g&gca_device=m&gca_adposition=&gca_loc_interest_ms=&gca_loc_physical_ms=9028267&gca_creative=489759154230&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADsX8VqmheaFLA6VNr7fpxOqfS-ha&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0sm-5duJhwMVBy-tBh3c6QEoEAAYASAAEgIbP_D_BwE

We get ours for the first year and don't renew. I've chosen to pay for repairs out of pocket rather than put up with the inconvenience of waiting for the approved vendor, depending on level of urgency.

They try stupid crap like fixing light switches with a white switch when you have off white.

Or they will show up and then have to order a part that's going to take WEEKS to arrive. But the part is immediately available online.

American Home Shield is terribad.

When we bought a place in CSTAT we had one from a different company (not listed in OP) that ended up replacing the entire HVAC system. And then dropped us like a hot potato.

Fidelity Home Warranty Company covered two furnace replacements for me about 10 years ago when both of them went out around 2 months apart during the first winter I owned my house. Also covered a couple of AC repairs. I would recommend them I guess since they actually covered some stuff.

America's preferred home warranty is who we almost always use. Like all of them there is a catch but they are the best. With them you have your own contractor come out, you call and let the contractor tell them what is going on and they approve it on the phone then either pay you or the contractor depending on contractor preference.

This is much better than American home shield where in the summer time it is going to be 3 weeks to get an ac fixed and the "non covered items" will be more than what it cost to just pay someone to replace it out of pocket. The catch with America's Preferred is they have very low limits. I believe the max they will pay on an AC is $2500, water heater is around $850 so it works fine for components that go out but not for a system that crashes.

May as well light your money on fire.

Racket. Can't believe they're still a thing. Sounds good though - "Home Warranty"

Check with your insurance provider to see if they have an Equipment Rider. It covers things like AC, water heater, appliances, etc. I've had several major items repaired/replaced and it helped significantly to offset the cost. And the beauty of it is the rider is less than $100 a year added to my policy.