Choice Home Warranty Plan Comparison (2026): Basic vs Total for Landlords
- The verdict in 30 seconds
- The two plans side by side
- The Basic Plan: what you get and what it costs you
- The Total Plan: the landlord tier
Most landlords shopping Choice Home Warranty get stuck in the same place: the Basic Plan is cheaper, the Total Plan covers more, and the $8–$13 per month difference looks too small to matter. It matters. The Basic Plan's exclusions — air conditioning, refrigerator, washer, dryer — line up almost exactly with the failures tenants report most, and the real comparison isn't the monthly premium: it's the $3,000 per-item coverage cap and how it stacks up against competitor limits. Here's the full 2026 comparison, landlord edition.
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The verdict in 30 seconds
Most landlords should buy the Total Plan. The Basic Plan saves roughly $100–$150 per property per year while excluding the four items behind your highest-frequency tenant calls. One refrigerator replacement or one AC compressor repair wipes out years of that "savings" in a single afternoon. The one exception: newer properties (under 8 years) with young HVAC and appliances, backed by a real maintenance reserve, where the Basic Plan's systems coverage is a reasonable budget play.
The two plans side by side
Choice sells exactly two plans, and the structure is refreshingly simple. Pricing varies by market, so the ranges below reflect 2026 quoted prices:
| Basic Plan | Total Plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly rate (annual billing, 2026) | ~$47–$60 | ~$55–$68 |
| Typical annual cost | ~$560–$720 | ~$660–$816 |
| Service fee per claim | $100 flat | $100 flat |
| Coverage cap per item | $3,000 per contract term | $3,000 per contract term |
| Air conditioning | Not covered | Covered |
| Refrigerator | Not covered | Covered |
| Washer & dryer | Not covered | Covered |
| Heating, plumbing, electrical, water heater | Covered | Covered |
| Kitchen appliances, dishwasher, microwave, disposal, garage door opener | Covered | Covered |
| Coverage start | 30 days after payment | 30 days after payment |
The upgrade premium runs roughly $8–$13 per month per property — about $100–$150 per year. Our full cost breakdown spells out every fee, and our Basic vs Total guide walks the same tiers from a different angle.
The Basic Plan: what you get and what it costs you
The Basic Plan covers a rental's core systems — heating, electrical, plumbing, water heater — plus the oven/range, dishwasher, built-in microwave, garbage disposal, and garage door opener. All of that sits under the $3,000-per-item-per-term cap, which is genuinely strong at this price point.
The problem is the exclusions: no air conditioning, no refrigerator, no washer or dryer. These are the items tenants interact with daily and whose failure produces an emergency call. A refrigerator failure means spoiled food and an angry tenant within hours; an AC failure in July is a habitability issue. Under the Basic Plan, every one of those events is 100% your out-of-pocket cost.
Run the per-door math. The Basic Plan saves about $8–$13/month versus Total — roughly $120/year at the midpoint. A single refrigerator repair runs $400–$900; a single AC compressor repair runs $1,500–$3,000. One claim on any of the four excluded items in a year, and the "savings" are gone several times over. The Basic Plan only wins if you go a full year with zero failures on the excluded items across every covered property — for rentals older than about 8 years, that is the bet that loses most often.
Basic makes sense in exactly one landlord scenario: a newer property with young systems and appliances, backed by a real emergency fund for the day the AC eventually quits. If your rentals are older than 10 years, stop reading and buy Total.
The Total Plan: the landlord tier
The Total Plan is the Basic Plan plus the four exclusions above: air conditioning, refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Everything else works identically — the same $100 flat service fee, the same $3,000 per-item cap, the same 30-day coverage start, the same annual-billing first-month-free structure.
At roughly $55–$68/month per property, the Total Plan converts your four most unpredictable failures into $100 service calls capped at $3,000 per item. The landlord math: the upgrade costs about $8/door/month on a 3-door portfolio — $288/year across three properties. One avoided out-of-pocket AC repair ($1,500–$3,000) or one avoided refrigerator replacement ($700–$1,200) and the upgrade pays for itself on the first claim it absorbs. The reason Total wins for landlords isn't convenience; it's that the covered-item list finally matches the failure pattern of tenant-occupied properties.
One operational note: plans are priced per property, not per account or per unit — so a duplex pays one plan covering both units, which drops per-unit cost while per-unit appliance count raises claim frequency. That's exactly where Total's coverage earns its keep. There is no portfolio or multi-property plan and no bundled discount at scale; see the per-door-count section below for where the portfolio math breaks.
Coverage caps: Choice's $3,000 vs the industry
This is the part of the comparison most landlords skip — and it's where Choice genuinely punches above its price. The $3,000 maximum per covered item per 12-month term applies identically on Basic and Total, to systems and appliances alike.
How does that stack up? Competitor caps across the industry fall roughly in a $2,000–$5,000 range, with the distribution heavily tilted against budget plans:
- Budget competitors often cap appliances at a few hundred dollars per item — Select Home Warranty pays roughly $500 per appliance, which barely covers a service visit plus parts.
- Mid-tier competitors commonly cap around $2,000 per appliance — enough for most repairs, tight for replacements.
- Premium tiers reach $4,000–$5,000 per appliance (American Home Shield's Platinum tier pays up to $4,000 per appliance; its HVAC allowances run higher).
Choice's flat $3,000 sits above most of the budget tier and inside the mid-tier range, at a budget monthly price. For landlords, the cap matters because rental appliances fail often and replacements are expensive — a dead water heater or a fried dishwasher eats into that month's rent, and a cap that covers the actual replacement cost is the difference between a $100 claim and a $2,000 surprise on top of the claim.
Two caveats keep the $3,000 honest. First, add-on coverages cap far lower: $500 per item for roof leak, septic components, sprinkler, well pump, and similar add-ons, and $250 specifically for septic tank pumping. The $500 roof-leak cap deserves a pause — real roof repairs commonly run $400–$1,500, so one leak can exhaust the entire cap in a single visit. Second, when a replacement is required, some customers have reported cash payouts below the original retail value of the appliance — if the claim math doesn't work in your favor, the cap is more theoretical than real.
Bottom line on caps: at the budget price point, Choice's $3,000 is the strongest per-item number in its weight class, and it applies equally to the cheaper Basic Plan. Just don't confuse it with premium-tier protection: the $2,000–$5,000 competitor range exists because premium plans pair higher caps with fewer exclusions, while Choice pairs a strong cap with a strict exclusion list (pre-existing conditions, rust and corrosion, improper installation).
The $100 service fee, analyzed
Both plans carry a $100 flat service fee per claim — paid to the technician per dispatch, per claim submission. No options, no levers: Choice offers no lower-fee trade against a higher premium the way some competitors do, and the industry average sits around $75.
Three things landlords need to internalize about this fee:
1. It applies even if the claim is denied. The technician comes out, diagnoses the problem, Choice denies the claim under an exclusion — you still paid $100. Never file a borderline claim hoping for a favorable outcome.
2. It's per claim, not per property. Two separate failures needing two technician visits means two $100 charges. Route tenant requests through a real maintenance request system so you're batching failures intelligently instead of paying for avoidable dispatches.
3. Budget it annually. At 1–2 claims per property per year — the realistic landlord rate — service fees add $100–$200/door/year on top of the premium, turning a ~$720/year Total Plan into roughly $870/door/year all-in. That's the number to compare against your historical repair spend, not the advertised monthly rate. Track it in your bookkeeping for a year and you'll know whether the warranty beats a self-funded reserve.
Waiting period and claims: the fine print that decides outcomes
30-day coverage start. Coverage begins 30 days after Choice receives your payment, not the day you enroll. A furnace failure in week two is entirely your bill. Time new plans around peak failure seasons and never let a plan lapse mid-winter assuming you'll be covered the day you re-subscribe.
30-day written cancellation. Plans auto-renew unless you cancel in writing at least 30 days before the term ends — a phone call doesn't count. Miss the window and you own another year. Calendar the cancellation deadline the day you sign up.
Claim exclusions hit landlords hardest. The contract excludes pre-existing conditions, lack of maintenance, improper installation, and damage from rust or corrosion. For landlords buying older rentals, "rust or corrosion" is a landmine: the equipment most likely to fail is the equipment most likely to be denied. You don't choose your technician — Choice assigns from its network, which works in big metros and gets slow in smaller markets, a real problem when a tenant has no hot water. Read our review of Choice for landlords for the full claims record before you buy.
When it makes sense, by door count
- 1–4 doors (single-family): Take the Total Plan. Check the current promo pricing — the $50-off-plus-free-month deal applies per property.
- Multi-property: Total per door, but calendar each property's 30-day cancellation deadline on day one — missed windows multiply with the portfolio.
- 10+ doors: Run the portfolio math before auto-renewing. Ten doors on Total at the mid-range runs roughly $6,600–$8,160/year in premiums alone, plus service fees. At this scale, a dedicated maintenance reserve sized against your appliance replacement benchmarks often beats warranties on pure dollars.
- Small multifamily: Take Total, but read the unit rules first: duplexes and fourplexes need additional optional coverage for common systems, and buildings with 5+ units only get coverage inside individual units. Multi-unit and flat-roofed properties aren't eligible for the roof-leak add-on, so don't budget around it.
Also remember the tax angle: warranty premiums are generally deductible as ordinary rental business expenses — see our guide on whether home warranties are tax-deductible for landlords.
The final word
The Choice Home Warranty plan comparison comes down to one question: how much is it worth to cover the appliances your tenants touch every day? The Basic Plan at ~$47–$60/month covers the systems but leaves AC, fridge, washer, and dryer exposed — precisely the failures that produce midnight tenant calls. The Total Plan at ~$55–$68/month closes that gap for roughly $100–$150 more per property per year, under a $3,000 per-item cap that beats nearly everything else at the budget price point.
Buy Total unless your properties are genuinely new and your reserve is genuinely funded. Pay annually to dodge the $2.50/month billing fee and get the first month free. Stack the current $50 OFF + 1st month FREE promo while it's live. And calendar both 30-day rules on day one.
Next step: get a free quote for your properties and check the current promo pricing — then compare the quote against our landlord home warranty guide and the best home warranties for landlords in 2026 before you commit.
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