Which home warranty company do you prefer, and why?

I have used Old Republic, First American, and Allied. I agree with Tom Plant about Allied but have also had good luck with First American and Old Republic. I would not use American Home Shield.

a house im interested in just changed to option pending. is there anything i can do? or, is it basically game over?

The game is not over. The contract between current buyer and seller obviously has an option period. The option period allows the buyer to have inspections and perform other due diligence on the Property. The buyer can terminate for any reason during that time. The option period number of days/ date it is over is actually on the mls print out for agents. However, there may be other contingencies in the contract- i.e. financing.The best thing to do is to have your agent call the agent and find out as much information as she/he is willing to give out ( for instance is it a cash deal?) and verify when the option period will be over and the financing contingency. Finally, I would not do a back up contract. The most likely time the contract will fall through is during the option period and Buyers terminate sometimes because the buyer is asking for repairs and seller is not willing to do repairs or credit the buyer an amount the buyer wants for the repairs. However, with a back up contract the seller will use the back-up contract in negotiating the repairs telling buyer that if they don't want the house he will just sell it to the back-up. At that point usually the current buyer gives in to the seller.

This lot has been cleared and the building plans are complete. Construction is ready to begin. No one involved in this transaction noticed the neighbors fence on the survey. The plans shows construction on top of the fence.

If you were in the process of buying the house, I would ask the Seller to provide a Boundary Line Agreement with the next door neighbor explaining that the fence line is not the property line. If you currently own the home, it would be helpful to find out how long the fence has been there. Before you move the fence, make sure and have a surveyor mark the property line so that the fence is put on the Property Line.