Comments on: Earn An Extra Few Hundred This Year By Saving For And Paying Your Own Property Taxes

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:04:37 +0000

Not always true about the mortgage company directly receiving the bill.We have Wells Fargo and receive our property tax bill every year.Then we have to forward it to them.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:36:41 +0000

@Ann,

Are you speaking of personal property taxes or real estate taxes? If your mortgage company is holding escrow deposits in an account for you, then you would have never even recieved a bill for real estate taxes. The bill would have went directly to your mortgator.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:50:23 +0000

Don’t forget! That $412 is considered tax deductible for the year of the purchase! Doesn’t recoup your whole $412 on your 1040, but every little bit helps!

By: PT

PT — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:43:50 +0000

Ann,

You should definitely call up your mortgage co and ask why they haven’t paid your property taxes with your escrow. That’s why you pay money into the escrow…so they will have the money to pay your taxes.

Without knowing your full details it’s hard to provide a complete answer. Since I’ve never paid into escrow (I save for property taxes myself), I don’t really know how the mortgage co. pays them. I’m sure it varies from co to co.

I would suggest calling your mortgage co and discussing it. Good luck.

By: ann

ann — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:53:49 +0000

I have about $4000 in my escrow account and recently received and paid my property tax of $2000+ myself, upon receiving the bill in the mail. Was this what the escrow balance is for? And if so, how does the mortgage company pay those bills? First time homebuyer…thanks!

By: PT

PT — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:34:23 +0000

@Aaron – That sounds like an awful lot of hoops to jump through. I wonder if it’s easier once you have 20% equity in your home?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:37:43 +0000

I have Citi Mortgage and they make you jump through quite a few hoops in order to remove escrow. you must of had your loan for 1 year in perfect standing or no late payments and escrow balance must be + or at a zero balance and taxes can not be due 60 days prior to removing escrow. and 80% or less loan to value. so what i have to do is go to the county and pay 6 months of property taxes and send proof to citi bank and then they send a letter that i have to sign and send back and then they would take it off. for us they had an extra 2,000 after taxes and insurance floating in our escrow…

By: PT

PT — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:02:47 +0000

@Mike – Wow. That’s crazy. See, even the mortgage company employees know it’s a better deal for ya. Good luck staying on top of it.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:25:30 +0000

I’m a little late getting into this thread, but I recently got out of my Wells Fargo escrow account. I had sent them an email through my Wells Fargo account asking if it was possible to get out of the escrow program. First thing next morning I get an email back from them saying that my escrow account had been closed and I would need to contact my tax authority and insurance company to make arrangements to pay for them myself… I was just asking the question! Oh well, guess it was for the better anyway.

By: PT

PT — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:05:39 +0000

@Becky – That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing and yes, I’d love to hear your followup story. Let me know when you do and I’ll post a link to yours.