(01-02-2020 08:12 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

Sure does feel like that doesn’t it!!

(01-02-2020 10:08 PM)Crebman Wrote:  

(01-02-2020 08:12 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

Sure does feel like that doesn’t it!!

a pic is worth a thousand....in this case it's worth thousands more based on gov't dick trickles...

if there is a quicker way to rid one's populous, this one is the cornerstone....

it's hardly an enigma why their inflated dollar impacts the power sources along the way....

addendum: then they move....

Im actually in a market that sort of defies this but its certainly a one off.

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Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

(01-03-2020 08:11 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

No doubt regarding taxes, insurance and escrow. We have multiple savings accounts that we do for taxes and home insurance. It's the taxes that really get you. I don't believe the home owners is all that much - especially since we have it bundles with our auto insurance.

(01-03-2020 08:11 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

Same here. I became totally debt free last year and it is the greatest thing ever. You just have to pay yourself a few house payments to cover what was paid out of escrow. Im more than happy to do that and not be strapped with a mortgage. Im even paying myself car payments in an account. Ill never borrow another dime for anything unless it is life threatening. It is awesome to not have the pressure of making house and car payments.

(01-03-2020 09:42 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 08:11 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

Same here. I became totally debt free last year and it is the greatest thing ever. You just have to pay yourself a few house payments to cover what was paid out of escrow. Im more than happy to do that and not be strapped with a mortgage. Im even paying myself car payments in an account. Ill never borrow another dime for anything unless it is life threatening. It is awesome to not have the pressure of making house and car payments.

It was a large chunk of $$ to pay off the mortgage but glad we did. Now I am taking that mortgage payment and investing it monthly. There are pros and cons to paying off a mortgage early; however, we determined the benefits outweighed the cons in our case.

(01-03-2020 09:47 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 09:42 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 08:11 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

Same here. I became totally debt free last year and it is the greatest thing ever. You just have to pay yourself a few house payments to cover what was paid out of escrow. Im more than happy to do that and not be strapped with a mortgage. Im even paying myself car payments in an account. Ill never borrow another dime for anything unless it is life threatening. It is awesome to not have the pressure of making house and car payments.

It was a large chunk of $$ to pay off the mortgage but glad we did. Now I am taking that mortgage payment and investing it monthly. There are pros and cons to paying off a mortgage early; however, we determined the benefits outweighed the cons in our case.

I could not see any downside in our situation. I could not come up with enough stuff to deduct anymore on my taxes... including the mortgage interest. I could see it if I had lots of medical bills and dependents...but...thats not the case. The best thing imo has been the ability to bolster an emergency fund. It is great to know if either my wife or I lost our jobs that we could make it easily on either income. The stress level of life really got lowered in one fell swoop.

(01-03-2020 10:04 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 09:47 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 09:42 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 08:11 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 07:47 AM)miko33 Wrote:  I bet the mortgage exemption on your property taxes wasn't close to the actual payment on the loan. I'm guessing your taxes and insurance were coming out of escrow? We'll have our house paid off in 3 years - maybe 4, and we've ditched the escrow account years ago and pay our property taxes and insurance directly.

Agree with you that you truly don't own the home if at the end of the day the local gov't can take your house away from you for unpaid taxes.

Yes, I was always paying the tax/insurance as it was coming out of escrow/part of monthly payment. It's when it's all due at once that it is kind of a shock and requires planning going foward. Now basically I just save for the tax/insurance monthly and pay when due.

It's a nuisance; however, doesn't negate from the fact that I am so glad I no longer have a mortgage.

Same here. I became totally debt free last year and it is the greatest thing ever. You just have to pay yourself a few house payments to cover what was paid out of escrow. Im more than happy to do that and not be strapped with a mortgage. Im even paying myself car payments in an account. Ill never borrow another dime for anything unless it is life threatening. It is awesome to not have the pressure of making house and car payments.

It was a large chunk of $$ to pay off the mortgage but glad we did. Now I am taking that mortgage payment and investing it monthly. There are pros and cons to paying off a mortgage early; however, we determined the benefits outweighed the cons in our case.

I could not see any downside in our situation. I could not come up with enough stuff to deduct anymore on my taxes... including the mortgage interest. I could see it if I had lots of medical bills and dependents...but...thats not the case. The best thing imo has been the ability to bolster an emergency fund. It is great to know if either my wife or I lost our jobs that we could make it easily on either income. The stress level of life really got lowered in one fell swoop.

Yep, we'd been thinking of paying off the mortgage for a while and the new tax law was the tipping point in us going through with it. We;ve always managed all our bills based on one income and saved the other. If a debt would be too much to handle with one income we simply did not incur that debt. It's liberating to be debt free. Key to us doing this was to agree that we would actually still "pay the mortgage"; albeit, pay that same amount each month to ourselves via some sort of investment, etc. That keeps us from just spending it.

(01-03-2020 06:32 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Yep, paid off the mortgage last year and now have the big as tax bill twice a year and then the insurance bill. I guess we never reallly do own our homes.

We paid off our loan after 11 years and our taxes are really high. High enough that we could probably just live in an apartment complex from the money we pay in taxes. But, we thought about that and it would be stupid to move to an apartment after all the work we've done on landscaping and other improvements. It would be like buying a car and customizing it for someone else to enjoy. So now we just think of it (taxes) as living in an apartment but doing with it what we like, or don't. We'll probably have to hire a cleaning lady as we're getting old, or are old. But, at least we'll be in our own home until we kick the bucket.

We cashed out last summer and downsized a bit to what was previously our vacation place up north on the water. I’m happily off of the mortgage treadmill and pay 1/6 the taxes from the old school district. Home values are so bloated right now a widespread bubble in the next few years would not shock me. Like I was selling a nice dependable average miles 2013 Toyota Camry yet the people who were interested in it thought it was a new 2019 model and were happy to pay MSRP.

I feel for young adults just starting out..starter homes are stupid expensive now but people and banks don’t seem to blink about carrying that kind of debt load.

(01-03-2020 09:07 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  We cashed out last summer and downsized a bit to what was previously our vacation place up north on the water. I’m happily off of the mortgage treadmill and pay 1/6 the taxes from the old school district. Home values are so bloated right now a widespread bubble in the next few years would not shock me. Like I was selling a nice dependable average miles 2013 Toyota Camry yet the people who were interested in it thought it was a new 2019 model and were happy to pay MSRP.

I feel for young adults just starting out..starter homes are stupid expensive now but people and banks don’t seem to blink about carrying that kind of debt load.

The house my wife and I bought in 2012 for our first home cost us $93k. We finished the attic into a 3rd bedroom and sold it in 2013 for $108k. I checked the other day and it's on the market for $210k with no other improvements.

I don't see how anyone in a starter-home-esque job can afford a starter home these days.

(01-04-2020 10:30 AM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(01-03-2020 09:07 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  We cashed out last summer and downsized a bit to what was previously our vacation place up north on the water. I’m happily off of the mortgage treadmill and pay 1/6 the taxes from the old school district. Home values are so bloated right now a widespread bubble in the next few years would not shock me. Like I was selling a nice dependable average miles 2013 Toyota Camry yet the people who were interested in it thought it was a new 2019 model and were happy to pay MSRP.

I feel for young adults just starting out..starter homes are stupid expensive now but people and banks don’t seem to blink about carrying that kind of debt load.

The house my wife and I bought in 2012 for our first home cost us $93k. We finished the attic into a 3rd bedroom and sold it in 2013 for $108k. I checked the other day and it's on the market for $210k with no other improvements.

I don't see how anyone in a starter-home-esque job can afford a starter home these days.

My daughter and son in law just bought a home in Wilmington NC. The rental market is so high that it was actually cheaper to buy a starter home than rent. Still...I cant imagine my wife and I ever taking on the mortgage they did.

(01-02-2020 10:33 PM)maximus Wrote:  Im actually in a market that sort of defies this but its certainly a one off.

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Not a one off. Our area is like that as well. The county assessors have been instructed to be as conservative as possible already, and if you file an appeal the approval rate from the appeal panel is close to 100%.

(01-04-2020 11:02 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(01-02-2020 10:33 PM)maximus Wrote:  Im actually in a market that sort of defies this but its certainly a one off.

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Not a one off. Our area is like that as well. The county assessors have been instructed to be as conservative as possible already, and if you file an appeal the approval rate from the appeal panel is close to 100%.

Same here....Every time a new assessment comes out I make an appointment and dispute it. Every time it is reduced by at least 30%. I think they just automatically bump it up as high as they think they can and hope enough owners will just pay it without contesting.