..... for reals?!
I got a letter from my mortgage company the other day with my annual escrow account statement, now that I've been paying on the house for a full year. (One down, twenty-nine to go! Woot!)
And evidently I'd been paying a TAD too much in escrow, because my mortgage payment is going to be dropping by a hundred bucks a month.
And! I went to file the statement in my house file today, and reading all the way down to the bottom, the mortgage-holder is ALSO sending me a check for $2,300.00. A refund, if you will, of the extra money I'd been paying into escrow.
Okay, my question to all you long-term homeowners out there:
Is this normal?
When I filed my taxes this year, my accountant told me that my escrow payments looked awfully high, so I thought there might be an adjustment coming, but this much?
Really?
I mean, this is a really good thing, because The Runt has to go see a specialist today, and God only knows how much it'll cost, but it kind of disturbs me that they could be off by that much.
Oh! Oh! And I was just telling a co-worker about it, and he showed me the escrow statement HE had just gotten from the mortgage holder (same one as mine), and his monthly payments are dropping by three hundred bucks a month, plus he's getting fourteen hundred bucks back!
WTF? I do not understand.
And in totally unrelated news, my neighbors (love them!) had their driveway re-blacktopped last week. I told them to go ahead and park in my driveway while theirs was being redone.
The workers finished up last Wednesday, and the neighbors are still parking in my driveway.
Blacktop Watch: Day Six.
No shit, you guys, I think they've decided that their new driveway is too damn pretty to park on, and they're just gonna park at my place from now on.
Maybe I should install a couple of parking meters.
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You can e-mail me at rockycat24@yahoo.com
About Me
- rockygrace
- I was born in 1962; you do the math. (See also: I'm too lazy to remember to update this thing regularly.) I bought my first house in the summer of 2009; I share it with four cats and with the memories of The Runt and Little Girl, who both passed away in 2011. Rocky, the cat for whom this blog was named, passed away in 2008; I miss them all. I wish I lived somewhere where the winters weren't eight months long; other than that, life is good.
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7 comments:
You're a hoot! lol
Not to make you nervous or anything, but we've gotten the same kind of paperwork and refunds over the years, but usually soon after and once the money is spent elsewhere, we'll get something from some other company that has to do with our house or property or taxes or what not, and they're raising something, etc. Just keep it in mind that some thing may change, and even though ours has never been that kind of money, I sure hope it IS all real for you, cuz' that would be awesome!
I like the marking meter idea...or park your car on their driveway and enjoy the smoothness.
Ooooh, I don't know what the method is in the US, so can't give any wise words (ha, what a surprise!).
I agree with the parking meter though, just in case the refund is incorrect!
The Hunk patched some spots along the edge of my driveway, packed it down, and let it sit a week, then when he removed the form at the edge, it collapsed. It had been too hot and muggy for it to set.
It may be that because of heat and humidity, your neighbor's driveway is still too soft or sticky to park on. Go poke it....
It's just me, but if the original mortgage payments weren't onerous, I'd continue paying the same amount and have the excess applied to the principle. That way if insurance and taxes don't go up, you reduce the loan, and if they do go up it's not a shock to the wallet.
Guys, as of this morning we are on Day Seven of Blacktop Watch.
~~Silk, that's an excellent idea about paying down the principal.
Our escrow amount fluctuates substantially year to year, sometimes by as much as 100 bucks. My advice is put the $2300 right back into paying down the principal unless you really need it to pay down a credit card or do some super-necessary structural repair.
And yes, weird things are happening with money returns. The IRS spontaneously discovered a $800 overpay on our taxes and cut us a check. Whoa!
You can double check them. You need to find the amount and due dates for your homeowner's insurance and property taxes. Also PMI if you have it. Anything you paid through escrow.
Just check the math- will there be enough in there to cover premiums under the adjustment?
Your property taxes are tax deductible, so if they went down (which might be the case- the county lowered the millage rate or did a valuation and you lost value and therefore tax liability), your income tax liability will go up. Something to keep in mind...
I did all of this recently when my insurance agent informed me that my policy was being can canceled for nonpayment- I checked my escrow balance, call the lender and requested that they overnight a check.
Wahoo!
Thanks for the advice, everybody! I definitely won't blow my little windfall.
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