[OrlandoMom]

Sylarim...

I just pd. my homeowner's ins. for the year. It was just under $2200. House cost $405,000 a little over 1 year ago. The assessed value according to Orange County Tax Collector Home Page (tax collector) is about $350,000. The taxes were high our 1st yr- $6100. If you buy before JAN. you get the tax exemption for the next year so we didn't get exemption for that bill but this house will get it for 2007. That lowers it some. Plus they have been working on rolling back the Orange County tax. Not sure where that stands now. So basically, My escrow amount is $926/mo added to mortgage to cover the INS. & TAXES. Hope that gives you a little insight.

[backtofla]

my escrow for taxes and ins is less than 300/mo. my house was appraised at 300k

[Donna-50]

Originally Posted by backtofla

my escrow for taxes and ins is less than 300/mo. my house was appraised at 300k

Where do you live? How come so cheap?

[riveree]

Hi Sylarim,

From reading your posts, there is more than one issue. The pressing one seems to be insurance.

Try looking into Tower Hill and Florida Family. Both are good insurance companies who are based out of FL and they are writing policies. I'd been recommending them and there have been some good outcomes. The rate should be comparable to what you had with Allstate, possibly better. Be sure not to overinsure - you need to insure for what you owe on your mortgage, and rebuilding costs also need to be addressed, but not above that. You'll need to tell the insurance company about your upgrades, etc., but don't overdo it (all the upgrades bring the rebuilding costs up and lead to a higher rate).

Secondly, look for leaks in your finances - are you overpaying for car insurance? Do you have car payments? Could you trade in your car for something less expensive? Are there 'extras' you can cut (cable tv, eating out...)? Be brutal with your outflow - watch every penny.

If after all of this you still find yourself in over your head and feel you must sell the house, consider getting an interest-only HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit) for some of the equity in your home. Shop carefully for the HELOC (I like Credit Unions for this) and only use it to keep the roof over your head while you put the house on the market (it will be called in once you sell the house...you'll need your remaining equity to repay whatever you have used).

I hope this helps you to see some other options, best of luck.

[OrlandoMom]

Originally Posted by backtofla

my escrow for taxes and ins is less than 300/mo. my house was appraised at 300k

yeah...where on Earth do your taxes and insurance together cost so little? plus the bank always over does the escrow to keep a certain % as a buffer. Maybe we should all move to your city.

[backtofla]

orlando, zipcode is 32828. it is a very desirable area, atleast to most in orlando. our mortgage (just principal) iss about $1,500 per mo. we bought a nice 3/2, financed about 240k at 6%, and with taxes and such, it is $1,700/mo. the bank we used doesnt require pmi but we do have to pay about 300 dollars quarterly for hoa. so i guess you could say our mortgage is $1,800/mo if you include the hoa fees, but they are paid seperately (quarterly).

for this area, i am very pleased with our purchase.