Refinancing (insurance, home loan, escrow, fees)

[cignalife]

We are refinancing our home loan and are in the final stages before signing.

We have a shortage in our escrow account currently. The bank says we need to pay this escrow shortage and a few house payments that we will be skipping separately before close. They are not breaking down the final amount due into which portion is for taxes and for future payments and the full amount shows up on the HUD as 2012 taxes "paid outside of closing by Borrower."

Is this common?

[Pfhtex]

Escrow must be current, and on track to be current when taxes and insurance are due.

However, what's with the "several payments" thing? Are they actual payments, or is there a shortfall between the payoff, fees, and new maximum loan amount wherein they are comparing monies due to "several payments?

[stan4]

Don't do escrow, peeps...just pay taxes and insurance yourselves.

[mricu]

Yep just pay the escrow shortage. If you happen to pay extra they will cut you a check for the difference.

If you have the option of not getting an escrow account with your refinancing, I would opt out of it. It's more of a headache to try to keep up with the banks payouts and buffer amounts. Just open a savings account and pop in a reasonably calculated amount each month in there and pay your taxes and insurace from there.

[Pfhtex]

All fha/va/usda and conventional loans over 80% of the value require escrows.