Got my mortgage statement in the mail today..

[~gd]

I thought my taxes were bad in VT, when I was paying $2000/yr for my condo, compared to my little homestead D) here in NC. I pay $700/year, but we get NO services whatsoever. Well - I guess it pays for the sheriff's dept. But I agree with Cinebar - how can anyone afford to live in a place where just your property taxes are $1000/month??!!??

You forgot to mention that you pay no separate School taxes, as you would in many states. I assume you are in Wake Co. and are part of one of the better school districts (County=School district in NC). You have 4 nice little pocket parks. You have a branch of the Wake Co public library. Heck in NY I was paying$99.50/year in taxes on my unused cemetery plot! The tax quit when you were actually buried, I quest they couldnt figure how to collect from dead people.

 

[Wifezilla]

They tax CEMETERY PLOTS?!?!

 

[Wannabefree]

Why are you ticked off? You entered into an agreement to borrow money to buy a house. Yes, it would be great to not have any payments anymore, but you entered this agreement knowing that you were buying with someone else's money. It wasn't your money, and you couldn't have bought what you did without the loan. So, pay it off, and forget about it. How can you be angry that someone is sending you bills for payment on money that wasn't yours to begin with? We always paid extra on our house loan. And later, after refinacing to bring the payment down, we still paid the same monthly payment. We managed to pay off our 30 year loan in about 15 years. But it never occurred to us to complain about a loan that we had gone into with eyes open. You borrowed, you owe, and really have nothing to complain about. Just my opinion.

LOL! Seriously?! NOT complaining. But NOT complacent either. I want the thing paid off....yesterday. Doing everything I can to get there. I wasn't born into money, so I had to get a loan, it's the darn ridiculous interest rates and all the grief we get when the note holder sells out mid stream and we have new people to deal with at the drop of a hat that gets on my nerves. Let's face the facts, mortgage companies do not go out of their way to disclose everything to the person seeking the loan either. If you miss one little bit of fine print, the sharks start circling. It's just annoying, almost as annoying as your post. I'm not stupid, nor do I like being treated as if I am. When lenders flip your loan to another and throw a wrench into an otherwise smoothly moving along business deal...it tends to tick me off a bit. Soooo yeah I have a right to get ticked off. REGARDLESS of signing those papers. The company I signed those papers with is no longer who I deal with...meaning the folks I am now paying ARE NOT the ones I borrowed money from. WHOLE new ballgame, new "policies" new aggravating paperwork, new customer service. And honestly the new company REEKS! I'm ready to pay it off...moreso than when we first got it.

ETA: Thankfully our land taxes are only $450 a year

Have you considered a new mortgage with a firm you like better? Interest rates are still low, and you may be able to skip some of the closing costs. I know what you are taking about my morgage changed hands (either the bank was taken over or they 'sold the paper')5 times in the 9.9 years before I paid it off. Found out later that my habit of making extra payments were one of the reasons for the banks selling the paper, Extra work for them for less profit. What they really want is someone that keeps money in their bank (at low interest) and makes auto transfers from the account to the mortgage every month for 30 years.~gd

I want to refi with a better bank. I'm just not sure if it would be cost effective to do so. We have had the note only for a couple years, and have paid down 18.7% of it. Not sure if I would come out better on the refi for the time frame which I will be getting rid of this beast. Hope to have it paid in 5 years. It's a 15 year mortgage. Not sure, haven't done the math on my breakeven point if we refi. It will be difficult to refi right now as DH has just went back to work after a year of layoff/unemployment. It'll take 6 months of checks for my local bank to even consider the loan. I could do better on the interest rate about anywhere I go, but it's not that big of an issue considering the more/faster we pay it off, the actual notated interest rate on the loan means nothing to what we are actually paying anyway. We've saved something like 17K in interest thus far by paying it down, so that 8.3% on our bill is moot in reality. I just despise Bank of America. Their business practices are notoriously less than ethical. I didn't particularly like the company we were with originally, but BofA is scraping the bottom of the barrel IMO. Yeah I guess tht is why they sold us out...because we actually PAY...LOL! The new folks I have spoken with thus far have been okay, other than the old bank tacked on a $350 "fee" for a "drive by appraisal" and I am attempting to get that knocked off. The new bank being who they are is pretty unwilling to drop it. It's always some sort of fight with lenders isn't it? Annoys the crap outta me. If they'd hold up their end without being a bunch of greedy jerks...I'd have no issue to begin with. Just 5 more years.....and I can be done with this insanity.

ETA: Someone said previously be glad we can pay it because a lot of folks can't pay theirs right now and are losing their homes....well I almost joined those statistics while DH was out of work, so I know all too well what those folks are going through. I am VERY GRATEFUL to have pulled out, and NEVER want that feeling repeated in this household with my family EVER AGAIN if it can be helped. That's my main drive to get this crap over, said, and DONE, once and for all. So no offense was meant to the folks who are still struggling with theirs. I am thankful for my current position

 

[~gd]

Well it could be worse, on my second house. after I had bought it I found out that the Dept of Transportation was going to run a highway through the house "within 4 years" so I just put it on auto pilot as described above. I had put down 75% and mortgaged the other 25% Well the DOT and I couldn't agree on the value of the home evidently they took the 25% mortgaged as the full value of the place, even though the local tax assessor had me paying taxes on 110% of the full purchase value due to increase in value.
To keep this short DOT seized title to the place and it showed Wells Fargo as holding the mortgage, actually BofA had bought the note. DOT paid off Wells Fargo who did not send the money to BoA. So BoA was screaming for payment on a house that I no Longer owned. We ( my lawyer and I) filed suit for full Market Value as required by law but had to wait untill the illegal seizure was filled. Mean time the State started evection(sp) action against me and were going to put me in the street without paying me anything! and BoA was trying to foreclose on the note they owned for non payment. At this point I had a chat with the local Sheriff who would have to enforce the evection and foreclosure orders. I told him that I had the local TV stations on speed dial and that he would have to carry me out by force if it come to that.
Well we eventually won our suit, my credit rating is zero because of the BoA saying I failed to make mortgage payments which they haven't corrected after two years. They finally got the money they were owed from Wells Fargo (but with no interest) and I am living in a little house in town rather than my farm. The only one that made out was the lawyer, he got 33% of the 75% that the state tried to screw me out of as his fee but in one sense he earned it! Now you can see why I want to be SS for what is left of my life.

 

[i_am2bz]

You forgot to mention that you pay no separate School taxes, as you would in many states. I assume you are in Wake Co. and are part of one of the better school districts (County=School district in NC). You have 4 nice little pocket parks. You have a branch of the Wake Co public library. Heck in NY I was paying$99.50/year in taxes on my unused cemetery plot! The tax quit when you were actually buried, I quest they couldnt figure how to collect from dead people.

Actually, altho my address is in Zebulon, my property is over the line in Nash County...so I don't have to deal with the craziness that IS Wake County, NC. Thank the Lord! So, no parks, no libraries, no services, but no craziness, either. God only knows what my taxes would be there.

To keep this short DOT seized title to the place and it showed Wells Fargo as holding the mortgage, actually BofA had bought the note. DOT paid off Wells Fargo who did not send the money to BoA. So BoA was screaming for payment on a house that I no Longer owned. We ( my lawyer and I) filed suit for full Market Value as required by law but had to wait untill the illegal seizure was filled. Mean time the State started evection(sp) action against me and were going to put me in the street without paying me anything!

WHAT A MESS!! You have my sympathies! As does Wannabefree!

 

[Wannabefree]

Well it could be worse, on my second house. after I had bought it I found out that the Dept of Transportation was going to run a highway through the house "within 4 years" so I just put it on auto pilot as described above. I had put down 75% and mortgaged the other 25% Well the DOT and I couldn't agree on the value of the home evidently they took the 25% mortgaged as the full value of the place, even though the local tax assessor had me paying taxes on 110% of the full purchase value due to increase in value.
To keep this short DOT seized title to the place and it showed Wells Fargo as holding the mortgage, actually BofA had bought the note. DOT paid off Wells Fargo who did not send the money to BoA. So BoA was screaming for payment on a house that I no Longer owned. We ( my lawyer and I) filed suit for full Market Value as required by law but had to wait untill the illegal seizure was filled. Mean time the State started evection(sp) action against me and were going to put me in the street without paying me anything! and BoA was trying to foreclose on the note they owned for non payment. At this point I had a chat with the local Sheriff who would have to enforce the evection and foreclosure orders. I told him that I had the local TV stations on speed dial and that he would have to carry me out by force if it come to that.
Well we eventually won our suit, my credit rating is zero because of the BoA saying I failed to make mortgage payments which they haven't corrected after two years. They finally got the money they were owed from Wells Fargo (but with no interest) and I am living in a little house in town rather than my farm. The only one that made out was the lawyer, he got 33% of the 75% that the state tried to screw me out of as his fee but in one sense he earned it! Now you can see why I want to be SS for what is left of my life.

UGH! Yep I see why SS is the way to go. I feel MUCH the same way!! I am not worried about my credit score...I won't need it before long anyway I just want to be finished owing anything to anybody. TOTAL freedom from debt to the big boys, so I can do what I want, and they can take their money and shove it.

 

[FarmerChick]

wow GD talk about being caught in a legal mess
that is just horrible when situations like that hit



my MIL's property has like 19-21 acres with it and they ran the new Highway 16 right by her and took about 2 1/2 acres......she got great value actually, the put up a fence etc they had to take down for the cow pasture etc....and they moved her rental trailer for free for her also to another location and paid to set it up. NC treated her great actually. But that bridge and road is right next to her house--yikes when the traffic starts to flow in a year I have no idea what her life will be like---I would think it would be maddening cause this will be a very high big traffic road

hmmm

ya know, we never really ever own anything that can't be touched....it is all an illusion to the state or federal needs it for something and you get the boot!

 

[Cinebar]

.she got great value actually But that bridge and road is right next to her house--

With what she did get, could she use that to have a new home built away from the bridge and road.....or even to have her existing home moved?

With almost 20 of land acres left, that's what I would try to do.

Wow, gd, you got royally screwed. Scary stuff.

My son just got out of BOA. He didn't have a mortgage through them but they were constantly nickle and diming him with fees and crap on his other accounts.

I bank at a community bank and have had no issues with them. And I bought my place on a private owner contract and have had no problems with that, either.

 

[FarmerChick]

no Cinebar---MIL would never move. It is the old homestead house.
they have about 110 acres altogether in land and have tons of options to move and build, but she would never do it. She is willing to live with the traffic (well, she says that now, it hasn't started yet...lol)

she isn't willing to change yet, but the future isn't ever decided in stone
:/
FIL would move, but MIL right now is holding her ground, til the noise starts---the road and bridge set "above" her home. I don't know if that is good or bad. Might muffle the sound or send it right down on her rooftop...don't know yet

 

[Cinebar]

Well, I live on a highway, although the house is up the hill and not directly on it, and if I had had other options (like living in the middle of some huge piece of land), I would have taken them. But this is what I could afford and it hasn't been too bad. I've gotten used to the log trucks zipping by....sort of. Twice, in the five years since I've lived here, the road has washed out 1/2 mile to the east of me in the winter rains and the highway has been closed until repairs could be made. One time, that took 8 months! It was nice living at the end of a dead end highway (very quiet and peaceful) although I was working in the town 13 miles to the east of me and it meant I had to go west and south to get on another highway and it ended up doubling my commute.

I can understand your MIL not wanting to leave her home. Have they checked into moving the house?