Escrowing Property Tax/Insurance

Escrowing Property Tax/Insurance

New Rochelle, NY · Member since 2015 · 8 posts · 0 votes

Hi all! I wanted to get everyone's take on how you handle management of property taxes and insurance in your properties. If you have a mortgage, the lender will likely open an escrow account to handle that, but if you purchase the property in cash, how do you manage those payments? There are no options currently to escrow those payments for you if you don't hold a mortgage. 

If given the opportunity to have your taxes escrowed, is that something that people would generally take advantage of?

Full disclosure - I'm working on creating an escrow product for non-mortgage homeowners and am trying to gauge whether this is something the market would want. I would love to hear the input from this community on whether this is a problem that you would like to see solved. Knowing that banks do not allow homeowners to escrow once the mortgage is paid up (or if there's no mortgage to begin with) is a huge gap and leads to a lot of people either missing tax payments or sticker shock when the payments are due (since most people generally do not know how to save appropriately).

The idea for my product would give people the same convenience as a traditional bank escrow account, with certain added benefits including: 

- higher offered interest rates (as opposed to close to 0 with traditional servicers)

- lower 'cushion' needed (meaning, less cash sitting in the account)

- ability to use multiple modes of payment (e.g., credit card, crypto, etc)

- ability to use the account as a general savings account with high yield as an option

Hoping to get some input/feedback. If given the opportunity to build your ideal escrow product, what would you want to see it have?

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  • Real Estate Consultant · Seattle, WA · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 784 votes
    4y

    I stay away from escrowing for taxes and insurance. Why would I give someone my money to hold onto for 6-12 months if I can have that money make me money and then pay the bill when it is due? Escrow works for people living on a budget or not being able to manage their money (no negative connotation here, just being brutally honest). If you are targeting those without a mortgage, they likely have a good handle on their money and won’t be interested (or your customer pool will be incredibly limited). 

    Now if you were to expand that “escrow” to saving for the roof, siding, driveway replacement, and other big ticket items you might expand your buyer pool but not by a whole lot. More financially savvy individuals already have their own plan. Less financially savvy consumers are reactive vs proactive (I’ll figure something out when that $30k roof replacement comes up)

  • Morris County, NJ · Member since 2020 · 5k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    4y

    @Jeffrey Vegh

    Nice idea, but I personally don't see the real need.  Where is your innovation?

    First, experienced/savy investors don't really need or care about this "problem."  Basically, it shouldn't be a problem.

    Don't think of it an "escrow" account.  If you purchased the property in cash and if you need to manage your funds in buckets/silos, then I know many investors just have another bank account that they keep apportioning some of the rents.  Its no different than persons who work on commissions or other non-regular paying 1099 jobs tend to do --- estimated tax is an issue.

    I know in some areas/States the property taxes are varied and due at multiple times.  MAYBE there is something there...

    Honestly, there are so many new "fandangled tech solutions" in search of a problem.  I don't think it was never a problem before.  Sorry for my pessimism, but investors need to learn to do whats necessary to "invest."  Tech has its place, but its not really for everything.  One example...  one "wealthy" school's mentality was to keep buying new/better crew boats when their crew team lost.  Never considered to them about either recruiting better crews or training them better/differently.

    Seriously, you do realize that you can get a loan and NOT have escrows, right?  I purposely requested that so that I wouldn't have to deal with escrows.  Now, you are recreating what I never wanted.

    Sorry if this isn't helpful, but I guess I'm not your target audience.  I hope, however, there might be something constructive.  Good luck.

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