Some of the best advice...

Well, you can do everything around your house or home to keep it in good shape, but there is one area which cannot be ignored. I realize most of us older folk know this by now, but for the youth out there and those of you new homeowners, that which cannot be ignored is the payment of all bills.

These bills are:
Mortgage payment
Property tax payment
water/sewer payment
Homeowner's insurance payment
Gas bill payment
Electric bill payment

These are the bills which must be paid. I did not include cable or phone since those bills will not cause you to lose your home if not paid. The others can and will cause you to lose your mind if not paid regularly.

I will speak of property tax bills for a minute. This bill comes twice a year. There are exemptions available to all homeowners. You must however apply for these in the county where you live. These will not be applied automatically. Some must be applied for on a yearly basis. These can save you thousands of $$$$$. If you have a monthly mortgage, make sure the bank is paying these on time. You can do this in several ways. One is to check your escrow balance on a monthly basis. This balance is used for your taxes and homeowners insurance payment. So at least three times a year this balance will decrease, CAUTION, it should not however go to zero or even close at any time. If you know that next month your taxes are due in the amount of $500, and you only have $250 in your escrow account, then you must make a higher payment this month indicating that you want the extra payment to go to your escrow account. If you do not take this action on your own, you can expect to see you mortgage payment increase to make up the difference. In fact it is always a good idea to add a few extra dollars to your escrow account when you can. After a year or so, you will be able to tell if there is sufficient funds in your escrow account to cover: taxes and insurance. You can prevent the bank or lender from raising your monthly installment by doing this. you can check your monthly escrow amount/balance by looking on your mortgage bill whether this is a paper bill or an e-bill, there is a section reserved for escrow as well as a section where you can add funds to the escrow. This is just as important as your monthly installment amount, so take the extra time to look at it and become familiar with it. If you elected not to have an escrow account applied to your mortgage, then be aware that you and only YOU are responsible for taxes and insurance payments.

Your water and sewer bill will not be paid by the bank, so make sure you pay this on time in order to avoid surcharges. These two, property taxes and water/sewer taxes, can cause you serious problems if not paid. The city or county can and will place a lien on your property and the longer the bill or bills are unpaid, the higher the chance your home can be placed on the auction block. So do yourself a favor and make sure you or your bank are paying these, and make sure the correct amount is being paid. This amount could be incorrect if exemptions which you do not qualify for are being applied to your bill, i.e. if you purchase your home from and older person, they were intitled to a senior discount, which you are not qualified to recieve. Your bank will not check this for you, you must do so. If you go online and check your tax bill by using your permanent tax id number, you will be able to check which exemptions are being applied or not to your tax bill. If you ignore this the county will at one point realize their mistake and YOU will pay for it with interest. Believe me it is not a pretty picture when a few years have passed and this amount has increased. your bank or lender will not come to your rescue since it is your responsibility to check this regularly.

So, there you have it. The other bills if unpaid will have immediate consequences, those being loss of heat, loss of electric, loss of phone or cable. These also hurt your credit rating. So, enjoy your property and while taking care of all the regular up-keep, be mindful of those very important bills which will not go away....