No doubt your Assessment will be $X so now the mortgage payment is...
The topic of Property Assessments (and taxes) are vitally important for Buyers to understand throughout every step of the buying and mortgage process ... from the choice of homes to view and consider for purchase, to mortgage pre-approval, to figuring escrows, to Closing.
Choice of Lender is important ... and it's one area where I humbly state that my experience and background of 25+ years of Real Estate Appraising serves my clients and professional referral partners extremely well. I know Illinois ... and specifically Chicagoland County/Municipality taxing bodies and systems like the back of my hand. That knowledge and expertise serves them well.
Sally K. & David L. Hanson highlight this very important topic within the following article and WHY it makes a HUGE difference during the homebuying and financing process. I also greatly appreciate the kind shout out they offer within the article ...
We work with lots of both Buyers and Sellers ...locally from our sphere of referrals and lots of relocation with referrals both from other agents and relocation companies. Sometimes we are asked for lender referrals locally and other times the Buyer has chosen one. We know that no two people in any profession are created equally....there are good, excellent, not soooo good and the "please don't go there" kind of wishes we have when we know there have been issues with using that source.
A Seller always hopes that the improvements made to a home...market changes, etc. will yield a profit when the house is sold...no guarantees of course..Crystal balls can be inaccurate.
Every offer we write or accept on our listings has a pre approval accompanying it. Every Wisconsin offer to purchase indicates the amount that the Buyer will finance, at what rate and the Principal and interest payment. Often the property taxes are escrowed and the payment is the PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance) formula.
After we had an offer accepted the Buyer got a call from their lender who said that their payment would be hundreds of dollars higher than they imagined because the price of the house was higher than when the Sellers purchased it and the assessment would be based on the newly offered price.
Say What ?
It doesn't work that way here....the payment is based upon current taxes and assessment...and how, when and at what rate the municipality assesses the house is anyone's guess...it is not an automatic anything...not percentage, not price, not timing after purchase. Few things in life are "automatic"....and certainly tax rates, timing of increases AND decreases (yes, we have had some of those as well) is not something anyone regardless of their profession or experience can predict.
BEWARE of lenders forecasting taxes....while we have utmost faith and respect for some lenders...certainly Gene Mundt, IL/WI Mortgage Originator - FHA/VA/Conv/Jumbo/Portfolio/Refi and George Souto among them....we bet neither one of them would gaze into their crystal balls and forecast property taxes for a purchase.
This has been a public service warning post brought to you by Sally K. & David L. Hanson, Broker Associates with Keller Williams Realty honored to represent Sellers and Buyers in Southeastern Wisconsin.
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