Originally Posted by Chatbrat (Post 1339802)

no mortgage, no bond, no condo fees, no state income tax, no personal property tax- I'm almost living for free

uh, o- forgot landscape maintenance, amenity fees-irrigation fees, house washing, cleaning person,window washing-very frequent car washes during love bug season

Still way ahead of the game $$ wise-

Originally Posted by Chatbrat (Post 1339849)

No sink hole insurance I'm self insured on that one, just like no life insurance--the company is betting nothing will go wrong, while you're betting something will--just like extended warranties

Originally Posted by RickeyD (Post 1339766)

Didn't realize so many (smart) people are retired with a mortgage. Glad I listened to my mother and saved all my nickels and dimes. Yikes ! [emoji15]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ (Post 1339750)

Having not moved in yet (or even found a place) is there a way to easily compute projected taxes based on (whatever you choose) price? Assuming NO bond payment.

Originally Posted by kstew43 (Post 1339895)

Absolutly..

1-Go to the county of your choice, lake sumter or marion.
2-Look for the tax estimater on the site.
3-put in the price and the city....city is very important
4-it will ask if you are using a home stead exemption
5-it will give you the tax to the county

then you MUST add into that figure....

1-the bond payments, sales agent will tell you

2- the yearly maintance of the development, sales agent will tell you

3-the non-ad-valorem fire/waste, ect fees...this is the figure you pay....same as everyone....does not adjust with the cost of the home..tax site will tell that figure

and then......you have your tax....

Originally Posted by kstew43 (Post 1339915)

for a resale home.....rules are a little different

once again go to the county site....put in the resale homes address....up pops all the information you ever wanted to see..

how much the seller paid for the house......when they bought it....

DO NOT use there county tax as a reference for yours.....it will more than likely be different. the bond and maintance will be the same but the county tax figure will not. once again use the Tax estimator using the price you will pay and you will know what your taxes will be...

The great feature of those sites is you can see that some people buy a home and sell it the next year and you can clearly see how much they are asking over the price they paid. helps for a good laugh sometimes....

Originally Posted by asianthree (Post 1339888)

It depends, OPM (other people's money). If your mortgage interest rate is 2.15%, and your investments are at 6.78% then OPM can be a smart move. Of course your investment guy should be making sure your money is working for you.

Originally Posted by FrankieDee (Post 1339756)

well, after several back & forth with the bank, it appears that as several of you stated - the first couple of months of escrow represented taxes based on the land. And now we're being taxed for the house, which is still almost double what our larger Labelle home is. There was no indication anywhere on our closing paperwork that that amount was for unimproved land, which we really have an issue with the bank for not making that clear. And why the heck are the taxes so extremely high just because we changed counties, less than a mile from the other house and taxes are almost double. I'd expect this up in CT, where our summer home is, but thought the tax situation was better in Florida. Smaller home down here, in Lake county and taxes are even higher than a larger, lake front home in CT. How the heck is this a tax-friendly state??? Guess we have a lot to learn.....