[mjrube94]

I'm one of the people who now pay my property taxes directly and it's been great! Here's how I went about it:

First, call your mortgage company, and ask them if they will allow you to forego escrow and pay directly. I believe most lenders have a set of criteria which you must meet in order to do this (e.g., you must have at least 20% equity, a history of on-time payments, a conventional loan, etc.). Even if you think you may not be able to, call anyway to make sure. Also, ask them if they charge a fee for shutting down your escrow account. (Mine is through Washington Mutual and they didn't, but I've heard of others that do).

If you are permitted to pay directly, they will send you out some forms to sign, and will send you a check for whatever amount is in your escrow account. (They say this could take up to 60 days, though mine was done in about 3 weeks).

Then call your town to let them know you will be paying directly and to send the bills directly to you. Keep in mind property taxes are normally due Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1, and Nov 1, just in case they forget to bill you directly you can follow up.

Then call your insurance company and let them know that you will be paying directly as well.

That's it. Be careful of the timing of all of this. If you are coming up on a date where taxes or insurance is due, you may want to hold off until that payment is made, just so there is no chance of it falling through the cracks. Also, you may want to consider using a separate account that you fund each month, that you pay the taxes out of, so you're not tempted to spend it out of your regular checking account.

If you add up your property taxes and insurance and divide by 12, and add that to your monthly mortgage payment (just the principle piece) you may find like I did that your mortgage company is taking out $50 or more per month extra (completely legal - they're allowed a buffer by law). When you add that to whatever is already in your escrow account, you could be looking at a nice little chunk of change...

Good luck!