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Message edited 1/8/2008 10:56:52 AM.

Re: Real Estate taxes included in closing cost??

No, you still have to contribute monthly. The amount you pay at closing goes to reimburse the sellers for the amount they have already prepaid for the year and to an escrow account set up by your mortgage lender.

I'm in Rockland County and they wanted so much up front that we decided we'd pay our own taxes and insurance. We just reimbursed the amount the sellers had prepaid for the year.

Re: Real Estate taxes included in closing cost??

the money you pay monthly goes into an escrow account held by the bank. the bank will pay your tax bill from that account when the time comes.
if you don't want to pay monthly, you can opt out of the escrow account and pay the taxes yourself when the bill comes.

the taxes you are paying at closing are crediting the seller for what they prepaid. So say for example, you closed today and your seller prepaid taxes for the first half of the year (until May 31st). You would pay back the seller the taxes for the 31 days in May and the six days left in April. Then you would pay the taxes to the town for the rest of the year. Does that make sense?