Man, I feel this. I had a client last year who was all-in on a 2-1 buydown—super excited, did the math, felt good. Then their insurance renewal came in and it was like, “Surprise! Your budget’s toast.” Those escrow estimates are basically fan fiction at this point. I always tell folks: if you can’t handle the year three payment with a side of random fee increases, maybe keep looking. The “discount” is real… until it isn’t.
I totally get where you’re coming from. We just closed on our first place in Frisco a few months ago and went with a 2-1 buydown, thinking it’d give us some breathing room to settle in. The lower payment at first was nice, but I’ll admit, the insurance estimate was way off—our renewal came in almost $900 higher than what the lender projected. That threw our budget for a loop.
Honestly, I think the buydown helped us get in the door, but it’s easy to underestimate how quickly those “extras” add up. Taxes, HOA, random maintenance stuff...it all hits at once. If we hadn’t padded our savings a bit, we’d be stressing right now. The payment jump in year three is definitely something to plan for—wish I’d paid more attention to that instead of just focusing on the initial numbers.
It’s not that the buydown isn’t helpful, but it’s not quite the safety net I thought it’d be. Just feels like you have to expect surprises every year, especially with insurance and taxes being so unpredictable lately.
That insurance jump is wild—$900 over the estimate? That’s rough. I’ve seen a lot of folks get caught off guard by those “extras” you mentioned. The 2-1 buydown can be a good entry point, but yeah, it’s not a magic fix.
Couldn’t agree more. I always tell people to budget for the unknowns, but even then, stuff sneaks up. Out of curiosity, did your lender give you any heads-up about how much those numbers could change, or was it just the standard estimate?Just feels like you have to expect surprises every year, especially with insurance and taxes being so unpredictable lately.
When I refinanced last year, my lender gave me the standard estimate but barely touched on how much things like insurance could spike. I remember thinking, “How bad could it get?” Well, fast-forward, and my escrow shot up almost $700 thanks to a surprise insurance hike.
Curious if anyone’s actually seen their taxes drop or is it always up and up?Just feels like you have to expect surprises every year, especially with insurance and taxes being so unpredictable lately.
Taxes dropping? Not in my experience—mine have crept up every year since I bought. I dug into the county’s site and, unless there’s a big dip in your appraised value, it’s rare to see a decrease. Insurance is even more unpredictable. I budget for a 10% bump just in case, but that still didn’t cover last year’s jump. Only folks I know who saw taxes drop had successful protests, but even then it was minor.
