Our Delaware County real estate taxes were due today. Did you pay them?‘
Some homeowners are required by their lender to have monies set aside from their mortgage payment to be held in escrow to ensure the money is available when the tax bill comes due. Those owners don’t have to worry about meeting today’s payment date, since the bill was sent to the lender and probably was paid in June.
The rest of us, who don’t use escrow, must send the payment to the County Treasurer or drop it off at the county building at 140 N Sandusky St in Delaware.
I prepare a Net Equity Estimate for sellers when I list their home. Explaining how much they’ll owe at closing for their taxes is often confusing for them. It’s confusing because we pay those property taxes “in arrears”.
That means that the property taxes that were due today were for the period of time we lived in the home from July 1, 2007 thru December 31, 2007. If a homeowner has their home for sale and has it in-contract with a closing date of, let’s say, August 31, then they need to pay the taxes from Jan 1, 2008 thru Aug 31 at closing. Actually, the amount is just deducted from the seller’s proceeds from the sale of the home.
For those who have an escrow with their lender, they will still have the money deducted at closing. The lender will just send them a check a few weeks after closing for the amount unused in the escrow account, once the lender completes the paperwork required to close out the mortgage loan. So, there you have it … clear as mud, right?
Oh, and BTW, I wasn’t the only one who went to the county building today to drop off my check in time. There were quite a few other Delaware County residents there as well. 
Copyright © 2008. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
Elaine Reese
614-825-8860Real Living HER
2 responses so far ↓
Carole Cohen // July 12, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I’m in a different county but same due date; I sent mine in and it would have been postmarked the 9th; hopefully that is okay; i am using IRS standards (i.e. the postmark). LOL
It amazes me how high some of the ppty taxes are around here (not Cleveland but other towns). There is one community on the east side where it’s not unusual for taxes to be $4k/half year. Yikes! Oh well, we can all sigh that we have six months to the next painful payment.
Elaine Reese // July 13, 2008 at 1:31 am
Don’t know about the postmarked vs received date. I decided to not chance it, so I hand delivered mine.
We have a suburb here that has very high tax rates AND very high home prices. The taxes within the corp limits of Columbus are our lowest. Suburbs are another story.
Leave a Comment