Homebuyer Connect: How to Verify Property Taxes in NYC + How to become a Frugalvore + 5 Easy Money Saving Phone Calls

Hi all👋, thanks for visiting our website! In this month’s edition of Homebuyer Connect, we wanted to give you some information that you might find helpful.

First, we cover a step by step guide on how to verify property taxes in NYC. If you’re buying a residential home or condo, then you will want to verify this yourself. Never rely on what is listed online or on the MLS because it can be in accurate, believe us we’ve seen it many times.

Second, we dive into extreme frugality and how this mindset can help you save up that down payment sooner than you think. We recently read an article that talks about extreme frugality and it made us think of all the homebuyers in our network.

And third, in the same spirit of being frugal and saving more, we go into 5 easy money saving phone calls that you can make today. If you fall asleep at the wheel, recurring charges, subscriptions and complacency can lead to your fixed expenses rising slowly every year. When you’re saving up to buy a property, it’s all about making more and spending less. These articles should help you with that.

Hopefully you find this information useful. If you have any questions or ideas for our future emails, please let us know 🙂 

Thanks for reading and have a great week 😀

1. How to Verify Property Taxes in NYC

If you ever need to verify property taxes for a property or condo, simply visit the link below > click “Access your Property Tax Bill” > Then click “Property Address Search” or “BBL Search” > Click “Agree” > Then select your borough and enter the property address or block and lot of the property. If you use an address, make sure you don’t use letters after the street name (i.e. 142nd St, 63rd Ave, etc). Instead, you would write it as 142 St or 63 Ave.

Once you get into the main page of property, click “Property Tax Bills” from the left side menu. Then you can choose from one of several tax bills. Make sure you choose the most recent quarter tax bill and make sure it is for the current year so that you can see what the annual taxes are for the year in which you’re looking. Make sure you look at the number next to “Taxes before STAR and Exemptions”. This is the true tax amount. Some homeowners have senior exemptions, veteran exemptions, tax abatements, etc. and these may not be transferable so you want to make sure that you know what the taxes are without those exemptions.

2. Save up that Down Payment with Extreme Frugality

We recently read an article on extreme frugality. Obviously we all want to enjoy life and splurge on nice things but when you’re on a path to home ownership, you just can’t let yourself get too out of control with your spending. Get creative with your experiences and start building the habit of being more frugal. This is one of the best strategies when you are saving up to buy a property. This article can give you more insight and ideas and how you can be more frugal in your life 🙂

If you’re planning to buy a property one day but haven’t saved up enough yet, this article will be helpful in getting you kn the fast track. We’ve seen it so many times, people who buckle down for a few years and then end up saving their down payment on a house. Nothing good comes easy, and when it comes to saving for a house, it does require sacrifices in the short term but it is all worth it once you get the keys to your property and start building equity.

Remember, you can put as little as 3.5% down on a residential house or condo. Assuming a $500K sale price that’s just $17,500. Worried about closing costs? You can always ask for a seller concession whereby the closing costs are rolled into your mortgage so you don’t have to pay them out of pocket. That means that if you save $20K and look good on paper (i.e. income, credit, employment history, etc) you can very well get out there and find a house!

https://donnafreedman.com/extreme-frugality-be-a-frugalvore/

3. The 5 Easiest Money Saving Phone Calls

We recently read an article about the 5 easiest money saving phone calls you can make. Saving money is definitely all about mindset and not getting complacent with your bills. Make sure you are always renegotiating your bills, pricing out your policies when you’re up for renewal, and calling your providers to let them know you’re thinking of switching companies. There are some good tips here so take a look and let us know if you have any other ideas. If you’re saving for a down payment on your first, second or third home, the best way to do it is to cut down on your expenses. This article should give you some good ideas 🙂

Well, that does it for this month’s edition of Homebuyer Connect. As always if you have any questions or need some advice, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Take care