[Rick Lee]

When I was in the biz, most mortgage companies charged .25 points to waive escrows. Say your escrows on a $250k loan would be 1% per year ($2000 for taxes and $500 for homeowners insurance), well, you could pay the .25 pts. and make that money back pretty quickly, depending on how disciplined you are and if you can get a decent return on that money somewhere else. With a wrap-around mortgage, you probably have to pay no escrow waiver and just take care of your taxes and homeowner's insur. yourself. If you start a CD or money market and are pretty disciplined about it, you can come out ahead pretty quickly.