We write a lot of blog posts in Maine and the ones on saving money go through the roof for views, clicks.

Like one awhile back about heating fuel oil assistance in Maine helpful links, information. But it is time for an update on help for heating your home in Maine this winter.

Because keeping kids in an apartment, household, elderly people warm while the snow piles up in Maine is pretty important stuff.

Not to be neglected, overlooked.

Before it is an emergency for Maine heat oil assistance and the tank is bone dry, temperatures diving, dipping lower.

Help with your winter home fuel utility bills is serious stuff when the northeast wind howls. Snows piles up deeply.

And the structure housing you, your loved ones is screaming all over for  inadequate insulation.

To make it more efficient to heat and stay cooler when it is the hottest day of July in a Maine home.

We have blog posted before on  Joe's oil, heating assistance for low income individuals.

And content about lowering fuel consumption, the best place to start after tightening up a house. To switch it up to what technology has brought us.

For the long term solution to easing the problem of staying warm. How to pay for it year in and out in a cold weather state with a winter season like Maine. The one up here in the upper right hand corner of the country.

Restaurants, diners, greasy spoons and public suppers, the places to eat in Houlton Maine.

You are some kind of hungry, could eat a horse while in Northern Maine.

It happens at least three times each day and this time you find yourself in Houlton Maine. Wondering about places to eat in a new land with fresh surroundings.The purpose of this blog post is to spell out the A to Z of places to eat, Houlton restaurants, diners, take outs.

(I will double bad to update and add or remove the options to save you time and to know all the options.)

What are there for restaurants in Houlton Maine?

You can hear your stomach grumbling. Getting light headed too and better sit down to eat or grab some take out food in Aroostook County's oldest town. There are many dining in or take out eating options.

Don't let the small town size population, all this natural space of Northern Maine fool you.

Plenty of out to eat in Houlton Maine dining options to please the fussiest palate or hearty appetite.

Houlton has full blown restaurants, take out fast food outlets and plenty of home grown community dining options.

In the area, church suppers, farmer's museum and snow sled club spreads all possibilities depending on your schedule.

The suppers put on around the calendar year, you can break bread with the locals, learn about the area you are parked in. That works best for some very educational and lively meal conversation from the folks who live here. It is how you learn the history, customs, get directions and meet the people up close and personal. What's that? (Whispering) Oh sure, I'll pass the ketchup. No problem. You are welcome.

These local volunteer cooks all work hard putting on a feast for a King and Queen.

Usually the supper for a good cause, to fund a local project or help someone in a tough spot health wise or who lost a home in a fire, etc. Our Monday noon lunch meeting at the Rotary Club of Houlton at the Watson Hall is like that. The cost $8 if you are a Rotarian.

What to do when you the real estate in Maine buyer or seller or both is just not ready?

When the idea of a closing is a ways off because another home needs to be sold out of state.

Or the credit score is a little light, messed up. Needs to be squared away tidy. Along with other loose wires under the hood up of the buyer's financial idle ride.

The one that gets them to the real estate closing.

Or keeps them locked out.

Stalled, in the breakdown lane with the rumble strip to the left.

As the loudly ticking clock keeps perfect time. The sun rises, sets. Calendar months are "X"ed off, turned up or torn off and thrown away.

Waiting for things to clear up, come around so a real estate sale can take place eventually can be frustrated.

Timing is everything in life. In real estate that is part of so many facets of a person's day to day. So if you are not ready, browse, search, kick some tires. It's more than okay to look. As often as you want scan the new to the market listings.

Asked the question a lot, how is the Maine real estate market?

Is it hot, or not? To answer the question, it depends which type of property listing we are talking. What section of the real estate in Maine price range brackets we are wondering about specifically.

Overall, the market in Maine for real estate sales is extended or shortened marketing time.

But not a nose bleed high price hike happening one way, or dive down to China the other direction.

In the rural areas which most of Maine is small towns, it is not just houses or homes being listed, marketed, sold either.

But raw land in Maine, owner financed woodlots, waterfront properties for sale, small business properties, rental income complexes. Or listings where no bank, but cash on the barrel head happens too.

The reason for cash sales is so low listing prices on the Maine real estate properties. Unlike urban areas where eight out of ten people have to hang their hat. Chase the dollar. Worry about all that crime, traffic. Other life shortening stuff.

Old wives tales, something circulated that might have applied at one time but not anymore.

Or just a myth, fabrication for the secondary gain. Like the one about no swimming until a half hour after lunch kids. Was it because scientifically in most cases swimming cramps happened if Mickey's little hand moved half a notch, his big one a half turn?

Or did the ladies want to clean up the paper plates from the cook out, talk, have a coffin nail to puff on and then, okay.

Butting out the Virginia Slim. Let's get back to motherhood, apple pie, baseball and Chevrolet. Adjusting the curlers and nodding their head to summons, bring those kids back into action. Quaker's Meeting is over and childhood resumes.

In real estate, the myth about home property listings don't sell in winter.

Or the other misinformation about no one buys real estate, even thinks about what's for sale around the pair of year end holidays, New Year's Eve too.

Like a woman who love shoes, other fashion accessories, cameras for real estate, the best ones are always a popular subject.

As a real estate broker in Maine trying to get the word out about property listings. It is a tool, a weakness to buy bigger and better.

I like to seek out, try to have the best image and video cameras to capture the property listing for sale in its best light possible. To showcase the neat area of Maine I am excited to serve and live in, raise a family.

But like anything in life, the best of the shooting irons for cameras, both still and video is a moving target.

And new players in the race track gate get released almost daily.

Sometimes to save  money, and to get the best product it means holding back a little in the check out line for new cameras for sale.

To see if this new model is all the propaganda claims it to be.

And to buy six months or a year later for fire sale prices on real estate digital still, video cameras.

Because it is not quite cutting edge technology any more. But a proven winner that is tried and tested. Or a dud that failed to meet advertising expectations.

This is the REALTOR.org field guide for cameras for real estate with some tasty stats.

The problem with buying a Maine home for sale is often not the credit score, debt ratios, length of employment on a job.

But house down payment, only thing missing if the delay is not caused by having to sell another home first. Before buying the next house in Maine under the microscope. Showing up on real estate in Maine radar green sweeps.

So down payment options, how to buy a Maine home?

Well if you are a veteran, first thank you.

And please use that VA house loan mortgage elegibility certificate Uncle Sam printed off.

You've earned it as a veteran for the leg up to get yourself riding high, wide and handsome. Warm and cozy inside your own Maine home.

You don't need a down payment to buy a Maine home going the VA route.

There are down payment house loan assistance programs that give applicants loans, or could be a grant too.

To cover all or just part of the required down payment needed to grease the skids. To get things moving from just looking at a listing to actually getting the keys. To the Maine home shortly afterwards at a real estate closing.

Dorothy reminded, remarked "that is a horse of a different color" as the procession around Emeral City unfolded.

But what about the color of your house, and if you are needing a sale to happen quickly?

Does the color of your home affect the real estate property sale? Or the value, or the time to expect it to be sitting, hanging around the market?

They say real estate is emotional.

And there was a time when you went to insure a red colored car, the coverage for fender benders, thefts, etc was higher.

The color of the guy or gal with the perceived lead foot tied into the picked color of the outside sheet metal.

Considered a little more racy, exotic than basic Mr Ford Model "T" black everyone else was 10 and 2 driving.

But if real estate buying and selling is emotional and if a home is painted the right trigger color to cause interest that leads to desire. Well, should you play it safe like inside colors like home stagers coax?

Or are there a few colors that just work best? Just like a couple colors in the box get used, worn out more quickly when you were a kid creating refrigerator art work.

The transfer of information in the real estate operation where everyone is in one major hurry.

To see the newest property listing for sale. That hops up on the MLS conveyor belt. For the show and tell.

But lack of information from the get go is the reason like airport luggage that goes round and round the carousel that properties linger.

And the longer the hanging around, real estate loitering, the more folks that spy it circling wonder what is up with that?

Looks okay from the outside but there must be a reason the property listing is not selling. Developing mold, shelf life. Even ten foot pole marks to appear.

What can go wrong in the real estate operation of matchmaking to find a buyer once the seller agrees to the sign being planted in the front lawn?

Plenty. But lack of information is the biggest obstacle as the buyer tries to coax it out of whoever answers the real estate office phone. Or gets the email from the agency server that should be quick like a bunny answering all the questions that pour in.

The seller of a property listing in Maine who says he wants to sell, but wants five times what the place is worth.

That is not a motivated seller. Not an owner who is realistic. Does not make him a bad guy for having the common "buy low, sell high" approach to real estate buying and selling. But over priced property listings just bloat the system.

Get in the way on the MLS real estate conveyor belt.

Liked stalled traffic on a high speed multi lane highway, the agent, broker, REALTOR who takes the listing is the gate keeper.

If one by one each real estate professional got up, thanked the owner for their time but walked, life would be easier. Just say no, I can not help you. Whew.

To avoid real estate buyers who get upset when the bank appraiser says no dice. Too rich for the bank's blood on taking back a mortgage for an over priced piece of real estate collateral backing the loan. The one securing the lien made on the dirt, recorded at the registry of deeds.

Not serious to sell is the signal the seller of overpriced property listing sends. Hoping a miracle happens. Someone hits the lottery and has more dollars than brain cells comes along to make the real estate miracle happen.

The out of state Maine real estate buyer said his local news providers don't put all the murders on the broadcast nightly.

Because there would be no room for the news if they did. So many drive by shootings, gang violence, school disturbances and car wrecks, property arsons, etc reported.

So the news that the locals in the urban area get to watch, listen to is filtered, sorted, controlled. Where he hangs his hat in areas that are numbed to the steady stream of bad news.

It is like there would be lots of good news if there was not the amount of tragic happening round the clock in the concrete jungle.

Maine is not like that.

In the 4th lowest crime state it is all about helping others, not hurting or stealing from them. Life a little more precious. Family is everything.

Less people makes for way way fewer problems too. No so many accidents, more time spent holding open doors. Letting others go in traffic. Rather than road rage.

The cost of real estate in Maine is lower too. You can purchase property here that would be impossible to own elsewhere. All due to the high cost of living. The layers and layers of piled on fees.

You learn plenty in the day to day of listing, selling in small Maine real estate markets.

But state conventions, Maine REALTOR meetings are a souce of rich education too.

This week am parked in classes at the Samoset for the annual Maine REALTOR state convention and trade show in Rockport. Beautiful setting, neat to see old friends that are doing the same list, market, sell (repeat) in other markets from around the Pine Tree State.

The underlying theme during, between real estate continuing education classes this year all abut doing more from the local turf.

Instead of shipping our real estate listings to California or Washington to buy back better positioning in the "mls scrape", it is key to be more robust back here in Maine.

Where the real estate listings eat, drink, breathe, live.

Have always been a believer to stock the local shelf first.

Maybe it is years of raising vegetables and peddling produce on a Maine farm.

But fresh, full and local trumps stale, missing information shipped back to us that originate here. But too much strained out in the scrape.

Maine farm properties, listings with acreage so the real estate is used for crops or critters.

We grew up on a Maine farm, own one now. So it is very easy to loosen the tie. Slip on the blue jean overhauls, steel toe work boots. To slide on the work gloves and answer questions about Maine farms for sale.

The lifestyle of simple living on a Maine farm.

I enjoyed being raised on a Maine farm.

The reason folks want the outdoor playing in the dirt living.

Is often they want kids to learn from the experience.

Everyone pitches in, has a distinct role in the Maine farm family experience.

Creating wealth out of the soil, water, sunshine. Lots of hard work and always looking skyward.

For support, to study those black clouds rolling in overhead the Maine farm too.

That can mean an interruption in what you had planned to do on the Maine farm this afternoon. The next few days. Being flexible, a jack of all trades too helps keep the farming operation rolling smoothly.

New younger breeds of Maine farmers are coming online. There is a resurgence of locally grown, close to home farm products market buying underway. These are exciting times and better, healthier food for the family is the end result to sustainable Maine agriculture.

Real estate news, it is not always clear blue sky, sunshine and rosy.

Because like a Doctor who scans the flip chart, studies the latest tests results, the buyers and sellers need to hear sometimes what they would like to avoid.

In the case of the real estate property seller, learning there is a shortage of their type of property is music to their ears.

Because no, or short supply and priced realistically means here comes a quick property sale.

Start packing, we're moving soon. It's a new day to make hay.

This real estate listing for sale in Maine is not going to be that way for long.

Same with a buyer who gets pre-approved and knows before setting foot in the home in Maine that he can have it if he wants it.

If it is "the one", a match for finances and his hen scratched mental "gotta have" list of property listing requirements.

But the bad news, the heart to heart using lots of candor in real estate discussions.

The seller who expects three times what the place is worth. The buyer who has swiss cheese holes all over his credit report.

Sometimes it is make them uncomfortable, but you can not help them. Not much you can do unless, until something happens. To move everything off dead center where the buying or selling is stalled. Dead in the water.

Give them hope for later on, explain why this, this and that too need to be part of the real estate equation. To have a successful Maine property listing sale.

Moving to Maine, you finally are taking the reins, pointing the family sedan north up the pike.

Relocating to Maine full time works best if you have some savings. Because although living here is cheaper than higher insurance, property costs in the city, the income generating side of the math equation is lower.

Often much less than what the property buyer is accustom to before crossing over the big green bridge coming into Maine from the south.

Living debt free is part of settling in, being in Maine.

Without debt that makes you old before your time, a giant mortgage that keeps you up nights, Maine is not about over spending.

Doing debt is not how we survive in Maine.

How we free ourselves up for enjoying living without financial worry. We raise our food, heat with wood.

Maine is all about bartering, trading goods or services too. Feeling more empowered because you do it yourself. The DIY expanding into if I can do this, maybe tackling that would not be so difficult.

The process of buying or selling Maine real estate is emotional.

Because it involves red bloodied people with feelings. Not Vulcans, not just the sticks and bricks. And think about it. In a home, babies are brought into them to grow up.

Celebrate birthdays, play with neighbor kids in the backyard. Get local jobs for money to spend.

Often at some kind of eatery.

Go off eventually in a couple decades to their own homes for a repeat of the same history.

The old familiar house of Gram and Grampy when too frail to stay there alone gets put up for sale.

Moving, shuffling has to happen to a new place. From an old one called home for generations.

If no one in the family steps up to the plate to buy the Maine home to preserve the heritage.

But that kind of raw emotion, excitement full of new hope for the first time Maine home buyer. Or deep sadness for the owner who passes on, no longer lives there. But that was a fixture in the local Maine area. Both can cause feelings good or bad to build up, take off and to soar.

There are some who argue after the July 4th fireworks end, start thinking about getting the Maine home banked, wrapped for winter.

We have no igloos, polar bears in Maine though. That is further north quite some distance. But even with four beautiful seasons, Maine winters do demand tightening up the homes. To make them less drafty, more economical to heat.

To make the Maine home toasty warm and cozy.

Getting away from dependence on foreign oil is nothing new in Maine.

With 91 percent of the state wooded, the fire box for heating.

With birch, maple, ash and all the other species of wood is still big. Well stocked.

Stacks of next year's home heating supply are pretty common, evident as you ride around Maine.

Neighbors, family share wood splitters and pitch in, have weekend afternoon gatherings. To one by one make sure all the members get their supply of wood in the right length split in two and racked, stacked, packed.

For the one by one ride into the furnace over the winter months. To get the Maine home owner to spring comfortably. When the woodstove gets turned off. Parked and not needed for three seasons.

Small rural markets in real estate sales, the treatment of property listings is vastly different.

Than the approach with urban offerings of real estate for sale. What should a seller do to enhance their real estate listing in less populated areas like Maine?

In a small rural market, like city settings what is important is pricing first.

Then possession date, the over all condition of the buildings. If there is a house and bank financing is involved then those come right along into the picture.

Of the adding any perks to enhance and attract interest to the property listing for sale.

It's all way way less important in small priced rural markets like in the less populated, out in the country Maine real estate areas.

Practical considerations, like low cost to run. Easy to maintain features trump the fancy, luxury elements. Everything is lower priced in small rural markets too.

Less money flowing, better impulse control managing or spending it wisely happens. The condition of the roof, heating system, foundation, overall structure of the property listing is what gets eyeballed hard. Like the cost to heat to keep the household budget balanced, in the black.

Maine is rural and the property listings that are off grid, lacking year round access can develop an illness.

For real estate resale, the mostly recreational properties that are for getaway fun have a distinct role  or purpose.

But when the Maine real estate owner starts to add more and more improvements, a tipping point can happen in the resale value.

The lack of juice wired to the place, easy or year round access missing can come with the territory.

When attracting a low cost Maine real estate property seeker. Wanting to be unplugged, off the beaten path.

But easy does it. Keep it simple, cheap and don't create a Frankenstein property listing. One that the buyer scratches his head. Beyond the simple cabin in the woods.

Becoming more and more Maine home like.

But still no foundation, property heating, ventilation, etc. Lacking other features the Maine home buyer expects as a given. That a camp property lacks by nature. As the simple camp tries to move up into a home category. If it walks like a duck, well you know. What is it? Or trying to be?

The design of Maine properties, homes with open concept layouts.

Not tight, dark, long hallways of wasted space. Those just compartmentalize a place and restrict easy flow of heating or cooling too. When we list, market, sell Maine land, to folks that want to build, it is big time exciting.

To hear about the structures they dream of having hammered out, erected. Staging put up, constructed for their finally Maine home sweet home.

The long list of what goes into the new Maine home filled with all they did not like in other homes to date. What to avoid considered.

And everything they wanted but did not have in their past houses factored into the new construction. Poured into the Maine home building blueprint design.

Cathedral living area where your kitchen, dining, living room are all one big space. To join forces rounding up the individual areas to work in sweet harmony. Your Maine home 24x24 cathedral ceiling living space is bigger when the furniture placement defines the layout. Not sheetrock and hung doors to slice and dice up the new Maine home living area.

More and more with rising fuel, heating prices, the most efficient use of combined space for Maine homes under construction is happening.

What is being built is making it seem larger, open. More glass, splash. Combined space to reinforce each part of the use a home owner puts the house into action for daily living. Joining forces for the best take away final impression when it is wide open, wall to wall long and high ceilings for the added space, angles.