So the time has come, for you to start your search for Maine waterfront homes.

Maybe used as a camp, cottage for now. Until the golden retirement bell goes off in a few years. As you ease into being off the clock. Chasing the dollar.

Possibly just a Maine waterfront property without the buildings, structures, improvements.

That's the plan.

To use when the time arrives to build from scratch.

The ground up, side to side. To get what you want. Not someone else's nightmare to tame.

Making changes to existing Maine waterfront properties can be expensive, stressful.

In the undo, redo, make do. Throwing good money after bad. And shoreland zoning in Maine, is not going to make it easier to modify and get what you want.

Living in Maine, what do you get around a property listing when you buy real estate here?

Going in the price is so low that living debt free opens up all kinds of options. Because you are freed up on the worry of making a large monthly payment for this or that. Or many at all.

Once the not needing lots of money to live in Maine sinks in, the new property listing buyer starts to add up savings in other areas too.

Car insurance when you live in the 4th lowest crime state. Means expect to pay about one quarter of our friends behind the wheel.

With the hands in 10 and 2 on the way to work on 495 or 128 in Bean Town.

More car accidents, thefts means higher premiums due to the risk.

Simple Maine living has lots of other advantages too.

Like not locking your door. Smiling. Making eye contact and waving at your neighbor. Or to anyone you meet. Strangers don't stay that way long in small town rural Maine living.

Maine real estate is local, the property listings are fixed based.

But the financing help and legal closing assistance is something that we see gypies asking for a slice. Trying to muscle in.

To sample some of that hit, flit and run local pie.

I am fiercely territorial, home town proud of our local Maine service providers.

Every local Maine  taxpayer should be for area survival, growth, prosperity.

We have talented local Maine bank lenders.

Legal beagle local Maine attorneys, lawyers to shuffle, coordinate the paperwork.

Local Maine insurance agents, brokers to bind the property listings when they sell too.

So when we get Maine real estate office visits from a "gypsy" lender from hours away asking to just give us a whirl.

Try us, you'll like us please. I just smile. Hand goes up, hold it happens. Stop right there. We have plenty of local Maine providers of that service. They create local jobs that feed, support the small Maine town community economy.

Maine real estate buyers purchasing a property listing wonder what their taxes are going to be the following year.

Especially when buying Maine land and many buildings. So often the question comes up, what are my property taxes on the Maine real estate going to be?

The next time I rip open the envelope.

Get the bill for my new property in Maine delivered.

They gonna walk it, sock it to me?

Property taxes in Maine go up.

They stay the same.

Some years they even drop. And every town in Maine is run differently. Some hip hip, ship shape, tight is right. Others, well loose as a goose. Not so cost efficient.

Each town, plantation, city also does not have the same features. That may help make the property taxes on the Maine real estate lower than others. Industry, making money off licensing, services all go into the same kitty as the property taxes of a Maine community. To pay the bills.

You know the feeling from getting your money's worth when eating out, dining away from home.

Maine land acreage is like that. You always leave a closing on a property listing for Maine land loaded to the gills, happy, giddy.

Feeling the same buying Maine land as loaded down with the carry out white boxes of food.

From the local Maine diner. Where you always get your money's worth.

That you paid for, just could not eat. But get to save for another sitting.

When hunger returns and you wander out to the refrigerator for a little snack. A quick looksie of just what hiding in there. On those shelves during a commercial break of some reality show. And you are thinking about grazing, putting the feed bag on.

Maine land is plentiful, always included in large supply in a property listing purchase.

Around the in town home with extra lots. Surrounding, wrapping loosely the farm or waterfront property listing in Maine. That includes plenty of acreage in the property trade. To add to the experience of all four season outdoors. With the real estate in Maine, the property listing you zero in on. You decide to purchase.

You are buying or selling Maine real estate, what about property closing costs?

You are in the dark. Hope you have enough money to cover them. Have questions. Wonder and worry what are they? Just don't know what to expect.

How wide the wallet or purse is going to have to open.

Do you have enough can cause sleepless nights.

You hope you do.

What's the damage to buy or sell the property in Maine?

Spell out what everything costs in a Maine property sale.

That's our job. Closing costs are this big black hole of unknown to most.

Because buying and selling Maine real estate is not something people do very often.

And unless paying attention you can be shelling out too much. Or writing checks for items not their responsibility. Without knowing better. Shifted over to the your side of the closing settlement statement. Talked into it not knowing, seeing the shell game underway.

Tell me about closing costs on Maine real estate Mister Broker Man. Gladly. Sure can.

Banks will by law have to provide a good faith estimate of closing costs. They usually aim high. Don't want you coming in short. Right up front, going in. Here's the score, ball park estimates. All of them.

And if the property sale is for cash so much is left blank for numbers on the HUD-1 settlement statement.

So many markets in real estate are houses, just homes.

Maine homes are part of what we peddle, but other property listings are marketed too. Because when a Maine real estate broker is lucky enough to live in a place called Aroostook County, well now. 

Maine land is part of the property sales, buyer match making.

Because so so many people, like 8 out of 10 have to live.

Do time chasing the dollar in the city, land comes at a premium.

Space is a luxury and expensive.

Or just non-existent.

Except for a park here, some monuments. Maybe a river winding through in a special location of an urban area.

In Maine, the homes all come with lots of land.

And sales of Maine farms, land is part of the selection we offer. Maine waterfront land is part of the vending slots of real estate we do stock. To make sure that there are all the locations, prices.

Every type of each Maine property listing category filled to the brim. To push the selection button. For release, to hear it thud thud. To slide open the bottom door slot. To pull it out and enjoy fully the Maine land.

Maine real estate sales, it's all about attracting the attention of more buyers.

Property listings in Maine need to be seen by the largest audience possible. And videos do a round the clock delivery using the eyes and ears too.

Nothing like seeing, hearing all about the local area events in Maine late at night wearing your jammies.

The property for sale in the area of Maine. Where the community happenings occur, the local flavor impresses people.

Simple living, low crime, four seasons, less traffic, more wildlife. And plenty of drop dead gorgeous four seasons beauty, scenery included for free.

But keeping it all a secret, only cueing in the locals is like flirting in the dark.

Winking, hoping something good comes out of the eye action. Playing footsy. Sending signals. Hoping for good results, a connection that leads to more.

Marketing property listings in Maine is no longer an Monday through Friday 8-5 job.

Not just catering to, chasing a local audience either. 

You are a Maine home buyer, not flush with cash.

Want to buy some real estate in Maine, but need a home loan mortgage, some financing. So wandering out onto the information highway.

Like sliding a buffet cafeteria tray down the aluminum tubes.

Under the sneeze guard, you are getting hungry.

Anxious to buy a Maine home for your young family but needing backing, a mortgage loan.

But unlike the days of rent a long time to save up the 25% down payment, deal with a local lender.

And everything done in the home town bank with a character assessment of you, the property, the title.

It is way way more complicated now.

Because Maine home buyers don't have 25% of the house price all squirrel away, mortgage insurance is needed. Add in some flood insurance if the Maine home is somewhere Noah will be blowing through after building the 100 year Ark.

You Tube videos for real estate property listings.

One sweet way to make the connection in the show and tell. To do the delivery of local community area events.

The what's available to consider buying, owning. Now playing on the You Tube real estate channel.

That's for sale in the Maine real estate market.

Real estate videos work so fine, round the clock.

No matter what the buyer's time zone or location. Weather never interferes with the transfer of information either using powerful video.

Videos avoid the need for numerous, expensive trips north to kick the tires. The gas, motels, pressure of find something today. Because we have to trot back home. Racing back and forth is not an option time and money wise.

The owners of a property in Northern Maine live in Boston MA and a property break in happened.

Rare in the 4th lowest crime state where Aroostook County is half that pretty impressive statistic.

But the copper plumbing was stripped for scrap value from a Maine vacation property.

And now the Maine home seller is anxious to sell.

Worried about a return visit from the help yourself gang.

But pricing, wanting what they paid for the place, all the money put into the property. And a tidy profit on top of all those numbers.

(Buzzer sound) Not so fast. And remember no insurance on the property listing so kinda of exposed, vunerable and on thin breaking ice.

The owner of the home in Maine relocated, has to rent the house out to help subsidize the property they carry here.

To be able to buy a place in the new location. Or just to help with bills because they too are renting on the other end.

Until the place, home in Maine sells. But there is a problem, a kink, a wrinkle.

The renter tells the owner he is going to buy their home in Maine.

So the owner figures here we go. One loose end tied up. But months go by.

No purchase and sale agreement. No talk even on the price the property is going to be selling for to see if they can even afford it.

For some local small town Maine home buyers the situation goes like this.

If the credit score is healthy enough, the debt ratios of spending compared to the cash flowing in each month A OK, they qualify for a home loan.On paper.

Say a Maine State Housing RD home loan for first time house buyers.

And in Northern Maine where home prices are lower, the wages are too.

So the $40,000 price range the Maine bank loan officer points to and says go forth young home buyer.

Seek out a home in Maine for $40K or under. It's all smiles. For awhile.

The Maine home we find the buyer on radar that catches their fancy, causes the lubdub is a bank repo. Parked in that magic price range limbo mortgage pole space they have to stay under. To make the math add up right. To meet Maine home mortgage loan requirements.

Trouble shooting, what can go wrong in listing, selling Maine real estate properties?

The listings in Maine get created around the kitchen table of the seller. The detailed information gathered to use with the images, videos, maps, surveys in the marketing media streams.

Often if this first step does not get the time and attention it deserves, things go down hill on a Maine home sale.

Or something blows up later on that should have been dealt with early on to avoid derailment.

Like a Maine real estate deed with a glaring, faulty description, that does not close completely. Or right of way easements, lien attachements that should have been known early on. That simple were not checked for, figured in on the to do list before marketing kicks in. That could have been spotted from a simple peek at the title in the local Maine county registry of deeds.

Buying a Maine home, getting a house loan.

What are the hurdles set up to clear today at a local Maine bank for financing your own place?

No longer just one flavor of mortgage loans for a Maine home. The days of just, only one route of saving up, going without to get a pile of cash large enough.

To plop down 25% of the Maine home property's purchase price are over. Long gone.

When you spy with your little eye "the one" you want to start out in for "home sweet home". And the sticks and bricks are all you can think, dream about through out your home buyer's days and nights.

Now options to buying a Maine home are growing in number to custom make the best fit for your financial situation.

And considering the all important property listing the buyer has his or her heart set on owning.

To four walls and a roof. To raise a family in. To see the house in Maine equity increase as the mortgage payments chips away slowly. On the loan amortization schedule debt securing the Maine home for bank lending collateral. Learn more about Veteran Admnistration (VA) home loans. One neat no down payment home loan program if you served in the armed forces. The details on a VA home loan in Maine.

The requirements to get a loan for a Maine home start with your all important number, the credit score. That number that takes years to build up, to repair if dinged and beat up. And so little time to see it get riddled with holes and shrink rapidly because of life events, poor spending impulse control.

What the Maine real estate buyers, sellers expect in property sales?

Sometimes realistic. Other times pie in the sky happens looking down the road for expectations. The hardest situation is the young couple, first time Maine home buyers.

They qualify barely for a $40,000 or less home loan.

The trouble is no closing costs for the above and beyond saved up. Looking for the seller, expecting the owner to pick up the tab.

And because the Maine home is in the $40,000 property search bracket, it is not going to be in perfect new, show room condition for a finnicky loan program underwriting standards.

May have some hurdles, tall ones to scale to please the Maine home appraiser. Replacing a furnace is not done with chump change. Money found down in the seat cushions of the couch. From rounding up, taking the empties back to the bottle redemption place.

With Maine land, for many it is living life one acre at a time.

Because the desire is to live a life with less consumption. Being sensitive to what is healthy mentally, spiritually, physically. To be balanced with a day of day of independent moderation.

But on a Maine farm, working the land is passion that drives the motivation.

To find a few things you do well in the tilling, planting, culitivating, harvest.

To put your heart and soul into those outdoor working the Maine land endeavors that define you.

In the late 1970's, early 1980's when I studied, passed my Maine real estate brokers license exam, Maine land was pretty easy to sort, grade, price.

To price it meant cut over Maine woodland with no or hard legal access could mean $100 per acre for fair market value.

Add a brook, some attractive, generous owner financing to the Maine land and the figure could bump upward. If it was a total swamp with prehistoric animals roaming it and spooky, chain saw that price a notch or two.

You unfold the newspaper, see headlines about the real estate market up or down.

And you figure the reporter is talking about the local area. No, they are reporting on certain areas or trying to give a real estate forecast for the entire country.

Or focused on a region that is rebounding or lagging in real estate. That is the  spotlight.

But local. The real estate market where you live, work and play. Surrounding your day to day.

Where you are invested. Or wishing to buy, needing to sell a property listing.

That is the real estate forecast you are most concerned with right?

In Maine, we live in two major sections. Southern Maine that warms up and cools off, tied a lot to the Boston MA real estate market.

In Northern Maine, we chug along. Live like we are in our own little world.

Because we are. In a county the size of Connecticut, Rhode Island with eleven people per square mile. That is all. Less people, less problems.

Maine homes with owner financing, a seller willing and able to carry a mortgage if you sign the promissory note.

Work out the terms to repay the debt on the property you move into that has a mortgage given back to the owner of the Maine home.

In states where the house prices are too many zero places big and the repayment would be too long, too large for the buyer, Maine homes are cheaper.

The payment for the property home listing buyer in Maine is not going to choke the purchaser. Squash the real estate deal.

Because all the Maine homes are so much lower cost. More for the money happens in Vacationland.

It's a case of everything you know about house values where you live now, divide by three, four or more. Way way less expensive than where you may hang your hat now to live than if in Maine where homes are affordable.

The time has come to sell your Maine home and how to make it worth more you ask the agent, broker.

For a bigger net proceeds bottom line property sale figure on the real estate HUD-1 settlement statement. Surprisingly, the most important improvements revolve around housekeeping these days.

A clean Maine home for sale is a beautiful situation.

Odor free from strange, sharp sour smells. Of over flowing garbage and cat boxes.

And well lit, uncluttered. Ship shape and tidy. With a quick possession date. Easy opportunities to show for walk throughs of qualified Maine home buyers. Ready to buy.

All puts your Maine home head and shoulders above many in the house herd. Plenty that are lived in too harshly. Some looking like community centers and flop houses. Prison conditions when the inmates storm the guards kinda appearance. When the guys in stripes turn the tables, take control over the crow bar hotel.

Often the Maine home decline happens because no money for repairs. The reason for the shabby look, stark lack luster conditions. Divorce aftermath. Someone got sick, died, lost a job.

The wrong renters, tenants in the Maine home that just don't care can trigger a foreclosure. Don't want to move either. To be out on the streets again looking to crash and trash another pad. To make it too look ridden hard, put away wet. That nobody wants the keys to the front door if you gave them to them for free.