The personal property in a real estate sale, what can go, what has to stay?

The listing for a property should spell out if the appliances stay and which ones. Including the make and model so no swap switcharoo helps make it crystal clear. And to avoid an inferior or broken appliance geting added to the sale.

If the listed price with added personal property items is not met, then none of the personal property has to stay.

What is the difference between personal property and a fixture? When you don't buy and sell real estate often, confusion can happen about what is expected but does not happen. No one should have to wonder what stays, what goes in a real estate sale. Don't leave it to a verbal list that not all the parties remember. And make sure besides spelling it all out on the purchase and sale agreement to warn family members, friends. To leave the property alone... for the seller to make sure nothing evaoporates after the ink is dry on the purchase and sale agreement spelling out the terms of the transfer.

Oil pro-ration is as important as the calculation for the real estate property taxes.

The money lost hurts whoevers pocket did not get the chunk of change. Whatever party gets left out of the reimbursement feels cheated. And when fuel oil in the tank costs are high per gallon, the need to pro-rate is a strong one when there is a considerable amount of oil left at the property for sale. Less hassle happens when there is under a quarter of a tank and the seller says close enough. Don't hassle them with the nickel and dime. But when there are two 275 or 330 gallon oil tanks and they are filled to the brim, the seller should feel the desire to get reimbursed for the fuel oil.

In our real estate list and sale experience it is better when there is not personal property that is wrestled over. When someone helps themselves to items. The appliance left behind often has issues too that adds to the tension. One electrical burner on the cook stove does not work. The freezer in the refrigerator does not do it's job to keep everything frozen. Unless new appliances, under warranty that transfers with the title to the property, broken appliances in need of repair are better to escort out of the building before they are included in a sale.

Often the focus moves far left or right of a real estate property sale and the personal property tug of war over the lawnmower, the swing set or trampoline, hot tub, whatever takes center stage. It can suck the fun out of the house sale when a buyer is excited but suddenly feets cheated because of how the personal property items are handled. Or if they are left behind because they don't work as they should.

You are eye-balling a property listing, some Maine real estate and the question comes up about flood insurance.

Do you need flood insurance or is the property in a designated flooplain? Time to bone up on the terminology!  A floodplain is a region next to the waterfront that swells and the real estate is affected from high dischanges of water.

How do you tell if a property for sale is affected by flooding, if it is in the floodplain? Check out the flood zones from the FEMA maps. More on the purpose of flood insurance and why it is needed in some cases. Homeowner's, renter's insurance do not typically cover flood damage. Flood damage is one of the most common natural disasters that can wipe out the home sweet home pretty picture.

Sure hurricanes, tornadoes, hail and winter storms can ravage a Maine house and the land around it.

But floods, the force of runaway water gaining speed and volume causes extensive damage. That unlike a freak hail storm where one exterior wall of vinyl siding needs replacement, floods can cause major soil erosion, sweeping a structure down a river to end up at a new property address. Or mold, water logged floors, furnaces under water that were not built to operate in those condition, damage from trees uprooted and slamming down on a roof all make the fix and repair from flood damage highly costly. 

Also, flooding can re-occur year after year unlike lightning strikes or a gale force windstorm repeating the toll on a property. The cost for flood insurance protection would be too high for the average home owner to carry coverage against so Uncle Sam stepped in to the picture. To provide coverage so lending institutions will write mortgages on the real estate.

More than twenty percent of flood damage clains happen to areas outside the floodplaine too. So accurate flood maps are key and being able to determine if flooding does not happen yearly, predicting when it will happen is so important. 

In my Maine real estate area of practice, the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) maps are studied when listing a waterfront property. Something on the river, bordering a pond or lake, backed up against a stream.

Learning never stops and continuing education credits to renew your Maine real estate agent or brokers license is part of professional standards.

Any real estate agent or broker wants to be up to snuff on the many facets of listing, selling property. And with dealing with the buyers and sellers, the financing, the legal end of the real estate profession too. 

So what is the deal in Maine? So many states mirror the same requirments for continuing education credits.

The state and national REALTOR groups also help create what is needed surrounding the code of ethics, the reason for the beginning of the trade association. 

In Maine, here is what is needed once you have your real estate agent or broker's license hanging on a wall somewhere.

To keep it current and to be in licensure compliance, 21 credit hours every two years are required. Of that hour amount of education, 3 credits are mandatory, 18 are elective.

Repeating the same couse in a two year period is great to sharpen your knowledge in the area, but the completed sessions don't provide credit hours you can apply to your license renewal. More from the Maine real estate commission on license renewal, the continuing education process.

The correct core courses, ethics courses are continually being updated and improved. And an agent, broker must make sure they are current on the most up to date requirement of each training session. To successfully be complete on what is needed at the time of license renewal. More on available continuing education coures for Maine real estate licensees.

A lot of the education while sitting through a live class is the table talk between sessions, the questions and answers that are part of the take away beyond just getting a slip for 3 more credit hours. The licensing fulfillment requirement is for a reason. To stay current, sharp and continue to reinvent the ever changing real estate list and sell process. 

How to avoid legal hot water, what to do and when to cover the hind end. Understanding all the options to match up the buyer with the best lending program.

A real estate agent or broker does more than shoot images, collect property listing information and upload it all to the Internet or post real estate in local publications. Like most areas of life, the real estate profession has become much more technical requiring continuing education to stay on the top of the property peddling profession. Every agent or broker is a dealer of real estate listings. How they use social media, how to make sure Fair Housing HUD standards are met... it all takes time and study to be in compliance today.

Every one has different real estate needs and what works best in a property fit changes with time.

Granny flats, she sheds, man caves are just some of the auxiliary structures added to properties we list and sell. The real estate improvements where you hang your hat is all about the quality of life right? Space that we don't have to share with others but that is ideal for a hobby or life interest pursuit. Everyone needs a big helping of that on a regular basis in their real estate surroundings right?

So granny flat, what is that?

Some call a granny flat a secondary suite. It is a revolution in the backyard. Just mention the two words, the term "granny flat".

The first thing that comes to mind for me is the Beverly Hillbillies and what that famous, feisty low to the ground granny would pick for the perfect property structure. An open porch for the rocker, a log cabin shanty space for a big wood cook stove to stir up grits, possum, gravy and chitlins. Personally I am not a big fan of pig intestines when I sit down with the knife and fork in the two hands to dine.

A granny flat is a space to create privacy and maintain independence for an elderly family member. But the structure is within eye or earshot of the primary residence where usually a younger family member lives and is available to check in on the gray or blue hair older relative who does not quite live under the same roof line.

The granny flat helps maintain the sense of living day to day on their own and preserves a person's independence.

But with under a watchful eye for peace of mind and a helping hand of a neighbor with the same DNA. A granny flat like any personal space is a spot to retreat, to say leave me be when it is time to stop the life merry-go-round and stop the world for a time. To collect your thoughts, to regain your bearings. To not be under foot but still handy. To be able to help each other out.

The sale of real estate in Maine, no one likes to wait around.

Unless they are having doubts about a sale and still getting use to the idea of letting go, moving on. More on seller's remorse because it does not just happen to buyers of property. Cold feet occurs because buying and selling property is life changing decision and highly stressful.

In most sales, the clock is ticking loudly. Some sellers understand the delays in a sale when a real estate professional takes the time to explain the causes. And suggests ways to remove the stumbling blocks keeping a real estate sale from happening. 

Here is a seller's email while waiting for a sale to happen so they can get on with their life. 

Maine waterfront properties, they have care and repair associated with them.

Protecting your investment is part of it. But being a good steward of the Maine lake, river front, pond, ocean property or whatever you border for water is the major concern. It's easier, cheaper to do the annual maintenance than the consequences from doing nothing.

Sometimes the shoreland zoning project involves retainer walls.

Real estate is a business of dealing with properties and the people that own or want to to buy one.

And in the course of conversations, emails and texts messages certain responses to questions can scare a real estate agent or broker. The longer a real estate professional is in business there are just some comments made by buyers and sellers that are bright red flags. That make an agent or broker tighten up because of past experiences. 

The last thing a buyer wants to say to an agent or broker is "I've been looking for property for seventeen years."

A buyer made that comment this week and I asked him why has it taken so long to find the right property and make the purchase? He said he had dealt with dozens of real estate agents and had a shopping bag of correspondence about properties he was sent over the years. 

He went on to say he was retired, all alone, had all the time in the World to look at property and would like to spend a week or more touring the area.His price range was low, the expectation too high for the budget. And he blamed the agents for coming up short finding him what he expected in the buy low, sell high approach to investing.

Considering more than one property listing is standard, but to filter down the list of possible best fits means some information has to be exchanged.

To weed out the ones they list as wanting to see that have negative features they specifically spelled out they did not want in whatever they purchase. 

The buyer has to let me help them develop a must have, don't want list if they don't have one. A price range always factors in because money is always an object, there is a limit to the budget to buy property in Maine. So to avoid wasting time for everyone, it is important to ask questions and from the answers help develop the best course of action in what to see, what to avoid in the real estate property listing match making. 

Property taxes on the real estate you own or just bought in Maine.

If there is anything universally agreed upon among people, it's the desire to avoid paying any more property taxes than absolutely necessary. Out of state buyers looking for Maine real estate listings especially are even more sensitive to property tax levels. Because the desire to move, the relocation to Maine was caused by not being able to afford the property taxes where they lived outside Vacationland. The lack of crime, plenty of open space,clean water, the low prices hanging off the Maine real estate listings do not hurt either  in making the Pine Tree State look pretty darn attractive. 

No matter where you live, property taxes need to be raised and maintained to fill the pot holes, educate the kids, to keep the town infrastructure purring along nicely.

The Maine home you decide you want to sell.

Cleaning up, swamping out your current the home you want to sell is the second step. The first and most important one is pricing the property inline with the market. If you ignore current real estate market value, all the detailing, staging and removing clutter is a waste of time. The home you need to sell swims in a market of other listings that are competing for the same home buyers too.

 This real estate blog post is designed to show you how to get that home sold. With the steps in the order to achieve a quicker, more profitable and less hassle real estate sale.

 There is nothing more frustrating than having a Maine hme buyer ooh and ahh about the kitchen and then moan "whoa".

The buyer for a property listing needs a real estate home loan.

Where to get the mortgage for financing the house for sale when cash is not an option. Or owner financing is not possible. Because the seller needs to pay off a mortgage and to replace the house with a new home address in another neighborhood somewhere else. 

Nationally there is a shortage of real estate property appraisers.

My Dad was one of the first crop of Maine residential real estate appraisers when licensing for valuations was needed. Prior to that the licensed Maine real estate broker could issue valuations. Appraising a property, valuation was one of the three components of licensure when I took my broker's exam in 1979.

Real estate practices and law were the other two components to getting, passing an agent or broker's license test to hang on the wall of an agency. Valuation was the toughest teacher, Ted Sherwood from Bangor drove home the point and made sure you knew the fine points of valuation for which I thank him. Dana Devoe was the law instructor, Earl Black the practices teacher who I still see at state REALTOR conventions each fall. 

Maine small town bankers prior to appraisers being brought on board could visit the property and size it up for condition and value for the collateral securing a mortgage loan. The home town mortgage lender made character loans too with local control and based on past experiences with the borrower or from family dealings in the small Maine town. Maine only has a handful of cities and small town communities is the norm in Vacationland. 

So back to the blog post title that kept your reading this far.

Local real estate bank home loans, protecting rural small towns in Maine. In my area of northern Maine the shortage of appraisers for the work load is felt in our local markets. One appraisal firm out of Washburn Maine recently announced they were pulling back their horns and not servicing southern Aroostook County any longer. So the tightness for appraisers to do the mortgage loan underwriting inspections and valuations just increase a few clicks on the rachet tension. 

So my advice to a home buyer looking for a home loan in Maine's small rural real estate markets is to keep it local.

Use those banks with processing centers in Maine. With local outlets for lending from institutions that have banks, credit unions in the small Maine town or in one of the sixteen counties of the Pine Tree State. Why? Lots of reasons. First and foremost is the service you you receive and the time that is not wasted waiting for the clear to close real estate memo. 

The price tags hanging off the properties, the real estate in Maine are not all the same size.

If you point your car or slide your mouse north, up into the interior of Maine, prices shed pounds. Become skinny, lean and mean. Because the coastal tourist traps, the few cities Maine has to brag about carry hefty prices when it comes time to seriously consider buying a property. The cost of living is lower in rural areas of Maine. Has to be because the local pay scale is lower to the ground to match it.

The shift from doing it yourself instead of hiring it out is part of moving to rural Maine transition.

Any real estate agent or broker can make a property sale look easy.

To make the process appear seamless as if each property listing transfer could be done with one hand tied behind their back or wearing a blindfold. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Because real estate is an emotional job dealing with all personality types and working around tremendous pressures caused from rushed relocation, dwindling resources to carry the expenses of a property listing. And add in the added stress of a divorce, poor health or death and the estate sale squabbling that can add to the difficulty of the real estate sale.

But a seasoned, experienced real estate professional has weathered many markets, dealt with lots of property sale situations and the folks involved in each and every property sale.

So our job is to give advice that sometimes is taken in whole, part or not at all. If the struggle to suggest the best course of action goes on deaf ears, the real estate professional should see the red flags. To wave his or her own white one to surrender. To take a step back and thank the buyer or seller for their time but to suggest there is a better fit out there to represent them. Realizing that you can not help them and that you are not able to meet their expectations. So you can move along to the listings and real estate sales that you can do your best work for results.

This blog post highlights a few of the unknowns that can raise havoc in a real estate sale. MOOERS REALTY has blogged before on areas where sellers can help or hurt their sale. When buyers can do good or harm the process in the real estate sale.

Besides whether the buyers or sellers take your advice or not, what are the wrenches that get thrown into the cogs of a real estate sale that are harder to control or plan for in a transaction? There are plenty that have nothing to do with the buyer or the seller and that can easily get missed early on to only rise up and show their ugly head later.