Mooers Realty Blog

Keeping it cool or making it warm, the two extremes for the Maine home owner who wants to save money no matter which direction the thermostat points.

Maine has four seasons and air conditioning is not a big need like it would be in the hot hot sunny south with humidity or even with dry hot of the southwest.

But here comes winter in Maine ready or not.

And so many myths about our winter weather in Maine.

More on the true picture of the climate, weather, temperatures in Maine.

We don't live in areas near one of the cold poles on the top or bottom of the globe.

We are 19 degrees average winter temperature and not 80 below zero as some outside of Maine who never set foot here would lead you to believe.

And our frugal natures means we all just strive to find ways to make it easier to heat our homes in Maine to save money.

So the house in Maine that needs tightening up to keep everyone inside nice and warm. Toasty, happy, and no one sees their breath when they rise and shine. Or through the day and house plants thrive like the family animals.

If you are the owner of say an old Maine farm house, and happen to own a wood lot, the amount of fuel you chew up over the course of winter is not so critical.

You saw up 10 cords, have another of the same amount all cut, stacked and under cover in the machine shed or barn, under a tarp or in the wood shed. Ready to begin the ritual of feeding the central heating source from the wood furnace in the cellar.

Maine winter not so big a deal.

And to help the furnace with a stick or two put into the antique kitchen wood stove, it's all good. Or the one I use, a 404 Jotul kitchen wood stove that is small but mighty.

How drafty, how air tight the Maine farm house is suddenly is not so important. When your renewable heat source is an unlimited supply of wood for heating the floorplan adequately.

Land in Maine for sale.

The small rural real estate markets list and sell more than houses, just homes. Lots of land in all sizes are listed for sale in the Maine real estate buffet of current properties available. For folks that the timing is right to make the purchase of land in Maine.

But unlike buying a house, land is a more difficult animal to tame.

To get financing for a piece of land requires larger down payments, higher interest rates from the lenders used to packaging up a house loan and selling it on the secondary mortgage market.

That's why owner financing is a great vehicle to use to buy land in Maine for sale and providing terms that custom fit the buyer and seller.

More on why owner financing land in Maine works so well and fills the void that banks create with the higher cost obstacles. Banks don't get to sell the land mortgages on the secondary market and have to hang onto the paper. As interest rates rise, they are stuck with lower return mortgage notes.

The owner financed Maine land provides a nice annuity for the seller of the land and often times the seller does not need to replace the property. So they can wait for the sale's price divided into the monthly installments.

The Maine REALTOR State Convention for real estate professionals wrapping up. Held this year, 2016, at Sunday River in Newry, near Bethel.

This ski resort in Maine high in the hills and not quickly accessed off an Inetrstate 95 corridor exit creates a different atmosphere for learning and networking about listing, marketing, selling property listings. Than the other venues used in rotation for state REALTOR conventions like the Samoset in Rockport or Bar Harbor or Portland Maine.

Here is the MAR "Take It To The Peak" schedule of events for the 2016 REALTOR Sunday River multi day razzle dazzle.

There are 5201 REALTORS in Maine this year but only about ten percent of those wearing the blue and gold "R" pin and paying the dues for their local regions attend these yearly gatherings. Obtaining continuing educational credits for the two year Maine real estate license renewal is easy by attending these yearly conventions.

Learning about what buyers and sellers today need and want is critical for survival. Because like every other industry, reinventing how we do what we do is necessary to avoid extinction. And to make sure every Maine REALTOR is tuned up and dialed in to being at the top of their game. In this sport some call an addiction, a jealous master.

As I slurp on a black, fresh coffee this morning, I reflect on past Maine REALTOR conventions.

And think about over 5200 state members, what those community real estate agents, brokers and card carrying REALTORS can do to improve Maine from the local level. Because Maine is a vast, rural, sparsely populated state and face with huge challenges to keep our children from being exported to meet "financial objectives" and career goals.

Streamlining and consolidation to avoid duplication of resources and forward thinking, leadership to re-tool the small Maine towns that are full of pride, rich history but struggling with today's homework assignment. Worried about tomorrow and what needs to be implemented today, maybe a few years back that is causing us to veer off the correct path.

Internet connectivity to me is the most important to lure out of state, country new citizens to come into the 450 plus small Maine towns, the handful of cities in Vacationland.

Real estate listings that don't make it to the property closing happen for lots of reasons.

Failed attempts to actually close on a sale despite the best efforts. Why causes a real estate sale to fail? Sometimes caused by man, other times by circumstances that become just too great to keep the sale going. 

There comes a time when pulling up the white sheet and toe tagging a real estate sale has to happen.

So the efforts to sell are not just bogged down with a sale kept alive only by artificial means. The quicker the red flags are seen, counted up and decisions made to change directions, the better for the buyer and seller in the long run.

We like to be positive and showcase the right steps to take along the way. But sometimes what to avoid seems to be taken more serious. So nothing gets glossed over.

Nothing is made to look so easy that the blog post reader figures ninety nine percent of real estate listings become property sales with big bold SOLD's riders topping the lawn signs out front. 

So who has a part in the success or failure of the real estate sale? Starting with the seller. What mistakes do real estate sellers make? It starts at the listing and how the property is priced.

The MLS Maine real estate transfer of property listing information, the mechanics are similiar.

But the substance of what is relayed and how is not. Like jewels, not everyone shines the same. Like people, there are distinct differences. Something blaring, other times more subtle.

And some of the property listings herded down the MLS real estate pipeline just did not get the treatment needed to make a true transfer of what this one, that one is really all about.

For starters, when a listing in a zero lot line, Home Owner Association tightly reined home on the west coast is listed. And on the other side of the country, a farm home with lots of land, bordering the waterfront, in a smallcountry town without restrictive zoning layers is listed.

Both are so not a like, the approach to trying to show and tell just how to the online real estate property listing buyer could not be more different. Peas and carrots not apples and apples.

Has to be because the real estate buyers for each property are too.

The yes, no, maybe and number fields for the rooms, bedroom, baths and square footage of the inside living space can only take it so fast in the mass transfer of information.

The MLS has to be streamlined and efficient. But the narrative space to really drill down into just what this property listing is all about, and to spell out the condition, the local community surrounding it, does not get in the spotlight pool.

That's why the images have to reinforce and pitch in to show the true picture. The copy space that is afforded has to have clear, efficient language the audience can hook into and glean. Not full of real estate jargon, titles, initials that only someone in the industry would recognize.

You are after a motel room, a place to stay in Houlton Maine, in Southern Aroostook County.

But look, wait, something is missing. Where are all the familiar chains for a place to lay your head, to get off the highway for some shut eye. Didn't anyone offer to leave the light on for you?

Houlton Maine, a place on the map at the beginning of Interstate 95 and at the cross roads of US Rt 1, 2, 2A.

But this blog post is designed to help you see the options for your stay no matter how long in Houlton Maine.

Houlton Maine is not a crowded area with too many people or lots of traffic or crime. That's a good thing.

But with those elements missing, with just less folks needing the motel room it means less choices in places to stay for motel rooms, a cabin for the night or place to park your camper trailer.

Other things too drop off in supply because there is not the high demand. We are a little ways off the beaten path.

In large population center, there are lots of motel rooms, places to stay and that's just the expectation when you are in a hurry. It is what you are used to in large urban areas where eight out of ten people live.

Motel rooms pop up everywhere online, in tourist information center lodging hand outs.

But in small rural Maine towns and the handful of cities in an underpopulated state, good luck. Not much shows up for motels, lodging options and the price you pay is not going to get much help if any from your Priceline, Expedia and other dot coms designed to negotiate the rate down.

So you are traveling to Aroostook County, and what about Houlton Maine places to stay, motels, cabins, lodging?

You have options for motels, rooms in Houlton Maine. The Shiretown Inn and Suites is one Houlton Maine motel room option. Just off the Exit 302 of Interstate 95.

So you are looking for, tracking anything that moves that resembles a home to rent in Houlton Maine.

They don't grow on trees and there is a reason. Homes for rent don't make money for the owner. So when that happens, long term rentals that don't pay the bills make a sale the most important goal.

But renting the home in Houlton Maine can be a viable option when the seller is out of the area, needs anything to help the wallet or purse to carry the overhead of the property for sale.

It can be a mutal situation where a renter does not want long term and the seller can still have the home marketed for sale.

To not miss out on a real estate sale of the house he or she needs to replace somewhere else. Or to just have it sold because no longer used because the property owner has gone into an apartment, assisted living or off to the great beyond.

The reason for the shortage of homes to rent in Houlton Maine is the low to the ground price tags of houses for sale in the Shiretown of Aroostook County.

More on renting vs owning a Maine home in a small rural market. Everything you know about real estate property prices in larger markets which eight our of ten are, divide by three and four. Same with cost of property insurance due to being the 4th lower crime state for misdeeds. The income is less too but you won't need to make so much to live in Northern Maine where everything is cheaper.

FACT: In Houlton Maine, the surrounding small towns and platantions, you can buy a quality home and the monthly payment is less than market rent.

Sure the new property owner has maintenance to provide, the cost of insurance, property taxes but it still is worth it. If the credit allows the renter to be a buyer of a home sweet home.

There is an expression among Maine farmers, the one about "like people, soils are different".

Well, like people, their property listings, the real estate where they call home is never the same either. Because of lots of factors.

We are not talking staging, where a place is painted in certain trendy shades of colors or furniture is aranged just so.

We see places, homes in Maine where everything seems to be picked up and orderly.

But something is still missing.

The heart and soul of a property, a home that is enjoyed and lived in.

You can tell as you drive in the yard or walk under the front or side or rear doorway about the vibes a place radiates. Partially because of the potential home buyer's preferences and sometimes harder to explain. To put your finger on.

The criteria that a Maine home buyer has to select the "one" is varied and depends on the size of the housing budget, the needs of the folks under the roof and inside those four walls too.

If a mother in law needing a first floor bedroom is on board, then houses without the place to lay your head without going up and down a set of difficult stairs is the order of the day.

If no mother in law, that all goes away. Something else moves up the real estate buyer's priority list of what they need in the present day to satisfy the housing need.

You are traveling, need to find your way to one of the two court houses in Houlton Maine.

Maine District Court at 26 School Street Houlton Maine is open from 8 to 4 pm.

Here are traveling directions to help make sure you get to scheduled court appearance on time.

Driving Directions to Maine District Court - Houlton

From the South: On Interstate 95 take the exit 305 for Houlton Maine. Turn right onto the North Road (US Rt 1). Go through 3 sets of lights, then proceed to a stop sign. Turn left on to Military Street and you will come to another set of lights.

As you are sitting at the trafic lights on your left you will see the courthouse (you will notice the burgundy with hidden blue sky, stars, moon clock dome at the top of the courthouse) The Clerk's office is located on the second floor of the Houlton Maine court house.

Parking: Parking on side of School Street, Broadway Street, or dooryard of courthouse in the unmarked spaces. Behind the Pioneer Times newspaper building and around Market Square is another option for parking.

Rarely is the Houlton Post Office parking lot full or used to it's maximum capacity so consider that as one more easy walk to court if you in Houlton Maine in need of a place to put your vehicle.

Here is the history of the Aroostook County Court in Houlton Maine. Houlton Maine is like sixteen other towns, the county seat of it's county, Aroostook's Shiretown. District and Superior Court in Houlton Maine. 

Aroostook County was formed in 1859 from parts of Washington and Penobscot Counties. Aroostook County is the largest in land mass east of the Rockies and is Maine's largest, nicknamed the crown of Maine. Or dubbed Aroostook, The Garden of Maine.

As a Maine real estate professional, our office does everything humanly possible to get the listing to the very long closing table.

The reason for all our dog and pony is to get to the real estate closing for the property listing transfer. That needs to happen as quickly, easily and the least costly way possible for both buyers and sellers of real estate.

Time is money in a property sale and it is not a pretend play game for kids.

The costs associated with real estate sales hit the wallet or purse hard too.

Have to be paid whether a sale happens or not. Ouch!

So blog posts, videos on pricing, marketing the real estate is so important have been hunt and pecked on this channel.

Lots of blog posts on what can go wrong in real estate listing, selling and how to see the red flags, avoid the quicksand too.

But one topic is often overlooked in another leading cause of a real estate sale derailment. Making the transfer like a house of cards.

Possession of the premises, the property by a tenant, an owner that just won't go. Says they will, knows they won't.

Sometimes because of seller's remorse. Not just buyer's have remorse and develop cold feet don't ya know. Tenants can be a family member which is even worse.

The all important day of days, the one where a real estate closing takes place.

Or will hopefully because they can be planned, pushed ahead, derailed indefinitely. But like any procedure, there are tried and tested methods to increase the odds of a real estate closing day staying alive. Not dying on the conference room table.

First and foremost, people care about themselves.

Have manners and for a spell of time care about you too as long as nothing interferes with number one who comes first.

They make plans, don't want their life on hold too long.

So the longer a real estate sale drags on, the chances of it failing rise rapidly.

Warm and friendly turns to cold and snarky.

The meters and dials need monitoring and what to expect is discussed before it happens and anyone was left in the dark.

There is a Maine expression, probably from some crusty guy or gal living on the coast that goes something like this. "It is hard telling without knowing".

Translation, "you don't see quick sand, red flags waving without the lights on." Communication is critical and to be as assurate as possible it must be current, pertinent, is time sensitive big time.