Can you purchase a home in Calais, Maine for under 100,000??

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by mainer2

They're auctioning off lots of home in the Calais area starting under 10k....

mainer I've heard of a couple--what a great way for someone to pick up a second property. The biggest drawback though is that Calais property taxes are higher than the surrounding areas, so that may sway the second home buyer

[AliceT]

I didn't know Calais had homes worth 100,000. Are you going by Georgia prices and assuming real estate is similar? Not so. You can buy a whole lot of houses in Calais for 100 grand.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by mainer2

They're auctioning off lots of home in the Calais area starting under 10k.

Sign up for the local newspapers as the realtors mark the houses up pretty high. We bought a FSBO property on the water for 30k

Greta advice. Just started getting the Quoddy Tides and couldn't believe there minimum bids were $8k and $10K. This is probably the route we will go so that we can get there sooner. Maybe someone here could help with my related question. How could we determine if there are liens before we send in a bid?

While fixer upper is OK (DH and I will be retired and are fairly handy), owing tons of $ in unplanned liens may not work.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by AliceT

I didn't know Calais had homes worth 100,000. Are you going by Georgia prices and assuming real estate is similar? Not so. You can buy a whole lot of houses in Calais for 100 grand.

I wouldn't say a "whole lot of houses".....I'd say yes, there are a few. As for none being worth $100K I'd just say you haven't been to Calais, or maybe nothing is "worth" that amount to you. Calais has a good amount of waterfront property along with some beautiful historic homes, it's a safe bet to say that probably half of the property in Calais is "worth" more that $100K---including my house!!

[Bydand]

Agree Molly! Calais has some VERY nice homes. There are a few there, that I would bet 5 times that amount wouldn't touch for price and value. Then like every city and town, there are those that you could buy 5 or 6 homes and still have enough left over to de-bug them and clean them out.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

"How could we determine if there are liens before we send in a bid?"

Have a title search done and buy title insurance. Have a good home inspector look at the property. He will give you a good evaluation of the building and estimate the costs of any immediate or upcoming repairs.

Here's a suggestion: If you gut a room down to the studs you'll likely find 2x4s in the walls. Rip some 2x4s in half and strap the existing studs so the exterior walls will be thicker. You can then use insulation for a 2x6 wall and save on heating costs forever. It's cheap to do and you won't reduce the room size noticably. That is also a good time to replace the windows in that room. You can sell the old windows to somebody that is building a camp.

[BacktoNE]

There are a lot of beautiful homes in Calais, worth well over $100K. If I found a really solid house for less than $100K, that needed just cosmetics, I'd consider myself very lucky.

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

I wouldn't say a "whole lot of houses".....I'd say yes, there are a few. As for none being worth $100K I'd just say you haven't been to Calais, or maybe nothing is "worth" that amount to you. Calais has a good amount of waterfront property along with some beautiful historic homes, it's a safe bet to say that probably half of the property in Calais is "worth" more that $100K---including my house!!

While scouting property in and around Machias last July, I decided to drive up to Calais to check it out as I had never been there. I was very surprised to see some very beautiful old Victorians in town for sale and what I would call cheap prices. One of the houses was like 5 bedrooms, nice woodwork, updated electrical, plumbing and heating. Newer roof and vinyl siding. It had been on the market for some number of months and was around $30k asking price. I figured it could be had for less. If I could have got the listing agent out there that afternoon I probably would have bought it on impulse.

After that I started periodically looking at the listings on the MLS for Calais. Seems like the prices are all over the place. I thought it was a nice town though, just further north than we want to be right now.

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

"How could we determine if there are liens before we send in a bid?"

Have a title search done and buy title insurance. Have a good home inspector look at the property. He will give you a good evaluation of the building and estimate the costs of any immediate or upcoming repairs.

Here's a suggestion: If you gut a room down to the studs you'll likely find 2x4s in the walls. Rip some 2x4s in half and strap the existing studs so the exterior walls will be thicker. You can then use insulation for a 2x6 wall and save on heating costs forever. It's cheap to do and you won't reduce the room size noticably. That is also a good time to replace the windows in that room. You can sell the old windows to somebody that is building a camp.

Yup, good advice.

You could also leave the 2x4 studs alone and spray in foam insulation. 3 1/2 inches of sprayed in insulation has better R value than the R 19 you can fit into 2x6 walls. Also the foam fills every nook and cranny. This is definitely more expensive than rolled fiberglass insulation but if you can afford the upfront cost it will surely pay for it self.