considering purchase of summer home in brooklin (Portland, Bangor: real estate, how much)

[iamhadley]

we are considering purchasing a summer home in brooklin Maine. We have researched many different parts of maine and consider brooklin to have good fishing and scenery. Is it easy to get to? Can you drive or do you have toferry? Also where is the nearest airport? Any insight would be appreciated.......good or bad.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by iamhadley

we are considering purchasing a summer home in brooklin Maine. We have researched many different parts of maine and consider brooklin to have good fishing and scenery. Is it easy to get to? Can you drive or do you have toferry? Also where is the nearest airport? Any insight would be appreciated.......good or bad.

How much "research" have you done really? Brooklin is on the mainland and therefore accessible by roads. Nearest major airport would be Bangor International. If I recall correctly Blue Hill has a tiny airport and Belfast has a small regional airport, but you could be at BIA with just a few extra minutes of driving time rather than go into Belfast. Been a LONG time sense I was through Brooklin (Was in Blue Hill and wanted to see what was at the end of the road, so I ended up going through Brooklin to get there .)

Don't remember much being there really, but E.B. White (author of Charlotte's Web, etc...) did live there at one time and is buried there. It is a very nice area for scenery and I have caught Cod and others in the bay off that area.

[AlisonL]

My family will probably disown me, but here goes.
Brooklin is on the main land, its a very beautiful, small coastal town. You can be in Bangor in an hour.
Are you planning on having your own boat to fish from? No fishing charter boats in town,that I am aware of.
Are you going to come in and tell the locals that this is how such and such is done where you come from? If so, you won't find a welcome wagon waiting for you(in any part of Maine).
Hopefully you have a good amount of money, as you won't find many cheap homes, vacation or otherwise, in Brooklin.
Do you want excitement, or peace and quiet? Brooklin does not have much in the way of entertainment...mostly what you make for yourself.
There is one small general store in town. You will either have to go to Blue Hill or Ellsworth for any amount of groceries. There is one cafe and one restaurant I believe. AustinB will correct me if I am wrong.
Brooklin does have a wonderful library, thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mr. E.B. White. Wooden Boat School is located in Brooklin, along with a few boatyards.
I'm not sure what Brooklin's population is now, but its considerably larger than I was growing up there.

[iamhadley]

Thank you both for your speedy reply......We do own our own fishing boat and really just want a place to relax and get back to nature. We are in Las vegas and would love to escape the summer heat. There doesn't sound like there is much to do though. The pictures may be decieving. Maabey blue hill would be a better consideration. Thank you any help is appreciated.

[AlisonL]

Blue Hill is larger than Brooklin, but still not alot to do there. Ellsworth is going to be the largest town nearby.
You can get back to nature in either town, but if you want any sort of nightlife, you're not going to find it.
You're best bet is to take a trip to Maine and look around in different areas. Maine is a large state but small in population.

[AustinB]

'There is one cafe and one restaurant I believe. '



There are two whole restaurants now. Brooklin Inn, and the Lookout. (Who would have ever thought that they would charge people to eat where Norton Smith used to keep his sheep?)

[AlisonL]

Originally Posted by AustinB

'There is one cafe and one restaurant I believe. '



There are two whole restaurants now. Brooklin Inn, and the Lookout. (Who would have ever thought that they would charge people to eat where Norton Smith used to keep his sheep?)

I know I wouldn't eat there. I am sure the food is good and all, and my brother's wedding reception was there. But I know what that was like long before it was ever an inn. Oh, the stories I could tell.

I forgot about the Lookout. That place is haunted, another good reason for me not to go there.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by iamhadley

we are considering purchasing a summer home in brooklin Maine. We have researched many different parts of maine and consider brooklin to have good fishing and scenery. Is it easy to get to? Can you drive or do you have toferry? Also where is the nearest airport? Any insight would be appreciated.......good or bad.

It's been hinted at here, but I think a bit more bluntness might be of value. I realize that people impulse by all sorts of things, but I really think that you are a long way from "considering purchasing a home in Brooklin" or perhaps anywhere else, in Maine. If you have done enough research about real estate prices to know what it will take to buy a home in Brooklin or anywhere else on the coast well and good. But your qualifications seem to beg for a home purchase somewhere within easy driving distance to Portland, where there is a major airport, and all the things that you are most accustomed to see at home.

It has been said here that you need to come to Maine, and that is absolutely the truth. If you haven't been here and haven't spent a couple of months exploring, then you have no idea what it might or might not be like to own property here or even to spend much time here.

My wife and I have bought land in Brooklin and will be building our home there soon. Last November before we had closed on the purchase, someone from away came and made us a wonderful offer for the right to buy our land. These were nice folks who had spend some weeks in several summers at the Wooden Boat School and sailing out of Broklin. My wife called me with the offer and it was so good that I almost drove off the road. So we decided to sell our right to buy the property and begin to look for something else.

Then Maine stepped in. Early in December we had a foot of snow, followed closely by about as much again. The prospective purchaser had a wife and young children. I had just returned from plowing the roads and my property, when the phone rang. It seemed that they had changed their mind and wanted to cancel the deal.

We ended up closing on the property and pressing on with our plans. What I think actually happened is the young wife found out that the Brooklin they knew and loved in August was a vastly different place in December when "Maine" ruled, and she would be fifty miles of icy driving from the nearest mall, and perhaps the nearest pediatrician.

The point that I am making here is that to many people living away, Maine beckons from the pretty pictures of Downeast Magazine, but that magazine doesn't necessarily explain the simple arithmetic that there are fewer than 1.3 million people in the state and the state is very large for the northeast. I think the population of Brooklin hovers under the 1200 mark, and it is really about fifty miles to Bangor, and nearly 35 miles from Ellsworth. And the road is not a freeway. One really wants to move to Brooklin and knows that because of all the other parts of Maine that have been visited and learned about. Otherwise it might prove to be beautiful, and perhaps a place for good fishing, but otherwise frightenly dull and boring.

[deerislesmile]

Originally Posted by iamhadley

Thank you both for your speedy reply......We do own our own fishing boat and really just want a place to relax and get back to nature. We are in Las vegas and would love to escape the summer heat. There doesn't sound like there is much to do though. The pictures may be decieving. Maabey blue hill would be a better consideration. Thank you any help is appreciated.

There isn't a whole lot more to do in Blue Hill as far as activities go, but (in summer) there are more shops and galleries open.

Just curious what pictures you have been seeing of Brooklin that would be deceptive.... It's a very rural area, with a small population, beautiful old Victorian houses and summer "cottages", lots of trees, boat builders, and a tiny village. If there are pictures that appear to be vastly different, they may not be of Brooklin!

It sounds as if you might want to look at Bar Harbor or Southern Maine, as they would offer more amenities and activities. And I also agree that you really have to travel here to check it out- the atmosphere along the coast varies greatly from town to town...

[bgrasser]

Check the realty web site, there's a cute cottage with ocean front and 3-4 acres that needs a re-model for around 198K.