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Old 05-04-2018, 07:01 AM
 
Location: Gorham, Maine
1,973 posts, read 5,224,252 times
Reputation: 1505

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Quote:
Originally Posted by colty31 View Post
It is possible to find a good deal in Portland.

My wife and I closed on a house is December of 2017 for under 200K. 3 bedroom/2 bath over 1200 sq. feet

Only 3.5 miles off the peninsula.
Congratulations. It might be helpful if you shared your experiences, i.e. were you in a multiple offer, was seller willing to negotiate on inspections, any issues with appraisal, what type of financing did you use, etc. If you don't mind, I think others would like to see. Thanks.
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Old 05-04-2018, 09:23 PM
 
43 posts, read 57,653 times
Reputation: 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by WhoFanMe View Post
Congratulations. It might be helpful if you shared your experiences, i.e. were you in a multiple offer, was seller willing to negotiate on inspections, any issues with appraisal, what type of financing did you use, etc. If you don't mind, I think others would like to see. Thanks.
It was not a multiple offer situation, although supposedly while we were under contract the seller accepted a back-up offer that was higher than ours.

We used the community mortgage program through KeyBank for financing. They don't really advertise it but it appeared to be the best deal available for 1st time home buyers. Our buyers agent recommended it to us. Few details on the program: Offers 100% financing, has income limits that are specific to certain areas/houses, and has NO PMI.

The house had been on and off the market a couple times over the last few years, I believe the seller had reluctantly listed it a few times and was somewhat difficult in scheduling viewings of the house.

Inspection went well overall, it is an old house (built in 1915) so obviously they are expected issues with that. We were able to negotiate $1500 off for some electrical work, as some knob and tube wiring was found in the home.

Overall it was a very smooth process for us, we had only been looking for a couple months. I think we lucked out with the market being slower (winter) but with that comes less inventory so idk. We rented in Portland for 2 years prior to the purchase and we were very excited/surprised to find a home we could afford in Portland. We actually got a check back for over $600 at closing as we also had the seller putting forth $6000 towards closing costs as part of our offer.
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Old 05-05-2018, 06:45 PM
 
130 posts, read 191,655 times
Reputation: 86
Wow Colty31. I have been following the market and have not seen anything like what you got. Matter of fact - a house came on a few days ago and my realtor said "It will probably go for well over asking with multiple bids" .. .I have heard that many, many times.

Not sure how you found your place - but congrats!
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Old 05-05-2018, 07:25 PM
 
Location: Gorham, Maine
1,973 posts, read 5,224,252 times
Reputation: 1505
Quote:
Originally Posted by colty31 View Post
It was not a multiple offer situation, although supposedly while we were under contract the seller accepted a back-up offer that was higher than ours.

We used the community mortgage program through KeyBank for financing. They don't really advertise it but it appeared to be the best deal available for 1st time home buyers. Our buyers agent recommended it to us. Few details on the program: Offers 100% financing, has income limits that are specific to certain areas/houses, and has NO PMI.

The house had been on and off the market a couple times over the last few years, I believe the seller had reluctantly listed it a few times and was somewhat difficult in scheduling viewings of the house.

Inspection went well overall, it is an old house (built in 1915) so obviously they are expected issues with that. We were able to negotiate $1500 off for some electrical work, as some knob and tube wiring was found in the home.

Overall it was a very smooth process for us, we had only been looking for a couple months. I think we lucked out with the market being slower (winter) but with that comes less inventory so idk. We rented in Portland for 2 years prior to the purchase and we were very excited/surprised to find a home we could afford in Portland. We actually got a check back for over $600 at closing as we also had the seller putting forth $6000 towards closing costs as part of our offer.
Good story, thanks for sharing.
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Old 05-05-2018, 08:33 PM
 
43 posts, read 57,653 times
Reputation: 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by New place View Post
Wow Colty31. I have been following the market and have not seen anything like what you got. Matter of fact - a house came on a few days ago and my realtor said "It will probably go for well over asking with multiple bids" .. .I have heard that many, many times.

Not sure how you found your place - but congrats!
Yeah, it definitely seems like we got a really good deal. We made our offer on the 8th day it was on the market, so rather quickly but not as fast as most homes seem to sell right now.

It is an old house so I'm sure we'll have some issues but that is to be expected. Overall the house is in good shape and we are very happy with it. We both work in Portland and have a 10 mins or less commute.

We were looking at houses in Old Orchard Beach as well. I really loved the idea of being in the neighborhood on the ocean side of town and being within walking distance of the beach. Very reasonable prices too, when compared to Portland and surrounding areas. But we wanted a yard for our dogs and yards are tough to come by down there.
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Old 06-03-2018, 04:44 PM
 
778 posts, read 795,814 times
Reputation: 435
Quote:
Originally Posted by WhoFanMe View Post
It closed for a net price of $190,500 ($194,000 - $3500 in seller concessions). The taxes for 2017-2018 were $3017.38. The taxes in 2016-2017 were $2644.44, so yes, that's a 14.4% increase. $3000 is not $5000, but that's a big jump in one year.



There was a time when my spouse and I considered retiring to Portland - simply just loved it all! But, life had its own plan and we have stayed in West Virginia. We live in the largest city in the state - Charleston. A lot like Portland in many ways. We have a very comfortable home of roughly 260,000 in value and last year our taxes were $64.57. I have relatives in Ohio and they pay only half what seems to be the going rate in Maine. How did it get so out of control up there?
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Old 06-04-2018, 02:22 PM
 
652 posts, read 750,019 times
Reputation: 853
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caden Grace View Post
There was a time when my spouse and I considered retiring to Portland - simply just loved it all! But, life had its own plan and we have stayed in West Virginia. We live in the largest city in the state - Charleston. A lot like Portland in many ways. We have a very comfortable home of roughly 260,000 in value and last year our taxes were $64.57. I have relatives in Ohio and they pay only half what seems to be the going rate in Maine. How did it get so out of control up there?
Portland is an incredibly desirable place to be. Food, drink, cultural amenities on par with the hipper neighborhoods of metro Boston but without the Boston prices, traffic, etc. Only 2 hours from Boston and the most populated areas of NH. They have built a really solid tourism economy up there. I hope that they can build a balanced job market up there.

I read an article in the Globe recently that said that Portland is the #1 destination for Bostonian expats.

I would love to see Charleston WV study what towns like Portland and Asheville NC have done.
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