Not making progress on my plan to move to Maine; need tips (Brunswick: for sale, rent)

[Last1Standing]

I decided to move to Maine about 8 years ago. I spent a couple of years reading about the economy, taxes, health care, and so on and traveled to many different towns. My priorities are natural beauty, within an easy drive of the coast, good biking and easy hiking, and (very important!) many lakes and ponds not too far away for kayaking. (I'm not a sea kayaker.) As an older single person I don't want to go too far up the coast as I would feel isolated. So I decided on the Bath-Topsham-Brunswick area, up to about 10 miles inland.

I'm self-employed in a profession that I can easily take anywhere. My clients are across the country and my work is entirely electronic in nature, so I'm not dependent on the local economy at all.

I'm dragging my feet with this move. My main problem is that I own a house and I have it in my mind that it has to be in as good condition as possible before I sell it. But my funds for renovations are limited and so progress working on the house has been slow. So slow that while I'm working on one thing, something else has plenty of time to decay. I painted the house 5 years ago and it already needs repainting. Typical scenario of an older person losing control of their home and property! I plan to buy a smaller house with much simpler landscaping in Maine.

I'm in my early 60s and don't want to delay my move so long that I'll either not be able to move or I'll be too old to enjoy Maine the way I want to (being active in the outdoors). Also, in the 8 years since I've been planning this move, conditions have changed in Maine---politics, the housing market, and I'm sure other things.

If I continue like this I fear I'll never make this move, which I truly want to do. How can I speed up this major life transition?

[TPBodine]

Seems like the main holdup is selling the house, so I'd start there. You say you want the house to be in as good a condition as possible before selling it, but maybe replace "good" with "sellable." Fix it up to the point you can sell it, and if it's already at that point, put it on the market and see what sort of offers you get. You're under no obligation to accept them if they're too low. And getting very low offers and hearing the potential buyers' feedback might give you some information about what sort of fixes you really need to make (vs. the ones you THINK you need to make but which they might not really care about). That could save you a lot of time and effort.

I don't think I'd put too much money into the house trying to extract the maximum possible selling price. That's often too hard to gauge, and you could end up putting, say, $20,000 into the house but barely making a dent in the subsequent purchase price.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

You sound a lot like my MIL, OP. She's been doing similar with her house, except that she's downsizing. Her renovations started a year or two before my FIL passed, which was a couple of years ago.

My MIL thinks that selling it "as is" (and my god, is a big, old house with a myriad of issues, most of which my MIL cannot afford in any way, and that's not including the in-ground pool) is a slap to my FIL's memory. She could easily sell it right now and get good money for it. But no, it's "not enough". Even her RE agent says her thinking is a big warped in that regard.

So my MIL busies herself with little projects she herself can still do and hires a neighborhood handyman for the more involved stuff. She keeps talking about selling and how she HAS to get as much $ she can for it or she'll be [insert dramatic adjective here], etc., etc.

My husband his siblings have more or less given up helping her speed up the process because the truth is, she really doesn't want to move.

I wonder, OP, if that's your underlying issue. You say you've been "planning" to move to ME for the last 8 years and by your own admission you are still nowhere near "ready" to do so. I wonder if you're simply in love with the idea of moving to ME and it's the reality of the process in doing so which has you stymied. Unfortunately nobody but yourself can answer that.

[Submariner]

When you look at your house, you see things that others might not see. What you think needs to be done might not match what a realtor thinks should be done.

Ask a realtor to list your house.

[gf2020]

You've been thinking about it for 8 years? You're already in your 60s, let's not waste any more time! Just list your house and sell it. It doesn't need to be in perfect condition. A realtor might be able to help you with prioritizing some things but every house will sell for a given price.

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by xo_kizzy_xo

I wonder if you're simply in love with the idea of moving to ME and it's the reality of the process in doing so which has you stymied.

Yes, it's the reality of the process that has me stymied---the reality of my limited time, money, and physical ability to deal with the house. I live independently, which means I have to do everything myself. It's already hard to take care of the landscaping and smaller repairs and upkeep on my own, and much harder to take on larger projects that I'd like to do to sell the house.

But to answer your question, I truly want to move to Maine and have done a lot of research and made many exploratory trips to make this happen. The house is the main obstacle---getting it ready to sell---plus of course selling a lifetime of belongings because I want to have a much simpler life in Maine, to focus on the things that really matter in my later years.

I think my situation is similar to many older people who need to downsize and move, whether to the next town or another state

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by Submariner

When you look at your house, you see things that others might not see. What you think needs to be done might not match what a realtor thinks should be done.

Ask a realtor to list your house.

When I had realtors look at the house in the past they seemed to be mostly interested in getting the house on the market quickly and making the sale. That serves their interest. But my interest is to maximize the sale price because each $10,000 would mean a lot to me. Last year I renovated (not remodeled) a bedroom and I'm pretty sure that that did in fact add $10,000, so it was worth it. Some of the repairs aren't major but they're cosmetically important, like replacing the kitchen tiles, painting, and so on.

[OpinionExperience]

Make the commitment with yourself. Pick a realistic date to list the house, like next spring. You will have time to go through all your belongings and interview Realtors. Also time to do the needed repairs to make it more sellable. Don't go overboard though just neaten things up to give it the curb appeal.

Start looking for a place to stay in Maine. If you are completely sure where you want to go for your final move you can buy something. If not 100% sure, rent for a year until the dust settles and you feel comfortable.

Have a house contents sale. Put a post-it with a price or Not For Sale on everything and put all your personal belongings in one room. Call a few consignment shops to get some prices for there sale tactics.

Ask for help from your local church, family, friends etc. packing things up. I help my neighbors all the time.

[seasallyttle]

I don't consider early 60's old. If all goes well, you should have another 20+ years to enjoy life. So, the question is, how do you want to spend that time? Slowly fixing up your house, hoping for another 20k in profit - or moving on and spending your time the way you want to. If you are still working, it is unclear to me why hopeful incremental increases in value in your house are keeping you tied down.
As for realtors, if you want to sell your house, you want a realtor that wants to list it and sell it. It's in their best interest (they are on commission) but it is also your best interest (you want to move). That is a good thing!
I agree with the other poster that you should set a timeline for yourself. Find a place you want to buy in Maine and then you will start to get excited.
As they say in The Shawshank Redemption, "you either get busy living or get busy dying"

[TPBodine]

Sometimes getting the most incremental value out of your house means selling at the right time. You can fix up your house all you want, but if you keep delaying and delaying hoping to squeeze every last drop of value, mortgage rates might finally start rising, which will effectively price more and more people out of the asking price you're hoping for. You can't count on historically low interest rates forever or even a relatively stable economy to support the housing market. Slap some paint on the house, finish up a few weekend projects, and get it on the market. The sooner you do, the sooner you get to Maine.

If you don't get as much for your house as you want, then factor that into the equation of how much house in Maine you can afford.