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Old 06-05-2020, 05:51 AM
 
Location: Mid-Coast Maine...Finally!
334 posts, read 425,340 times
Reputation: 1091

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1000 miles. Thats how many miles we drive from Monday morning back to home on Wednesday. We looked at 9 homes (we had a few more but discounted them for one reason or another). Man, his house hunting stuff is exhausting! IT's been 40 years since I needed to buy a house and back then we had three kids to raise. Now it's just my wife and I.

Here's the one question I had from the get-go. "When do you know you've found the right house?". Well, it's not as easy as you might think. We aren't kids anymore and attracted to shiney things. Now there's a lot more to this and we realize that this is our "forever" home for all practical purposes. So, we created a master check list that would help us add or discount a particular house to our inventory. You would think that our list was so simple that finding a home to fit it would be simple, too. Wrong. Listen to me anyone out there thinking of buying:

Don't wait if you can get out there and buy now. I can not believe the market here in Maine. I'm really amazed as to how fast homes are going. I had a list of 15 before we left on Monday. By Monday morning, when we were on the road, 6 of those houses were "pending" meaning they were spoken for for all practical purposes. We found one place that had been on the market one day and my broker told me that we'd have to get in line to see it the next day when they were making appointments on the 1/2 hour! They took bids at 5pm. At 6pm it was gone and way over asking. That was in Whitefield.

We consentrated on the mid-coastal area and drove our butts around to accomodate other brokers schedules, etc. We caught ourselves "rebuilding" some of the houses! My wife and I would talk in the car about gutting a kitchen or living room, adding fireplaces or rebuilding (or even adding) a central heating system. Then we would catch ourselves. At age 68 we don't want to bother with any of that stuff. But a lot of what on the market in the $250k range was really shop-worn inventory. Yes, there were a number of surprises that were really nice but there was something really unattractive like land that fell away and disappeard into an woods for a couple of acres. Why own or pay for property that you can't even access? Then we were looking primarily for a ranch: one floor living. Well, some houses had one bedroom on the first floor but two or three upstairs. Why buy a 1800 sq' house but live in essentially 900 sq'? Yes, guests would occupy the upstairs but we'd have to furnish all that and we just don't want multiple floors anymore. Our original home of 40 years had three stories and it was 80 steps from my bed in the master bedroom on the 3rd floor to the kitchen. That's what made me build a coffee/tea area in the master. With all those steps you'd think I'd be skinnier! LOL

So, it turns out that there are probably 10 capes for every one ranch or pretend ranch and those ranches sell like hotcakes. As a matter of fact my broker is working with a builder and they are now adding a serious first floor bedroom to each of the houses they build from her on out.

Ok, so back to my quesiton about how do you know you've found the house you want? Well I was sitting here with my second scotch and ruminating over all the properties we saw, reviewing the papers and photos. It was then and their that I realized that I had screwed up and maybe had missed the literally perfect house for us by discounting it early in the search. It was the first house we saw. This house checked all the boxes and then some. Why discounted? Well, the cut sheets said it had a fireplace where what it did have was a "fake" fireplace that looked real. Not the same for me so I simply scratched it of my list thinking that there will be plenty more where this one came from, right? Right! Then it was just about 20 minutes further out than we had hoped for. We're trying to stay within 4 hours of Connecticut. This house was 4:20. But.....it had three dedicated nice-size bedrooms, two full beautifully appointed baths, a crisp and well sized kitchen, dining room and living room, 2 acres, pristine and I mean pristine construction and fit and finish and, drumroll please.......it had radient heating in the floor of the ENTIRE HOUSE INCLUDING the garage! Even the laundry room was in the garage because it was heated. Propane fuel and they showed me the bills......1/2 of what I paid for oil. There's more but for now you get the picture.

I had discounted this house because it was the first house we saw and I hadn't yet had anything to compare it two. I should have looked at it, gone on, then returned later in the day to reassess Well, I got my wife to look at the pics again and had a discussion with her about any of her objections. She had none that really torpeadoed this property too. It was at that precise moment that we realized that we may have lost an opportunity to get a house that was on the market for only a couple of weeks, in tip-top condition and move-in ready. A mile away is a Maine State animal santuary for goodness sakes. My fingers began to shake a little as I called my Maine broker and had a discussion about getting back in there and was there any other activity? She said no other showings listed and we could go back in on Saturday at 3:30. So we're headed back at 0900 and will pick up my son who is an architect in Boston (successful, too!). We'll grab him at the Newton T (Greenline) and use his expert extra set of eyes and ears to help my wife and I. We will stay in Camden again, too.

One note: I have no stake in this but The Towne Motel in Camden has to be one of the best deals anywhere in the area. Their hospitality is second to none with a big baskest of home made treats at your door every evening and VERY cozy beds. We're staying there Saturday night only because we don't feel like getting home in the dark late. Cheap insurance.

So, there you have it so far. I've alreadly alerted my bank to double check I'm good for this purchase so I can plunk down some earest money on Saturday and make our offer and then the machine begins to churn. Truthfully, if we get this house I'll be gobsmacked. So many obsticals have been put in our way if you've followed this saga. Selling our other house, now getting ready to sell Mom's house after emptying it out over the past 6 weeks. Now buying and continueing to move and live out of a suitcase. Hopefully this will all end and, like most people say, it'll fade into the background. I don't think so but we'll give it a chance! I'll report back on Sunday!
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Old 06-05-2020, 11:24 AM
 
Location: Southern New Hampshire
10,023 posts, read 17,930,888 times
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Cuffler, I wish you the best with that first house you looked at!! Sounds promising.

It's interesting what you wrote about ranches, given that this is New England, land of old Cape Cods and Colonials (both of which I love). My first house in New Hampshire was a ranch, and I kept it as a rental after I bought my current house (a Colonial, which will be more like a farmhouse Colonial after I add a front porch). I am selling the rental house and my Realtor tells me ranches are extremely desirable (we have a ton of showings next week, most of which were made when there was ONE exterior photo in the listing -- it was "coming soon" for 2 days before all the interior photos went up), so I am hoping it will sell quickly. (My tenants had actually renewed for a 5th year, but 2 weeks later told me they were buying a house so I decided to just put the rental house on the market.)

If I don't retire in Maine -- and retirement for me is PROBABLY about 6-8 years away, so I could very well be priced out of Maine by then -- then I will likely stay at my current house (which I love -- the house AND the neighborhood) but have a stairlift added to the main stairs at some point. (I am 61 now and will soon have my 2nd knee replacement -- the 1st went well so I don't expect to have problems with stairs for many years, but still.) But I definitely now understand the appeal of 1-story living!
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Old 06-05-2020, 01:10 PM
 
891 posts, read 660,594 times
Reputation: 3401
Good luck with the house! I am still kicking myself for not buying the first house I looked at; it was a mistake to walk away from it. Oh well.
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Old 06-05-2020, 01:14 PM
 
1,539 posts, read 1,446,851 times
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Cuffler, great update. And great detailed description on the decision to go back to that 1st housee. I hope it works out for you. BTW, our observation of houses 'flying off the shelves' matches what I saw starting a few weeks ago in parts of Maine. The city folks are 'getting out of Dodge'.....



Karen.... don't despair on the prices. Things WILL change. My wife and I have been going to the Outer Banks since 1980, and wanted to get a house there. In 1999, things took off pricewise, and we figured it would not ever happen. Then the mortgage crisis broke, and the pricing dropped like a rock.... and then we were 'in'. So things will change in 6-8 years. Wait until some of the city folks now fleeing find out that Maine life is not for them...
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Old 06-05-2020, 02:21 PM
 
244 posts, read 195,740 times
Reputation: 472
Cuffler- thanks for sharing your ongoing story, enjoy following it. Sounds like the house you are going back to could work well for you. I am a huge fan of radiant floor heat- good for your skin as no hot air blowing around. Perhaps you could put in a gas FP or wood-burning stove? Best of luck tomorrow!
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Old 06-05-2020, 05:15 PM
 
Location: Northern Maine
5,466 posts, read 3,036,225 times
Reputation: 8011
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuffler View Post
1000 miles. Thats how many miles we drive from Monday morning back to home on Wednesday. We looked at 9 homes (we had a few more but discounted them for one reason or another). Man, his house hunting stuff is exhausting! IT's been 40 years since I needed to buy a house and back then we had three kids to raise. Now it's just my wife and I.

Here's the one question I had from the get-go. "When do you know you've found the right house?".
Each trip here was 1000 miles total, we came twice before and houses sold out from under our feet.

On the 3rd trip the houses we wanted to see were either idiotic speculation time wasters or sold before we got here. My wife said thats it, we're done, not doing this again.

We spent the last night in a motel in Houlton and I kept looking online , got up around 4 am and scanned my laptop, saw a nice place and took a quick drive to see it at 5 am.
Got back and my wife was waking up, I showed her the listing, she liked it.
We went to the agent in Houlton and he said we could go see it , we went and looked , went back to the agent and wrote a check, sold.

We knew it was our house because we couldn't write the check fast enough, pending inspection etc.
I think its like anything, if its priced right it will move quickly.
We looked at many houses that seemed ideal, we went home to think about it and next time we looked it was sold. So, we learned to move on it quicker.
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Old 06-06-2020, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Mid-Coast Maine...Finally!
334 posts, read 425,340 times
Reputation: 1091
Thanks for all the imput and sharing your experiences. This ISN'T what I expected in Maine. I expected a leisurly drive in the countryside as we were able to select from a dozen or so houses on the shelf. I didn't expect a "Filene's Boston Basement" experience! (Only New England people will know what I'm talking about. You had to see women & men stripping off their clothes to try stuff on in the isles to believe it!) But this is what's happening.

Now an interesting comment from my broker caught me totally by surprize. We were looking at one home that had just gotten bid on before we could see it. I thought that maybe we'd go and look at it anyway. You never know, right? Well she said that one thing she will object to is us going into a bidding war with another buyer. Why? Not because she was concerned about our bank account but because she believed seriously that this buying frenzy in Maine will abate......and maybe sooner than later. The last thing she said she wanted for any of her buyers was for them to go underwater when the market cools quickly or if Maine goes into a bit of a recession and property values go down.

A lot of what were seeing on the market in the $250 range is shopworn or needing a lot of updating. If you want to spend more you'll find some nice places in the $300-$350 range. These are the houses that I thought would be in the $250 range. Duh. These $250 homes still have a lot of life and will serve well with the attention but the prices they are commanding are just exaggerated. I would say by at least $50k. It's like "Martha, let's put the old place up for sale and see what happens!" IF you don't think so just do a search for properties in a particular town. Wait two days, then go back and do another search. You'll be surprized to see another small bunch of places being added.

I've said this before that the population of the entire state of Maine is less than Philadelphia. As we drive throught the bucolic countryside on these roads (which are mostly in VERY GOOD condition btw) there's a house here or there and then nothing. Its' not like here in CT where huge swaths of neighborhoods all begin to sell at once. There is no synergy driving this as far as I can see. It's just happening. The cities are dominated by older properties and THEY TOO have benefited from this property serge. It's happening right before my eyes and it's hard to fathom.

Well, we're going to quickly pack and jump into the car and head back to Maine for our meeting at 3:30. We'll stop at Yummies (!) on the way up or back and also have another lunch/dinner at Young's too. We're going to stay in Camden tonight again, also becasue we just don't feel like doing 10 hours on the road. We'll get a chance to visit with our son which is always a treat.

And.....maybe.....just maybe we'll be putting down our ernest money and making an offer. The fireplace, btw, is really beautiful but just not real. Yes, it is pretty straight forward to put a real insert in and brick it up. There's a slab under this house so there's no additional footings needed. There is a straight shot through the ceiling for a flu, too. So, it can (will) be done and really is the only thing I have to reduce the price a bit just to save some money. In my book this house will be instant equity by at least $20k when we close because its under priced which is why we're shocked it isn't sold. It's 15 mins from Belfast and Camden area and all that shopping, restaurants, and supplying....and doctors and prescriptions. It's 20 mins from Lincoln beach and the shore. But it's nestled quietly in the woods on 2 acres. I can't wait to show it to my boy. More to come including some pics if things go well.
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Old 06-06-2020, 08:15 AM
 
1,539 posts, read 1,446,851 times
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Hey Cuffler, good luck this trip.



Your observations and comments on this surge of sales seems correct, IMHO. I suspect many fleeing from the virus in the cites is pushing this. I can also see folks near to retiring thinking that it is time to do so and are heading out of the urban/suburban areas. There is reportedly some resistance in NYC for re-signing apartment leases at the old prices or at all, due the virus issues, so some spread of population out from NYC is expected.



Also, the surge of new listings may also be due to sales that were planned for this spring were probably delayed by the virus control measures, and are just now getting out on the market.



Interesting comment on the realtor not wanting a bidding war...



As for the roads... don't go to northern Maine in the dead of winter when the frost heaves are rampaging LOL
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Old 06-06-2020, 08:47 AM
 
Location: Gorham, Maine
1,973 posts, read 5,199,350 times
Reputation: 1505
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuffler View Post
Now an interesting comment from my broker caught me totally by surprize. We were looking at one home that had just gotten bid on before we could see it. I thought that maybe we'd go and look at it anyway. You never know, right? Well she said that one thing she will object to is us going into a bidding war with another buyer. Why? Not because she was concerned about our bank account but because she believed seriously that this buying frenzy in Maine will abate......and maybe sooner than later. The last thing she said she wanted for any of her buyers was for them to go underwater when the market cools quickly or if Maine goes into a bit of a recession and property values go down.
I agree with her and watched it happen in 2008. It took 5 years plus for those buyers to get back to even, but they did have shelter for their primary residence and reduced their mortgage balance. Those who had to sell quickly got hurt, but for those buying a forever house or those who could hold for 10 years or more are OK now. Those who bought in 2011 and are selling now are enjoying nice gains and putting that towards larger homes. It's all about timing, if you are buying your "forever" house, you should be OK. Thanks for sharing your adventures, it's very enlightening.
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Old 06-06-2020, 03:30 PM
 
63 posts, read 62,857 times
Reputation: 244
Make sure to get really good info on private water source. Wells in waldo and Searsmont had issues in recent summers


I'm in exactly your same situation but am in a short term rental in Belfast. I've probably looked at the same houses you have and have the same checklist. I am extremely cautious about private water sources
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