Well, here goes. The start to our trek North to Maine, our new home-state. (Kennebunk: renters, movies)

[phoebesmom]

Oh dear, Corgis. We closed on our new house downstate this week and are trying to figure out how to get out there and see it.

[Cuffler]

"Sneaking around Maine!"

Well, we're back from our clandestine couple of days in Down-East Maine. I must say from the outset that Mainers are not a happy bunch of citizens right now. No one thinks they should be prohibited to open their businesses while still using some virus avoidance like using masks and gloves where you feel necessary.

We were very fortunate to get the business done that we did. We saw three homes, one of which I fell in love with. The realtor we dealt with is in her mid 50s and very professional and she was very happy we persevered so she would have some business to deal with.

After looking at homes and driving all over the place, we headed from Friendship/Cushing area to Belgrade Lakes and Mt. Vernon. Our good friends welcomed us with open arms and we enjoyed a terrific visit, a few beers, lobsters, a Maine blueberry dessert and then a hour or so around the open fire outside. I even got to toss a line or two into the "stream". Next morning after a sumptuous breakfast we headed the hour and change to Brunswick to meet with RMS, a mortgage brokerage.

We met with one of the officers from RMS and she put us on the right track for a home purchase. She approved us for an amount more than we would want to pay and said all we have to do now is find a house we like and she'd cut the pre approval paperwork immediately. That took a lot of weight off of our shoulders. It's been 40 years since we bought a house so we're a bit rusty when it comes to qualifying in this day and age of computers. It's really humbling to see your entire financial history splayed out in 34 pages. Fortunately for us we've been good stewards of what money we had and there wasn't one "ding" against us.

After our meeting we bought four dozen oysters from a church parking lot and headed to Newton, MA and the Riverside T Station. We met our son, daughter in law, and granddaughter for her 5th birthday. It was a bit surreal with that parking lot only having about 3 cars. With us all wearing masks, I was waiting for the zombies to climb over the fence. We were all masked up for most of the time except for cake. Can't eat cake through a mask. We said our goodbyes and headed home the 90 minutes back to Konnecticutizan.

Now we're in the thick of house buying and we have to plan another clandestine excursion into prohibited Maine territory to find a place to call our own. IT's not going to be easy but we'll manage. Maine isn't the only state with strict regs about hotels, either. Neighbor NH has them, too. But we always have the Mt. Vernon angle we can play again. They fed us Lobster and we brought them a gift of a whole prime beef tenderloin. At least we know we'll be eating well!

I'll keep you all posted. Who knows! Maybe the next post will have us writing checks and preparing to move one last time! Until then future neighbors!

[Pike320]

Originally Posted by Cuffler

"Sneaking around Maine!"
Well, we're back from our clandestine couple of days in Down-East Maine. I must say from the outset that Mainers are not a happy bunch of citizens right now. No one thinks they should be prohibited to open their businesses while still using some virus avoidance like using masks and gloves where you feel necessary.

That's the governor your near-fellow Mainers voted for last time. When you do buy there, this is the kind of behavior you can expect.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Cuffler

... We saw three homes, one of which I fell in love with.

Yeah!

Woo Hoo!

Congratulations

[jonesg]

Buy it, you snooze you lose.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by Cuffler

"Sneaking around Maine!"

Well, we're back from our clandestine couple of days in Down-East Maine. I must say from the outset that Mainers are not a happy bunch of citizens right now. No one thinks they should be prohibited to open their businesses while still using some virus avoidance like using masks and gloves where you feel necessary.

We were very fortunate to get the business done that we did. We saw three homes, one of which I fell in love with. The realtor we dealt with is in her mid 50s and very professional and she was very happy we persevered so she would have some business to deal with.

After looking at homes and driving all over the place, we headed from Friendship/Cushing area to Belgrade Lakes and Mt. Vernon. Our good friends welcomed us with open arms and we enjoyed a terrific visit, a few beers, lobsters, a Maine blueberry dessert and then a hour or so around the open fire outside. I even got to toss a line or two into the "stream". Next morning after a sumptuous breakfast we headed the hour and change to Brunswick to meet with RMS, a mortgage brokerage.

We met with one of the officers from RMS and she put us on the right track for a home purchase. She approved us for an amount more than we would want to pay and said all we have to do now is find a house we like and she'd cut the pre approval paperwork immediately. That took a lot of weight off of our shoulders. It's been 40 years since we bought a house so we're a bit rusty when it comes to qualifying in this day and age of computers. It's really humbling to see your entire financial history splayed out in 34 pages. Fortunately for us we've been good stewards of what money we had and there wasn't one "ding" against us.

After our meeting we bought four dozen oysters from a church parking lot and headed to Newton, MA and the Riverside T Station. We met our son, daughter in law, and granddaughter for her 5th birthday. It was a bit surreal with that parking lot only having about 3 cars. With us all wearing masks, I was waiting for the zombies to climb over the fence. We were all masked up for most of the time except for cake. Can't eat cake through a mask. We said our goodbyes and headed home the 90 minutes back to Konnecticutizan.

Now we're in the thick of house buying and we have to plan another clandestine excursion into prohibited Maine territory to find a place to call our own. IT's not going to be easy but we'll manage. Maine isn't the only state with strict regs about hotels, either. Neighbor NH has them, too. But we always have the Mt. Vernon angle we can play again. They fed us Lobster and we brought them a gift of a whole prime beef tenderloin. At least we know we'll be eating well!

I'll keep you all posted. Who knows! Maybe the next post will have us writing checks and preparing to move one last time! Until then future neighbors!

Good to hear. April statistics came out yesterday showing a dramatic decrease in home sales, but increase in sale prices - to be expected in this high demand, low supply market that we are in. If you signed a buyer agency agreement with your agent, have her do market analysis on that home to see if it's properly priced. Chances are, if it is, it won't be available much longer.

[Cuffler]

Geesh! What you're saying is that now that we're ready to buy we going to buy high after selling low here in our home state of CT. Great. Just what we needed. Actually I've been seeing the nicer homes being cherry picked.

However, understand our plight. We can't buy a house we haven't seen. We can't see a house we're interested in that's too far from our address to make it economical for us to run up there and run back for one single home. We need to have an open field that allows us to search properly comparing properties. We're not buying a summer cottage. This is our last home we'll be buying, for goodness sakes.

The more I ruminate on this whole situation the madder I get. We're getting screwed on every single aspect of this situation: from sale of our place to buying another. God forbid we're stopped by a Maine trooper up there while we're looking to drop 200k in his fair state and he gives us a bucket of crap about 14 days, etc. Holding our collective breaths here.

We have a cousin who has a place in Kennebunkport and they only use it on weekends. We've asked them for a tues and wednesday night so we can visit a few dozen houses. We'll see how that works. If you don't have that kind of asset I don't know what you could do. I've asked my realtor to find someone with a trailer parked in their yard for the time being and if they'd like to make a few hundred bucks.

Rome

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Cuffler

... We have a cousin who has a place in Kennebunkport and they only use it on weekends. We've asked them for a tues and wednesday night so we can visit a few dozen houses. We'll see how that works. If you don't have that kind of asset I don't know what you could do. I've asked my realtor to find someone with a trailer parked in their yard for the time being and if they'd like to make a few hundred bucks.

Rome

You got some cunning in you. You know what you want to do, and you are figuring out a way to make it happen.

Good on you.

[American girl]

Originally Posted by Cuffler

Geesh! What you're saying is that now that we're ready to buy we going to buy high after selling low here in our home state of CT. Great. Just what we needed. Actually I've been seeing the nicer homes being cherry picked.

However, understand our plight. We can't buy a house we haven't seen. We can't see a house we're interested in that's too far from our address to make it economical for us to run up there and run back for one single home. We need to have an open field that allows us to search properly comparing properties. We're not buying a summer cottage. This is our last home we'll be buying, for goodness sakes.

The more I ruminate on this whole situation the madder I get. We're getting screwed on every single aspect of this situation: from sale of our place to buying another. God forbid we're stopped by a Maine trooper up there while we're looking to drop 200k in his fair state and he gives us a bucket of crap about 14 days, etc. Holding our collective breaths here.

We have a cousin who has a place in Kennebunkport and they only use it on weekends. We've asked them for a tues and wednesday night so we can visit a few dozen houses. We'll see how that works. If you don't have that kind of asset I don't know what you could do. I've asked my realtor to find someone with a trailer parked in their yard for the time being and if they'd like to make a few hundred bucks.

Rome

So?

[phoebesmom]

Maybe you could rent a place up there for the summer and do the 14 day quarantine there--I believe they can rent to you after June 1, although that may not be right.

Then you can look at your leisure and enjoy a Maine summer!

It's the going back and forth that makes this so darn difficult. My son's in-laws left their house in Maine for the summer, and now, if they come back, they are supposed to quarantine for 14 days, too--it's not just for out of staters, it's anyone coming into the state.

We bought something sight unseen because we couldn't keep making trips out--the houses were going so fast, and this one was near enough to my parents' nursing home, which is why we are moving out there to begin with. Of course now we are under lockdown and we can't travel there yet, but I have faith it will work out.

I am not thrilled with the house and it is not the house of my dreams but we can make it work while we help them in their end of life issues.