Moving in my RV to Maine to search for a house in Bangor ME area, advice as to finding a homestead (motels, campgrounds)

[OutdoorLover]

Here is another good resource, Pete - this sortable table has real estate tax rates for all the towns in Maine:
Maine Property Tax Rates by Town (The Master List)

Belfast and Ellsworth are both real nice towns. It sounds like you're looking for something on the rural side. While the outskirts of these towns *are* rural, you might be able to save some money by going one town over. Here for example is a listing in Surry, ME - it's a small remodeled house on 10 acres for $188K, not far from the coast, and less than 10 miles away is downtown Ellsworth with all manner of shopping and a community hospital.
https://www.camdenre.com/listing/1434936

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Here is another good resource, Pete - this sortable table has real estate tax rates for all the towns in Maine: Maine Property Tax Rates by Town (The Master List)

Maine's 'plate' or grid of townships has a total of 986 townships.
554 are 'Unorganized Townships'
432 are 'organized towns'

Your link claims to list 498 towns.

My mil-rate in my town is 0.00879

The lowest mil-rate in Maine is 0.00533

https://www.maine.gov/revenue/proper...y/taxrates.htm

Your link does appear to show the towns with the highest mil-rates.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

That's the lowest county rate in the Unorgaized Territories. Some towns are more frugal than their counties. Lakeville, in Penobscot County, has a low rate:

LAKEVILLE Penobscot $3.81 or .00381

How is this possible? They have about 10 miles of public road to maintain and about four kids in the school system. They also have a whole lot of very valuable year round homes on the lakes. The following lakes are entirely or partially in Lakeville:

Lombard
Bottle
Keg
Duck
Upper Pug
Lower Pug
Upper Sysladobsis
Lower Sysladobsis
Junior
Norway
Horseshoe
Pug

That's twelve lakes. No wonder the town is called Lakeville. Yes, there are three separate Pug Lakes in Lakeville, so if you are going to meet somebody to go fishing, you need to be specific.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Whoops; Norway and the other Pug are across the line in T5 R1 NBPP, an Unorganized Township.

NBPP stands for "North of Bingham'a Penobscot Purchase". I have an old map made in 1820. The West Grand watershed was "The Spednic Lakes". None of the dams were there in 1820.

[Pete Conrick]

For now we are able to run all devices via our Ellispsis Jetpack from Verizon, meaning when we move into our home, we may continue to use the Jetpack option. We can stream and do our work and not have interruptions, purely from a wireless signal, and it's something you can pack with you, if you're wanting to work basically anywhere you'd like.

I've checked Verizon services in Maine and am hoping that I'll be able to utilize the Jetpack option, after speaking with Verizon, they've advised that the signal in the Bangor ME area where we'll be staying should have enough bandwidth to handle up to 16 devices simultaneously(we've only connected around 8 devices at once, but no snafus there).

Good looking out Kwiliuver, concerning the contractors and needing references.

Leaving for Mobile AL for Thanksgiving next week, slowly snaking our way up to ME. Thanks to all for the great advice, I really do appreciate all of you guys chiming in!

[Pete Conrick]

Hi all, it's Pete again...apologies for not posting since last year...I have been busy on the road in my RV and haven't had a chance to get back to this thread...and now I'm at an impasse.

My wife and I were down in Townsend, GA loving life in the Golden Isles and steady RV-living it up just this last February when we found out about this corona-virus junk...and....all i can say about that is NUTS!!!

We managed to make it up to Virginia where we still are now, by early March and have been hunting for a home here to 'get somewhere safe' so to speak.

To throw another curve ball, my son and his girlfriend are now with us, they both lost their jobs in the service industry down in San Antonio TX, we moved them and their stuff up here to a storage unit. It is a tight squeeze in this 30 foot trailer, but we are managing, and luckily my son is a fine-dining chef, so we've been eating great! I've had T-Bone steak twice in the last 3 weeks...

My question for all of you guys here is, what do you think I should do?

Here's the dilemma...

I'm currently in a beautiful area of the country, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia right off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Staunton VA area to be specific. The homes here are really amazing, albeit a bit expensive. Finding most homes around 2000 sq. ft. to be in the 250-300K range with minimal and non-farmable land. I'd not expected to spend that much on a home in ME. Also, the weather is amazing, much better than TX weather, we are experiencing 35-40 degree nights in late April and 50-65 degree days. Again, no farm land to be found unless you're spending much, much more, there are gorgeous cattle and horse farms around, but it would be in the 6 digits to purchase these homes. I actually already put an offer down on a home but the Radon in the basement and many, many other things forced me to back out, so I am now considering other options.

On the flip side, there's very little access to the coast where I am looking to buy, we are inland by 2.5 hrs., some of the folks here remind me still of the hickish Texans I recently left behind, there's no 420 yet on the ballot for this state though Gov. Northam just decriminalized. We are actually driving in to DC to get our 420 needs satisfied this weekend, again a 2.5 hr. drive...ugh! One of the biggest issues I have is, I just turned 48 on Apr. 15th and my dream was to have a homestead established in ME by the time I'm 50. I don't like to make plans and then not have them turn out, who does right? Plus I still have enough wanderlust in me to continue on to ME. I have a fear of losing out on a loan when I get there, as our loan person has advised that qualifications can change drastically due to the market fluctuations this virus is causing. I wouldn't be there for another 3 weeks, and by then, and who knows what the markets could do by then....

Maybe the even bigger thing holding me back is that I do not want to subject myself or my family to this disease somehow along the way between Staunton VA and Eddington ME.

Just looking for some random advice in case anyone wants to chime in. Sorry for the long-winded ramble but I am seriously conflicted and in a bit of a pickle. Any and all advice is much appreciated all...

-Pickled Pete

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Pete Conrick

... my dream was to have a homestead established in ME by the time I'm 50. I don't like to make plans and then not have them turn out, who does right? Plus I still have enough wanderlust in me to continue on to ME. I have a fear of losing out on a loan when I get there, as our loan person has advised that qualifications can change drastically due to the market fluctuations this virus is causing. I wouldn't be there for another 3 weeks, and by then, and who knows what the markets could do by then....

Nobody can accurately predict what the market will do.

Stick to your dream. Stay safe [wash your hands a lot, keep your distance from others, and insist that those with you also keep a distance from others.

When you get to Maine, contact me and we will host you for dinner.

[jonesg]

Originally Posted by Pete Conrick

Maybe the even bigger thing holding me back is that I do not want to subject myself or my family to this disease somehow along the way between Staunton VA and Eddington ME.

Just looking for some random advice in case anyone wants to chime in. Sorry for the long-winded ramble but I am seriously conflicted and in a bit of a pickle. Any and all advice is much appreciated all...

-Pickled Pete

I saw the bangor daily news a while back, the headline said "Welcome visitors....to self quarantine.".
I didn't read the article and I don't know what the situation is out there, I'm north of Bangor.
Normally I only go out during summer, that fell on a weds last yr.
It snowed a couple days ago but the roads are clear. 37F today.

[Kiwiluver]

Pete, I came down to my NC home in March from Maine, firstly to go to Florida and see some spring training baseball games and ride my motorcycle around-then secondly to conduct some business here in NC that requires my personal attention from time to time, I've been here ever since isolating in place. At least I have some acreage to walk around on. I am well over 60, have several co-morbidities that preclude me from tossing dice and making the trip back and risking infection. After a three hour wait on the runway in Philadelphia last year with no air-conditioning on the plane in 90 degree weather I no longer fly back and forth-I drive, not to say flying would be any safer. Currently I'm not far from where you are -probably 100 miles down the Blue Ridge Parkway right over the Virginia line. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a beautiful place. Trouble is everyone moves up here from Raleigh and Charlotte (most of them anyway) and love it so much they want to change it into those two municipalities they were trying to escape. Entire mountains I used to hunt and fish on as a young man have house upon gaudy house, not 10 miles from here there is a four story "log cabin." I would assume Staunton suffers a similar fate with the flatlanders, hence the high home prices. Rural Maine will suit your price range better. If the market has affected you negatively I often see owner financed property in the real estate ads, or wait out the uncertainty in a rental property and that would give you time for extensive house hunting.
Good on you for taking care of your child in his time of need. If he finishes the journey to Maine with you he and his partner should be very employable in the service industry.I have noticed several spots around Eastport have had to bring wait staff in from eastern Europe due to shortages of local help.I am sure his cooking skills would be in demand.. I am having to help my kids and grandchildren right now. unfortunately their resources dry up quicker than ours. I have faith the market will rebound, at least I have a lot riding on that it does. Fortunately now that I'm retired I have moved my investments into the least aggressive category. I hope you can follow your dreams and find a place in Maine to effect that.I did, and I have not regretted one moment of it other than limited time with the kids and grandkids. But I have done my parental duties, all our kids are over 30, are educated and I am only a text away. Good luck!
From another guy named Pete

[Zymer]

Pete, if I were you, I would keep heading north, staying away from highways (as much as possible), high population density areas, and meat-packing and other industrialized areas.

By the time you get up here, despite the gov's best intentions I would not be surprised to see some good deals on 'distressed' properties. Even without such events, I think your property dollars can go a lot further here. There are some good deals to be had if you are willing to wait and watch for them.