Affordable small-house community midcoast (Brunswick, Ellsworth: for sale, real estate, houses)

[Last1Standing]

Since many people have shown an interest in my thread about small houses, I'm starting a new thread for people who are seriously interested in forming an affordable small-house community in the Midcoast area, from about Brunswick to Ellsworth.

Some definitions:

“People”: Law-abiding, decent, stable, responsible individuals who can live peaceably with their neighbors and who have or will have the financial means to purchase land and a small house.

“Seriously interested”: You’re at a point where you’re ready to invest some time in investigating the possibilities and communicating with like-minded people. You’ve decided that you could be comfortable in a small house, you can’t afforded a larger home, you appreciate the lower energy cost of a small house, and/or you haven’t found a suitable small house on the market (there are almost none---I've been searching for over a year). Of course, you either live in Maine or seriously want/plan to move there.

“Affordable”: The cost of the land and homes should be less than the cost of a larger existing home; that is, $150,00 or less, preferably closer to $100,000 (a tall order, I know, but we will brainstorm ways to reduce the cost). There are existing small-house communities for people with more financial means.

“Small house”: Between 500 and 900 sq ft. Does not include “tiny houses” of 200 to 400 sq ft. The houses would be energy efficient and attractively designed, not shipping containers, etc. Insulated for year-round use.

“Community”: Approximately three to six well-spaced, private houses on perhaps 5-10 acres. What I have in mind is purchasing a plot of land and getting either a regular contractor or a modular house company to build the houses at a discount based on the number of homes. I don’t envision communal spaces, activities, or government “at this time” (could change as the project evolves).

“Midcoast”: Somewhere between Brunswick and Ellsworth (approximately), up to about 20 miles inland?


How you can support this effort even if you're not in the market for a small house: If you have skills or knowledge that would help a novice group get started, your participation would be greatly welcomed. Assume we know nothing. Some skills and knowledge that would be useful: home construction, buying land, house design (architect), legal aspects of buying land as a group or running a co-operative venture, other?? Please feel free to post here. Thank you for considering sharing what you know!

[Maine Writer]

You can pare down locations quickly but contacting towns to ask if this is allowed. Those that allow it might know of land for sale. Good luck! I think it's a great idea.

[Last1Standing]

Good tip, thanks!

[OutdoorLover]

It sounds to me like you're proposing a small subdivision. It's a good idea to cut costs on the land, and if you can get agreement among with the other homeowners on standards for the house materials, I think you can save money on those too. A little larger development (a few more units) would probably allow better economy of scale.

I don't know the mechanics of this, but it's done all the time by developers who buy some acreage, have it subdivided into separate lots with the town, then put in a street, drainage, clear the lots and put in driveways, have power brought in. I think it will require approval from the town's zoning board, if so, you want to find out what their requirements will be. If you can get buy-in from the other owners upfront, I think you would do well to shop for developers. Having buyers who are committed to the project up-front would really lower their risk compared to doing a development the conventional way, so I think it would be attractive to developers and you should be able to have them compete for the project.

Or, if you want to learn the ins and outs, maybe you could act as the developer, and hire a general contractor to run the construction aspects. What you don't want is for the savings in doing this to be handed off to someone else as extra profit. This is how I see it, but I am not in the construction business, know just enough to be dangerous, so please verify my assumptions :-)

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Last1Standing

Affordable small-house community midcoast

The first thing that caught my eye in this thread, is that I do believe two of the words in the title are self-contradictory. If you have affordable, then you can not be midcoast.

The other thing, after reading the OP, are we discussing a H.O.A. [Home-Owners Association]?



My Sister-in-Law lived in DC. From among the members of her church, a group formed, who bought 100+ acres in BlueHill Maine. Her fellow church members built a central clubhouse on that land and then each family built their own private small-house.

The owner-partners all live down in DC. The group was trying to get my SIL to buy a share of their commune, and since I already live in Maine I was invited to visit them.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Submariner

The first thing that caught my eye in this thread, is that I do believe two of the words in the title are self-contradictory. If you have affordable, then you can not be midcoast.

The other thing, after reading the OP, are we discussing a H.O.A. [Home-Owners Association]?



My Sister-in-Law lived in DC. From among the members of her church, a group formed, who bought 100+ acres in BlueHill Maine. Her fellow church members built a central clubhouse on that land and then each family built their own private small-house.

The owner-partners all live down in DC. The group was trying to get my SIL to buy a share of their commune, and since I already live in Maine I was invited to visit them.

I think I know the place you are referring to. It's located in Sedgwick. It's affordable, but I don't really think it turned out as intended.

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

If there's no communal space what would be the purpose or benefit of having multiple small houses "well-spaced" across 5-10 acres?

I've personally wanted to do something similar, but with a strong farm/ag/food/business component positioned centrally. I'm a single person and sometimes find it difficult to do the farm thing on my own. (Animal/plant care when I've got the flu, for example, or just "crunch time" stuff like planting and harvesting when you just REALLY need some extra help.)

In fact, in my land hunting I always check to be sure a secondary small housing unit (or two) is allowed so I can house another like-minded person (or two) that is interested in that lifestyle.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by AustinB

I think I know the place you are referring to. It's located in Sedgwick. It's affordable, but I don't really think it turned out as intended.

It might have been Sedgwick and not BlueHill. I do not remember well enough to say for sure.

My thought at the time when I was visiting them, they were 'city folk' and not really 'country folk'. The idea of living 'simple' and 'rural' seemed like a good idea, but the reality did not align well with the vision.



My SIL could come to visit us. From my house she could walk 20-paces into the woods, sit down and read a book. From that spot the woods are dense enough that she could not see my house, so it gave her a sense of being extremely remote. Even though if she recalled out to us, we could hear her from our house and we could quickly respond to her distress. She would make these trips to visit us once a year, mid-summer, and that seems to be just enough to satisfy whatever need was lacking from living in the DC beltway.

But using an outhouse, during the 6th week of continuous -20F temps, howling winds, and blowing snow, I think was just too much for her.



I have known Mainers who live in yurts. Or in abandoned school buses. I have a friend who lives in Belfast, in a cabin that she built by herself using scraps she picked up at the town dump.

Some people love this region and lifestyle.

[heatman714]

@ Last1standing, this post caught my eye. I would be interested in finding out more about this idea. Cost effective living in a community of folks you call neighbors that are like minded has become very difficult to do in this climate.
Ellsworth is nice town to my limited experience. It is also in great proximity to all kinds of sports and recreation. (for lack of a better phrase) Options that would be OK with interested parties would need to be explored. Such as the local zoning laws and how to structure vision, RE: cooperative, camp, HOA, corporate retreat, multi-family owned Farm, Etc.

Submariner made a good point though. Cost effective central coast living is an oxymoron on an individual basis.

It would have to be researched as to Hancock County's land, real estate restrictions and allowances would be the first %3 of achieving that goal. Maine does have very diverse and innovative land management standards and programs though. Not an unrealistic notion there. Spent a lifetime New England and have set my goal towards Maine myself at this point.

In my opinion it's a great idea.
@ Submariner, USN? or EB Groton, New London. Me, EB.

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by HaikuHeritageFarm

If there's no communal space what would be the purpose or benefit of having multiple small houses "well-spaced" across 5-10 acres?

I've personally wanted to do something similar, but with a strong farm/ag/food/business component positioned centrally. I'm a single person and sometimes find it difficult to do the farm thing on my own. (Animal/plant care when I've got the flu, for example, or just "crunch time" stuff like planting and harvesting when you just REALLY need some extra help.)

In fact, in my land hunting I always check to be sure a secondary small housing unit (or two) is allowed so I can house another like-minded person (or two) that is interested in that lifestyle.

The purpose is to reduce the cost of the land and the homes. Your point is well taken. I've posted elsewhere about the social consequences of our growing population of people who are older and live alone, and the benefits of some form of cooperative living for those people. In an ideal world, I'd like to live in a small neighborhood on the outskirts of a town like Belfast. The neighborhood would be a mix of ages so that younger people are available to help with things like home and property maintenance, getting groceries, etc. Creating a true cooperative community with common areas, assigned responsibilities, a government, etc. feels like a daunting task. Handling the interpersonal and practical problems that arise in such an enterprise isn't what I imagine for my retirement years. Simplicity is one of my top goals for this stage of my life.