is now good time to buy property/alnd? (Washington, Hope: for sale, real estate)

[sturmgeist]

hi guys. i know this is kinda a vague question but i want to buy land in maine... id like to spend around 60,000 or less,cash. maybe more but i dont have much more money than that saved up.
so, im just curious if land price is falling in maine or if i should buy now.
i searched the forum and google and couldnt find anything.
also, what is a good area with relitivly cheap land? i dont really care about location too much.
just want decent land, as much as i can get for my moneys. id like at least 50-60 acres but i dont know if thats possible for my price range.
i appreciate any answer to my question/s. thanks.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by sturmgeist

hi guys. i know this is kinda a vague question but i want to buy land in maine... id like to spend around 60,000 or less,cash. maybe more but i dont have much more money than that saved up.
so, im just curious if land price is falling in maine or if i should buy now.
i searched the forum and google and couldnt find anything.
also, what is a good area with relitivly cheap land? i dont really care about location too much.
just want decent land, as much as i can get for my moneys. id like at least 50-60 acres but i dont know if thats possible for my price range.
i appreciate any answer to my question/s. thanks.

I dont know if land prices are dropping really.

I see land at $300 / acre, how much should it drop? I was not aware that land prices had gone up. Some folks are always trying to drive the price of land up. But that is just greed.

I do think that land is a good thing to buy.

With $60k you can certainly find 50 acres of land in Maine, you can find 100 acres.

Just come up and look around.

[sturmgeist]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I dont know if land prices are dropping really.

I see land at $300 / acre, how much should it drop? I was not aware that land prices had gone up. Some folks are always trying to drive the price of land up. But that is just greed.

I do think that land is a good thing to buy.

With $60k you can certainly find 50 acres of land in Maine, you can find 100 acres.

Just come up and look around.

hi,thanks for the info.

ive looked on craigslist and cheapest i found was 2k/acre for propertys over 100k etc. on average like 5k+/acre. my friends dad bought like 100 acres in paris,maine which i think is somewhere in the south for 80k or something back like 8 years ago, and it seems to be alot more expensive there now. and home prices are falling most places since the 'house bubble' burst. so i just assumed/ was curious if land is over-inflated price in maine and now dropping like alot of property across the US.
anyway, i didnt know you could get land so cheap even in the north maine(300$/acre),and that is land with public road/access to grid etc?
if you could tell me, where , like what county can i find land that cheap or around it,aroostook.? i prefer not to buy quite that far up but it doesnt matter too much, i am from finland so i can take cold. i can probably answer most these questions with more research but if you/people here dont mind to answer it would really help.

[AustinB]

The arc of counties from Washington in the east, to and thru Piscataquis are probably going to have cheaper land. Aroostook will also have good deals.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

There is land for $300 an acre. It's probably swampy with poor access and far from power. It will also have been cut over and have no marketable wood on it.

On the other hand, there is good high ground with a view, open fields, nice woods with trails, a brook, on a public road with power and phone and high speed DSL available. That is more than $300 an acre. You can find very nice land for $500 an acre with all of the above features. You won't find a 10 acre lot like that for $5,000 though. The bigger the lot, the lower the price per acre.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by sturmgeist

... i didnt know you could get land so cheap even in the north maine(300$/acre),and that is land with public road/access to grid etc?
if you could tell me, where , like what county can i find land that cheap or around it,aroostook.? i prefer not to buy quite that far up but it doesnt matter too much, i am from finland so i can take cold. i can probably answer most these questions with more research but if you/people here dont mind to answer it would really help.

My SIL bought 105 acres at $300/acre. flat a little wetland part to it, paved road / phone / phone / DSL.

You really need to drive around and look.

[Coaster]

Check the land for sale section of Uncle Henry's -- Uncle Henry's -- or the websites of real estate agencies in the area you're interested in. You can also find listings at the Maine Realtor website -- Maine Real Estate - Find Homes in Maine at REALTOR.com. If you have a specific town or towns in mind, call the town clerk in each one and ask for the names of people to talk to about raw land for sale or if there are any tax sales coming up for land. There's a list of Maine town clerks at Maine Town and City Clerk's Association.

Hope this helps.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Hey Sturmgeist, We have birches. ;-)

[jim65970]

hello....i read with interest the gentlemans post.....i just returned from 4 days in maine looking at waterfront ( river/stream/brook front) properties.....i started my researches over 8 months ago and have never seen $ 300/acre land.....if you search the mls listings and put in a maximun high amount you will never see land this cheap....water front or not....so where is this land ? how does one go about finding it ?....the real estate agents i have contacted just give mls listings to check out which i already did....the land i have been looking at ranges from 3.5 to 4.5 k per acre....ive read on here about talking to the locals....well how does one go about doing that....in saying that these folks cant be fools selling at $ 300/acre when there are thousands of land listings on the mls which does not reflect this price at all.....not even close....i did see some large parcel of land in northern maine in the $ 450/acre range on the net....thats about the cheapest i have seen.....i just dont get it....by the way maine is a truly beautiful place....went as far north as chester to burlington to belfast to new sharon & chesterville.....i was very
impressed by what i saw.......am going back in the fall to look again
thanks for listening
jim

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by jim65970

hello....i read with interest the gentlemans post.....i just returned from 4 days in maine looking at waterfront ( river/stream/brook front) properties.....i started my researches over 8 months ago and have never seen $ 300/acre land.....if you search the mls listings and put in a maximun high amount you will never see land this cheap....water front or not....so where is this land ? how does one go about finding it ?....the real estate agents i have contacted just give mls listings to check out which i already did....the land i have been looking at ranges from 3.5 to 4.5 k per acre....ive read on here about talking to the locals....well how does one go about doing that....in saying that these folks cant be fools selling at $ 300/acre when there are thousands of land listings on the mls which does not reflect this price at all.....not even close....i did see some large parcel of land in northern maine in the $ 450/acre range on the net....thats about the cheapest i have seen.....i just dont get it....by the way maine is a truly beautiful place....went as far north as chester to burlington to belfast to new sharon & chesterville.....i was very impressed by what i saw .......am going back in the fall to look again thanks for listening jim

Some of the realtors will insist that all land transactions go through realtors. Other realtors exist who will speak more truthfully.

Anyone can pay the higher price of having their property listed on MLS, and a realtor on commission who may or may not know anything about the property. I have spoken with many realtors who had never stepped foot on the properties that they were listing.

You get what you pay for [in theory, maybe not in practice].

NMLM is a realtor. He is very knowledgeable and a good guy. I highly recommend NMLM.

However from my observations many transactions in Maine do not involve realtors.

When I was searching for land, I did much the same as you have done. I spoke with realtors and I searched the MLS.

I also spoke with folks in some of the towns as I drove through them. Many times in diners, folks who began telling me of locals who were dividing their land and offering land for sale 'by owner'.

And I saw signs with phone numbers to call.

I have already given you the name and phone number of the guy who I bought my land from. He is not a realtor, he is a forester. The last time that I spoke with him, he still had 4 pages of properties that he was offering.

He still has that place behind my SIL's land, that he is selling for $300/acre. It is not riverfrontage but it is treegrowth.

I paid a high price for my land. My place has river frontage and I paid $900/acre.

Good luck, and may God bless you.