Maine Taxes (property tax, office, property)

[Submariner]

Got to stay away from those realtors.

[DavidoftheNorth]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Well since I am a pensioner. I sat overseas looking to find the best place to move to when I returned stateside.

A slightly depressed economy, low taxes and low prices is just what I wanted, and what I found.

I have been able to buy nice land and build a home mortgage-free, on my pension.

So I do understand the role of those on fixed income and those on 'low income'.

Smart people do have an advantage! I'm glad you decided to come to Maine and that you found what appears to be a piece of paradise.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Wow, Beekeeper, nice part of the Ponderosa you've got there.
How'd you find the land?

[Submariner]

We had decided to move to Maine while living in Italy [making short work trips to Kosovo]. Once we returned stateside, we lived in our home in Ct [though we knew that we could not afford to live there long-term] and I began coming up here shopping.

I contacted Realtors via the WWW, and got listings of what I was interested in. Two summers I made trips up for as long as I could afford to be away from work. Realtors would give me print-outs of properties to look at, and marked on maps how to find each property. One realtor even would lay them out as a daily itinerary, with how to get from each property onto the next. And I would call the showing realtor, with questions, once I was standing on each property [when I could get cellphone signal].

I started down South, and traveled East-West, slowing working my way up North. Realtors [as is there method] kept trying to show me properties that they felt 'suited' me and would max-out my income]. And I kept insisting that I only wanted to look at properties that fit within my budget. Most of what I did see, that I could afford was miles away from a seasonal road, with no power, no phone-lines, and you really needed a bulldozer for access.

But I kept making trips up here and looking.

Sitting in a very small five table diner in Liberty, I was talking to the locals and asking about the school system and jobs and stuff; when they began telling me about a couple different guys locally there who were sub dividing their land into 40 acre lots, selling them privately. So I went and looked. I fell in love with one and went into escrow.

Half was flat level with thick forest canopy, the other half was a gentle slope running down to a lake. There was a forest cut running about center of the property, that could easily be worked into a driveway. Within site of the lake, up on the slope was a couple rises each with a flat top that would likely be suitable building sites.

On a later trip, I had a 'soil-scientist/septic-design-engineer' guy on the property and we tried to find a location for a septic system. Alas there was no good location, due to ledge. The septic system would cost me more than the property cost. So I canceled the escrow.

Then like a fool, I went back to the realtors, and made another trip looking at realtor MLS properties.

On that trip, I wrote down the phone number on a hand-written sign, claiming land for sale. I met a logger's wife, and she gave me a four page list of lots that they had collected with their asking prices. I traveled around looking at each property. They had bought each lot from various logging companies over the years. I took some photos of one that I liked, and went home. My wife liked it, and our in-laws liked one adjoining property. So I bought it, and based on my photos my in-laws bought the adjoining property.

I paid $900/acre for riverfrontage forest with: county maintained paved road, with power / phone / DSL at the pavement. And my in-laws paid $350/acre for forest without the river frontage but still with: county maintained paved road, with power / phone / DSL at the pavement.

[mainebrokerman]

forest, well done!! perserverence pays off!

[stevenlear]

Beautiful!

[KNO2296541]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I have 42 acres. Forest with 1/4 mile of riverfrontage on the Penobscot river. year around maintained road, power / phone / DSL at the pavement. My taxes that last two years have been $47 / year.

I transferred two vehicles to Maine from Ct. To transfer both registrations, to buy both license plates, everything was under $200. In Ct: you buy the plates, you pay the taxes on the plates, you pay to register the plates to the vehicle, and you pay the taxes for registering the plates to the vehicle, and then you pay for the vehicle, and then you pay property taxes on the vehicle.

Registering a vehicle in Ct, cost me five times what it costs in Maine.

Yes Maine has 'excise tax' which is unique in that nobody else names their vehicle tax 'excise'. Everyone else calls it 'property tax'.

I can't agree more, as I live in CT and it is becoming way overrated. There is nothing special about my state. We do happen to be property owners in Maine also sharing with relatives in Winter Harbor. However, we never see our property tax bill. Can anyone steer us to the "Grand List" on the web? I've searched everywhere I think possible. It is a matter of public record, right?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by KNO2296541

I can't agree more, as I live in CT and it is becoming way overrated. There is nothing special about my state. We do happen to be property owners in Maine also sharing with relatives in Winter Harbor. However, we never see our property tax bill. Can anyone steer us to the "Grand List" on the web? I've searched everywhere I think possible. It is a matter of public record, right?

Public record does not mean 'online'.

I have found mil-rates online, but I have not found assessed land values online, nor tax bills.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by KNO2296541

I can't agree more, as I live in CT and it is becoming way overrated. There is nothing special about my state. We do happen to be property owners in Maine also sharing with relatives in Winter Harbor. However, we never see our property tax bill. Can anyone steer us to the "Grand List" on the web? I've searched everywhere I think possible. It is a matter of public record, right?

YOu never see your property tax bill? Who pays it? If you are an owner of land in Maine, you can get access to your tax information by calling the town office and asking them to tell you what it is. If you have a mortgage and the taxes are excrowed, then you can call the bank that holds the mortgage, and they will tell you what the taxes are.

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by KNO2296541

I can't agree more, as I live in CT and it is becoming way overrated. There is nothing special about my state. We do happen to be property owners in Maine also sharing with relatives in Winter Harbor. However, we never see our property tax bill. Can anyone steer us to the "Grand List" on the web? I've searched everywhere I think possible. It is a matter of public record, right?

A few towns post their property tax records to the web, but it's the exception rather than the rule. There is no "grand list" of individual property values in Maine. That said, the information is public record, and you can find out what your property taxes and valuation are by calling the town office and asking. You can also ask if the annual town report includes a list of property owners and valuations. Some towns run a complete list, others only include property owners who haven't paid their taxes yet!