REALTOR Andrew Mooers' Maine Real Estate Blog

The inside of this Sherman home was tweaked and reworked late last winter and early spring.

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  Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Aroostook County Real Estate And Houlton Maine Information

Most of us are brought up thinking there is a big world out there, that as a young whipper snapper you are going to set that world on fire.

here, testimonials of others that made the leap.  I believe those of us that have lived here most or all of our lives are spoiled.  Due to the lower population and lack of saturation of people in most of this big state, we start off with an advantage of space, elbow room, personal space.  Our real estate price tags are much more attractive and affordabe due to being located up here in the right hand corner of the world nestled between New Brunswick and Quebec on the three sides and the Atlantic Ocean's rock bound coast to the east.  Rolling fields, clean fish filed lakes, thousands of acres of nothing but worlds and wildlife and trails in some areas, and friendly people laboring hard to make their area a better place to live, work and play makes this the logical "home" for me and my family. No traffric, enjoying Maine's 4th lowest crime state status, lack of pollution and a speed of life that is sane...all with a four season beauty for a back drop.  Maine is the way life should be. 

 Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton & Aroostook County Real Estate & Area Information

    Don't Be Nervous Or Scared!

Making And Posting  Video....
It's Child's Play Once You Get Started!

Had two down country Maine brokers say they are slow to get on board the video platform and I asked them why? I am amazed that nearly 63,000 thousand sets of eyeballs have scanned, digested and taken in our videos the short time we have had them posted.  With the help to SEO on your primary website and marketing efforts, why would you wait any longer? Embrace the video outlet as one more vital, high exposure fun way to promote your property and your area.  You are excited about both right? Let it show and remember, folks are not expecting 40 million dollar productions which is the average price of a Hollywood film.  They want information, and you are just the guy or gal to provide it.  You are the expert on your area and have lived there and know you're way around right? Tell them, show them, post those videos! See our collection to date of Maine real estate / area videos!

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine & Aroostool County Video Real Estate Information

The media's effort to make a cartoon out of a complex series of events that put the country in this fine kettle of fish, has many twists and turns worthy of discussion in the financial knot we are buried in now.

For example, part of the nightmare is that households with credit card balances in this country carry an average balance of $17,000.  If it is well known the country is not known as a whole as being savers. Now thru tougher economic times, saving is less of an option or habit as John Q Public struggles with his oil bill or monthly gas expenses. Isn't the tendency to whip out the plastic part of the problem though?  The technical term is "poor impulse control" or clever ads that entice like sirens to buy this, gotta have that, you deserve some of these is part of the financial strain.  If your household income can not afford Jimmy or Jane's cell phone, if your kid's car insurance of close to $2000 is too big a strain, as a parent, can you speak up? Before the end of the financial rope arrives do you discuss as a family we are making some changes for survival ? Are priorities outlined and established with a plan talked over at a family pow wow or the dinner table? And what is the reaction of your child? Scared, indignant, denial, sulking or amazement, willingness to help?  As you try to understand the financial markets, the cycles, the influences and the shape of the situation we are in...consider too what happens in each household in America with the family financials. Look at Main Street..not just Wall Street. Is there a family budget? Are we living within our means? No money flowing in suddenly makes the basics of what you need to live scream out loudly for all to see. Are you watching the news and talking with your kids about the economy, showing them how to save money, or gratitude you have savings to get you thru a bump in the road?  Loss of jobs happen, health issues cause financial ruin along with prolonged divorces.  But don't you think some of the delinquent mortgages are with folks carrying an $800 car payment that is beyond their means or simply too many pieces of plastic in their wallet or purse tempting them as they wander thru the mall wondering what they don't have that they would really like to take home with them?  Don't you think some depressed people "feed" the depression with the temporary "let's buy something" shopping habit to cheer themselves up artificially even though we all know the credit card bills will start to over flow mailboxes around the country? The country has financial symptoms...but the patient, the tax payers has ills that need correction too. What's your take? In northern Maine, local teenagers work for their ipods, pay for their winter clothes, contribute to household expenses and feel good doing it.  They have jobs. The Aroostook County potato harvest is in full swing and Mainer's live within their means.  They are cautious spenders because our local real estate values do not spike $200,000 up and down on each home like part of the country.  Heck..you can buy a quality home for in the $20's..like this one to the right! Maine..the way life should be.

  Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Maine Real Estate Broker In Houlton Maine / Aroostook County

Maine buyers and sellers and their respective bankers and lawyers crowd around a conference table for the closing on a  property. 

     What happens if the buyer nods, everyone shakes hands and the closing is completed with keys passed across the table and everyone bee lines for the parking lot to get on with their lives but the taxes are NOT paid down the road? What if the taxes are not escrowed monthly in the purchaser's payment along with insurance if there is a building involved as collateral? The buyer does not join a tax club to pay them in installments to avoid the big payment all at once annually? Oh oh.  For starters, the seller's name...the record owner if the property was conveyed before April 1st is spotlighted in the town report of delinquent non tax-payers.  That is bad enough, but it also affects the SELLER'S credit rating...reflecting on non-payment of taxes in their name.  Getting the credit restored in not easy according to Houlton town assessor Laureen Bither that I talked with this week.  Hodgdon's Cheryl Cameron echoed Bither's claim and said all assessor's back and fresh from last week's Maine Tax Assessor Workshop are spreading the world around "Vacationland" about the 123rd's legislature's new law 687 . It provides that  if a buyer knowingly fails to pay the prorated tax for the current year (or the tax for the coming year that has been assessed to the seller where the sale occurred after April 1) and the municipality places a lien, here is what can happen. If the seller pays the delinquent property tax in question, the seller may then recover in a civil action from the party who did not pay the taxes as agreed upon, the delinquent tax, the interest charged, the placement and removal lien costs in the registry of deeds and reasonable attorney fees. Further the record of the lien that has been recorded in the seller's file with the consumer credit reporting agency must be considered inaccurate information if the seller submits to the reporting agency a copy of the court judgement and proof of payment of the property taxes in question.

     Also, from a real estate broker's perspective, do you want calls five months later from an angry seller saying how come my name is in the town report, how come I got a higher interest rate for my home equity loan due to a lower credit score because of a property lien, and how come I the seller have to pay the cost of the buyer's taxes and take civil action to recover my debts and go thru this frustration?  Having your neighbors and family think you are struggling and missed your tax payment is a big big issue for most.  A good citizen is responsible, pays taxes, gives something back to make their town, city and makes it a  better place to live.  Check out public law 687 "An Act To Protect Parties To Real Estate Transactions" and make buyers, sellers, attorneys and banks know about it to save wasted calls, explanations and hard feelings after the closing.  What if the buyer can not pay the tax at the closing or says I would rather wait until they are due and assessed? Get the lawyers and bank involved and when you get the call when the closing happened months ago, remind them that you brought up the point, it was covered in detail and you even had both parties sign a form acknowledging knowledge of Law 687 and quickly refer them to the lender, the lawyers. Then you the broker can do something productive instead of wasting a morning chasing down the buyer, faxing HUD 1's and contacting attorneys, bankers to reexplain what led up to this crisis and what should have happened but did not.  Find out more on the law that helps protects your credit rating in Maine. As a professional broker, you try to eliminate conflicts because despite your best job to avoid them, when they happen, someone is not happy.  And you are involved in the screw up and become part of the problem.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine Real Estate And Local Area Information

     Fall is here.

Everyone is economizing and many are wondering why didn't they run a tighter ship when money was freer and the economy was rosier?

Being frugal and being cheap are not the same thing.  Cheap is not paying your waitress much or anything for a bang up job of getting you served with a smile.  Frugal is wrapping up in a blanket or afghan on the couch while you are watching a movie in the dead of winter.  Does not mean the home is set at 50 degrees or that your houseplants are dying and your pets are blue and shivering.  It means you don't have it cranked to 78 degrees on the thermostat and leave it soddered to that setting from September to May in New England.  Its weather stripping the doors, making sure cellar windows are in, that you have adequate insulation in the attic and that your funace is cleaned to run efficiently.  Turning lights off, hanging clothes to dry on a sunny day or in a porch or clothes rack during winter.  Have you found new ways your parents had always used to make your wallet not so thin and your dollar to stretch? This is the place to share them. When you have fewer dollars, you make more cautious purchase and shop harder for a deal. Or decide you don't need the item or service.  Back to basics.  Maybe the country is on that route too?

   Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine / Aroostook County Property Information

Would you pay $75 dollars of your own hard earned money as a 15 year old for a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch pants?

You know, the ones with distressed look, pre-made holes, faded, cool with all the buckles and snaps/straps? You can hear the wheels of a Maine teenager turning when he/she is contemplating spending hard earn potato harvest money as they rifle thru the rack at an factory outlet store in Freeport.  It is refreshing to hear them mutter "heck with that...I'm going to keep looking Dad...let's hit another store". Because money is hard earned working long hours on a Maine potato farm...getting up when it is dark and frost on the ground and then sweltering heat because you are now over dressed at 2 pm when it is hovering around 70 degrees in the autumn sun under blue skies in a dusty Aroostook County field.  The farmer needs your help, you have fun with the other kids on the "chain gang" and there is an huge sense of satisfaction from a job well done.  Lessons learned in the field stay with youth for life.  Cautious spending, not wanting to part with money too easy...doing your home work to get more cool clothes for less money.  Small town, rural community values.  Your whole outlook on life starts in the potato field, your first entry level job.  You are working against the weather, you get tired, dirty but conquer the harvest with three weeks to squirrel away savings that are used to help the family budget stretch.  Child abuse some utter.  But to someone from Maine, it is part of our heritage.  This is where you learn how to work, like to work, want to work and pitch in.  Twenty dollar bills are not just handed to teenagers like they are made on a printing press in your cellar.  The tables are turned and the youth are enpowered with the drive to make it on their own, to be independent, to be self sufficient.  I packed the lunch this morning after a big breakfast to see my son Elliot thru until noon lunch break and asked him what was on tap for work today.  He works in the potato house and sometimes on a spud harvester in the field, where ever he is needed.  Instead of grading russets, katahdins or green mountain potatoes that come into the potato house from the field, he said today they are doing more "1322's" which is tech talk for new varieties of spuds used by the chip industry.  The eating habits of the average US household have changed from sitting down to a Maine baked potato at night at the family meal to fast food pre-pared throw it in the microwave style potatoes. for folks on the run.  But the work ethic and memories are still there in Aroostook County. Working hard, coming home to a big meal and a sense of satisfaction that the farmer needs you to get the crop out before frost hits help shape, build and form the kind of kids that becomes the next generation of community member, parent, tax payer and voter.  Maybe Washington should be run like a small town, a community of folks where money does not grow on trees, is earned with hard work and not spent with careless abandon. Maybe small town is real world, down to basics, simple, honest, no games. Maine..the way life should be.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine / Aroostook County Real Estate & Area Information

Before you make me a loan, you want to know what the money is for, where the house is, etc.

And in the old days, the banker toured the place, no appraiser and he determined the collateral value was there and that I was a good risk. She/ he made a character loan based on my reputation and the property value. Checked the title and then asked how soon do you want to close? No selling mortgages, no underwriters...the banker was the sole start to finish unless the dollar amount was above his/her loan limit or authority.  Maybe local strong loans with local money like the old days is a way to see the investment you have made and be able to monitor it as the lender because it is in your own back yard..not out on the west coast or out of the country.  Not cookie cutter loans...one by one, hand made and with very few defaults.  Sure the rate might be a tad higher, but no delay in closing and not a sea of closing costs / reselling packaging hurdles to clear.  Locally in Maine we have lots of mortgages that are held by Maine banks, and not sold on the mortgage market.  How about in your area of the planet?

  Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine Real Estate Broker In Aroostook County

The brilliant fall colors in Northern Maine are starting thanks to the work of Jack Frost in early morning potato harvest weather.

  School is recessed for three weeks and the students are helping area spud growers get the golden nuggets harvested.  Picking crews, if they are trained and attentive, can do a better job than harvesters of "picking them clean" which means not leaving potatoes behind, unpicked to make the trip to the storage bins. Harvesters cover much more ground quickly than the average picking crew and the clock is ticking to get them out of the ground before frost damage.  So what about that winter's free supply of potatoes that brought you into this blog entry? Local farmers who harvest field A today will gladly let you glean the turned up hills of potatoes for spuds left behind.  You want to get to the field the day they finish so no sun burn or frost issues for your free vegetables that you plan to squirrel away in your cellar root cellar.  A barrel of potatoes is 165 pounds...can you imagine how versatile having potatoes as part of your grocery budget all squared away for zero cash outlay? Home fries at breakfast, potato salad for lunch, and a baked russet for dinner? The little potatoes we grew up calling "B"'s are ideal for a corn or seafood chowder.  Come up to see the fall colors, pick some free potatoes and make it a tradition of this time of each each year to cruise to Maine to fill your trunk!  In the above image, there are lots of potatoes left on the ground under some of those dried out tops and in dirt clumps that form if moisture during the daily operation. Watch the video!

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   Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine & Aroostook County Real Estate Information

Cool mornings, warm afternoons as area youth help local potato farms in Aroostook County get the golden nuggets out of the ground. Youth learn work ethic, know the farmer needs them to harvest the crop. 

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Local Houlton Maine Real Estate And Aroostook County Information