Buying a house in Maine, top 5 questions asked.
Each day, Maine real estate agent or broker field a slew of questions about buying a house in Maine. This Maine blog post lists and answers the top 5 questions.
For starters, let’s study the Maine landscape. Maine is a big state with a low population. Not flush with high paying jobs but rich in natural beauty, outdoor space and friendly down to Earth people.
Question one. Home buyers want to know “got any rent to own houses?”
Is there a home owner in your Maine real estate listing inventory who will rent to own or seller finance their property?
Like monthly apartment rent or leasing a car, house buyers would like to step into a Maine home the same way. The renter wanna be a Maine house owner figures no harm in asking. Skipping the bank mortgage home buying process because of poor credit, inability to finance a Maine home. Or just plain lacking closing cost money to pull off the “owning stop renting in Maine’ transition.
A seller with a mortgage on their house in Maine can not let a buyer “assume” their loan.
No can do. An acceleration clause in the fine print says if the seller does try to transfer title to the property without paying off the mortgage in full, all the loan money comes due.
Gulp. More on what happens if the home owner pockets the rent to own house monthly payments instead of sending them in the current mortgage holder.
Question number 2, straight out how do I get pre approved to buy a house in Maine?
Instead of rent to own, because the seller needs to replace the house with another one. I help a home buyer get into a local Maine bank for pre-approval to see if they qualify and for which mortgage home loan program.
Local, not out of state or far away in the solar system mortgage lenders are the best route to buy a house in Maine.
Had a truck driver with pale credit and some junk in the trunk issues to iron out to get that bank pre approval paper to buy a Maine home. The property home owner may own their Maine house outright. But most would not want to carry a seller financed mortgage for 15, 20, 30 years that are needed to keep the rent to own house payments low enough for the buyer.
Maine banks are set up for home mortgages.
It’s one of the many things they do.. handle money lent out and coming back in to keep the drive through open.
Buying a house means get a bank pre-approval letter before falling in love with a home the buyer is not able to purchase.
The closing costs can be added on to the purchase price if the property appraises high enough for house value and condition. Or the seller can elect to pick up some of the closing cost if motivated enough to sell their Maine home.
Question 3 that comes up from Maine real estate buyers wanting to buy a house.
Is there any town or neighborhood to avoid buying a house in Maine? This outside new to the area buyer may be from a crowded area with high crime statistics. They are used to some undesirable neighborhoods where it’s just not a location to own a home. Maine is different. Way more elbow room surrounds you.
Welcome to Maine, the way life should be. 4th lowest crime state and the northern half if an even lower statistic.
There are no good or bad towns or neighborhoods to avoid. It is simple a case of geography mileage.
How close do you a Maine home owner need to be from your job, schools, the hospital, golf course, Walmart or a grocery store?
Where you buy is a personal decision on travel and how much behind the wheel driving you want to do in Maine.
Or picking a location to see Mt Katahdin, hear the ocean or have easy access to several lakes makes it draw a circle. And drilled down into the Maine property listing inventory that populates the current MLS real estate offerings.
Question 4. What will my property taxes be on the new house I buy in Maine?
Will they go up because I purchased for higher than the town’s assessed value or what the number says on the current property tax bill?
It is public information what every Maine home owner pays for property real estate taxes. The best thing any Maine town government can give their residents is quality services with the lowest property taxes.
Each Maine home owner can request a review of their tax bill.
They should come into that meeting with other local property tax assessments to consider.
No one wants to pay high property taxes but showing your bill is much higher than several others will get you a reduction.
So you won’t be singled out to pay double, triple what everyone else does in your Maine community.
While on the subject of Maine property real estate taxes, I see some buyers want to purchase 50 miles from all the services simple due to a little lower tax bill.
Forgetting that higher property insurance premium rates happen because there is population to support the no fire department. Even if you don’t smoke in bed, banks are more finicky about not being able to get a house insurance binder before the sit down sign the papers Maine real estate closing.
That driving more back and forth to services wastes gas and time to town services. And having to trade in early or constantly repair your worn out car costs money. More than offsets a couple bucks in your Maine home property tax bill.
Question five buying a house in Maine. “Got any DIY, handyman special properties that need a lot of work but are cheaply priced?”
Yes we do but those are not the easiest to get bank financing on.
The short on cash but willing to pour in the sweat equity Maine home buyer wants to take their time. The Maine bank appraiser points out what the property needs for repairs and a new roof, paint, updates are required. So the Maine bank can “sell” the mortgage on the secondary mortgage.
If I was a real estate broker in another state, the common list of questions would be a little different or in a different order than here in Maine.
Everyone knows that it’s real estate location times tree and what’s it like around the property listings is very important to the quality of life and personal enjoyment. The out of state Maine real estate buyer is looking for something that may be missing where their last home was. It’s more than simple up or down house sizing.
Over population, crime, too many regulations or just plain nose bleed too high a cost of living is gone moving to rural Maine.
Combined the lower Maine home prices and cost of living with “I can sell my out of state house for a big chunk of change and relocate to where residential property is half or a third as expensive”.
All good reasons that cause folks to pick up and move away from their old home in an urban setting or where it’s too dang hot to live indoors with 24 hour air conditioning. That’s not living. You are not in Maine Toto.
Questions about the weather, what is it like being on the Canadian border, do you have a Walmart?
What do you all do for fun, etc all also come up to during the buying a house in Maine discussion. We get a slew of others. But there you have the top five questions I get asked from folks buying property, especially a house in Maine.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA