Category: Living in Maine

Buying A Home In Maine, Rising Interest Rates

Buying a home in Maine with rising interest rates.

How does the increase in interest rates charged by Maine mortgage lenders affect the buying a home in Maine today?

This blog post is about the Maine real estate market.

How’s The Market? What’s My Home Worth? Interest Going Up, What’s That Do To Home Sales?

What is hunt and pecked here is not for some other area of the country. It is not a blog post to try to generalize for the nation and is specific to rural Maine. Real estate news is part of the blog posting here on Me In Maine blog. Time to update that corner of the blogging platform. Underneath everything is the real estate right?

Maine has a handful of cities and over 400 small communities.

In small town Maine real estate housing markets, here is what is happening. Pre-COVID, the Maine real estate market was healthy and robust. During the COVID pandemic, the market in Maine for real estate only got hotter, faster, more intense.

Desperation to get to Maine, to high tail it out of the crowded city living became the mantra.

“Move to Maine”. “Gotta move to Maine NOW”. The urban real estate dwellers could cash in on high prices and shrinking housing inventory where they lived. And cross the big green bridge on the southern tip of Maine to relocate to Vacationland.

Maine House Hunting. Higher Interest Rates, Less Real Estate Listing Supply. Still Hot Market In Maine. So Much Lower Priced Properties Than Other Areas Is Why.

Buying a new home in Maine, maybe build on a vacant piece of land and not even need a local bank mortgage. Heading in the direction of Maine means for many, “free and clear”. Look Mom, no mortgage.

Interest rates if you needed a home bank mortgage were at historic lows in Maine, everywhere.

The cost of housing in Maine was still so so far below the market the out of state buyer put in their rear view mirror.

So with interest rates increasing a few notches, what has that done today to the Maine real estate housing market? It did not slow down house sales, it increased the panic to get a Maine home before rates climb higher.

Anything On The Maine Waterfront Is A Popular Real Estate Search. Hot Temps Help Fuel That Market Segment.

The increase in interest rates for bank financing home buyers only caused greater pressure and stress to get a house under contract. To entice a seller to enter into a signed purchase and sale agreement.

And remember, Maine real estate values as you get away from the coastal and population centers goes down down down.

To match the local pay scale and distance away from major markets that you enjoy the deeper up into Maine you travel. We don’t like debt, avoid mortgages that drag on forever. Debt is like a cancer to most true Mainers.

Not Cooling Off In My Area Of Maine Real Estate Wise. Low Prices, Big Demand To Get To Maine Makes The Local Market Hot.

Equity loans are through the roof in my smaller Northern Maine real estate market.

Talk to any of the local six lenders and they all say the same thing. Struggling to get home mortgage loans in the pipeline processed and issued a clear to close memo for the local attorneys. Scrambling at the same time to write home equity loans to get their home owner’s the best interest rate available today.

Add to it the pressure for a seller who has way way too big a house and who worries about the cost to heat it this winter. That seller wants to cash in on the brisk real estate market in Maine and get this oversized property sold.

Parked On The Maine Coastline? Waterfront Real Estate Prices Still Hot. Never Ever Enough Supply Of Property On The Water.

When a real estate home buyer has less to select from, the pressure to buy whatever is available increases.

There is competition from other home buyers, not from too many house listings to pick from today. Multiple offers, buyers upping the ante to make their purchase and sale contracts the most attractive possible is the only course of action.

How do you make sure your offer to buy a home in Maine has the best chance possible of being accepted by the owner?

Think like a seller. What would you do if you were the house owner and had lots of written offers to buy your home spread out before you? This offer has a dollar deposit, that one wants to negotiate the price by half. When not much for sale in the housing supply and demand, forget trying to wheel and deal and get a lower price.

Living In Small Maine Towns. Local Pride, More Hands On Community Involvement Happens.

What’s that I heard in a loud whisper from the back of the Maine blogging room?

You said you have never paid list price for anything in your life and are not about to today? Bow out, take a break, wait for a different real estate market that is tilted to favor a buyer not the seller.

As Linda Gifford, our legal beagle who used to head up our Maine Association of REALTORS hot line told us at an annual meeting a couple years ago.

“Put on your big girl and big boy pants”. It was advice for her own adult children who wanted to buy a home in a hot market with little supply and too big a demand.

Maine REALTOR Conventions, The Next On October 11-13 At The Samoset Resort.

Linda’s sage advice for buying a home in a hot real estate market was don’t try to nickel and dime.

Don’t have a slew of contingencies that no home seller in their right mind would accept today. Wasting time for you, your seller, their agents and no listing home sale the result. That’s what happens in today’s real estate market where you have to go above and beyond.

Gathering Maine REALTORS To Discuss The Current Market, For Continuing Education Credits, Networking.

Bigger deposits, heck put the whole purchase price in escrow if you are sure you are going to buy a home in Maine.

That’s send the strongest signal possible to help a home seller know who to pick from many offers. A purchase price higher than list and no delays, zip for contingencies other than clear title. Those cash purchases look pretty attractive to a Maine home seller. Make his or her eenie meenie miney moe task quick and easy.

If you don’t have the stomach for that kind of multiple offer bidding war mentality to buy a home in Maine, bow out and wait.

I remember interest rates to buy a Maine home when they were 16.5% adjustable. Commercial rates even higher than that.

How’s Your Local Maine Real Estate Market? State Conventions A Way To Poll The ME REALTORS.

Heck, my first home was an attractive at the time 12.25% fixed Maine state housing mortgage rate.

She was a cute as a button 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath cape with fireplace, hardwood floors and garage. When interest rates are high, the inventory begins to pile up as the real estate market cools off and slows down.

When there are more buyers, as interest rates climb, the shift to a buyer’s market with more selection and less chance of a bidding war happens.

Today in Maine, the housing market is still tight. More than ever if the out of state buyer can sell their home and cash in the chips, they are heading to Maine. Especially if the new home they buy in Maine is served by high speed Internet connectivity. Working remotely, telecommuting to their online job from Maine is the dream of many employed home buyers.

Living In A Small Maine Town. Getting More Than A House, Developing A Strong Local Connection Happens.

They don’t need a job in Maine, they have one they pack up and bring along if the wireless, copper or fiber Internet signal is long and strong. Or some retired, going to start a business in Maine to create a job or two.

The retired Maine home buyer from out of state is ready for less crime, no traffic and the friendlier help each other out neighborly feeling.

That’s what living in rural Maine real estate markets with less people and cheaper housing prices is like. The emphasis is off money, needing lots of it to fuel the day to day. More hands on, DIY and prepared for a recession around the next corner kinda thinking. Common sense, simple approach to living and making the most of any situation life throws at you.

Music Town Of Maine. Welcome To Houlton ME, Aroostook County!

When the out of state real estate market slows because rising interest rates start to erode the buying power of the pool of purchasers, the Maine housing market will cool off. Inventory supplies will increase, building material costs will come down. The days on market (DOM) number will increase and new home listings will not go under contract within hours after going on the market.

But as long as the supply of homes for sale in Maine is about 1.3 months worth if nothing new was listed, sellers are looking forward to a favorable market.

And buyers are still under the gun to find an affordable home to buy in rural Maine.

Maine Small Family Farms. You Know Your Local Farmer In Rural Areas Of Maine.

Do the best you can with the market that is. Owning not renting is your best course of action. You can always remortgage or pay ahead on whatever mortgage rate you secure in a Maine home loan. And in time, the higher cost of lending if interest rates go up up up will only cause a better selection, lower house prices to reflect higher mortgage rates.

Too often the news you get about the real estate market is from a west coast new source or some area that does not look anything like the Maine property listing landscape. Thinking about buying or selling a home in Maine? Wondered how interest rates increasing affecting the local Maine real estate market? Hope this blog post on Maine real estate, the local markets around the state and how interest rates fan the flames is helpful.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

August 16, 2022
Farmers Markets In Maine, Locally Sourced Home Grown Food

Farmers Markets in Maine, locally sourced home grown food is a beautiful thing!

Farm to table is nothing new to Maine communities. Home grown garden and farm field food is one of the perks to living in an area with lots of fertile land soil. Vendors that set up displays at local Maine farmer’s markets are not just veggies or produce either. Expect to see everything from cut fresh flowers in floral display, home made arts and crafts, baked goods, oils and home remedies of all types too. Cheeses, poultry and dairy product items too are common at local farmers markets in Maine.

Maine Amish Families Help The Varied Selection Of Local Farmers Market Offerings.

Maine has a lot of Amish settlements and these local farm groups make sure the trip to the weekly farmer’s market worth your while.

Kids, older adults and everyone in between age wise host the farmer’s market tables. In the Houlton Maine area, the Community Farmer’s Market event venue is beautiful historic Market Square.

Here’s a local community farmers market in Maine video from Aroostook County put together from last Saturday.

Do you grow a garden or live on a full time, maybe a hobby farm in Maine?

Lots of the requests for Maine real estate are buyers on the hunt for something with land. The more Maine land the better and if it is not a cut over woodlot and has open pasture fields, all the better. Cultivating soil that is ready to work means more time to spend at the local farmers market in Maine location.

Clearing a woodlot to create a Maine farm pasture field is a lot of work.

Maine Farm Pasture Field Of Red, White Clover And Wild Flowers.

But unless the present Maine land owner has kept the ground in cultivation or hays or bush hogs the property, trees happen. Young brush, vegetation and trees pop up quickly. Fallow worn out land in Maine is not so quickly forested. To farm it means putting back the soil amendments to make the Maine agricultural land productive. Like to own some land in Maine?

Being a good steward of the Maine farm land is key.

To maintaining top production land value and to reduce erosion and anything that hurts the quality of the farming operation. Giving your land in Maine to the next generation of loved ones in better shape, or at least as good as you received it. It is a sacred responsibility for Maine farmers no matter what size of operation they til, tend, weed, water and feed after spring planting.

Agriculture, farming in Maine can mean crops, critters and it is not always just meat and potatoes simple.

Farmer’s Market, Local Community Agriculture Served Up Farm To Table.

Strawberry patches, blueberries that are wild or cultivated along with fresh farm corn, cukes, carrots, squash, onions, lettuce, beans, peas if you please. As the season progresses, the selection of what’s offered up at the Maine farmer’s market increase in variety.

Farmers markets in Maine expand and contract depending on the weather and where you and I are on the calendar.

Canned preserves, dried fruits, pickled vegetables and anything else destined for the root cellar is fair game to peddle at the farmer’s market in Maine.

Farmer’s Market Fresh Flowers. More Than Just Fruits, Vegetables, Baked Goods.

Community Market Farmers Market In Houlton Maine.

The bounty from the harvest of the Maine agricultural farm setting. Leaf lettuce, radishes, fresh garlic, scallions, a slew of vegetable and fruit offerings await at your local farmstead manned by family, friends, your local neighbors. There is so much sense of community doing business at a local farmer’s market in Maine venue.

Early on, dry beans, product from last growing season canned and pickled may be what’s for sale early on at the local community farmer’s market.

But as the stronger sunshine overhead works it magic with time, seed, water and fertilizer, more local produce, fruits and vegetables combine with the fresh eggs, baked goods and other items.

What’s For Sale At The Local Maine Farmer’s Market? New Vendors, New Offerings Each Week To Check Out.

Each week, lots of bartering and farmer market exchanges happen within the vendor community too.

Like one farmer’s market vendor in the Maine community video says, he issues lots of personal IOU’s. Has never been burnt or come up short in payment. That’s shows you the quality of the local Maine people who shop the farmer’s market. Or that he is a pretty good judge of character.

More on the area of Houlton Maine where this local community farmers market event happens each and every weekend in Market Square. What’s it like living in Aroostook County, Maine? Here’s a blog post on picking potatoes in Maine.

More Than Peas And Carrots And Ears Of Farm Fresh Corn. Lots To Check Out At Maine Farmer’s Markets.

Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts.

Hope you get a sense of what living in Maine is all about from the entries. Sure am glad I live, work and play in Maine and try to share that simple way of life that happens here day and night. This blog post on Maine farmer’s markets is an easy one requiring less hunt and peck wordage. Images can say a thousand words. The video takes you to the local community farmers market in Maine event.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

August 11, 2022
High Home Heating Oil Costs, How’s Your Maine House Insulation?

High home heating oil costs, how’s your Maine house insulation?

Everything Goes White When Winter Weather Arrives In Maine. Heating Your Maine House, Being Prepared Is Key To Enjoying, Not Dreading Winter.

In Maine, heating with wood is not a new fad.

Maine is 91% wooded land, covered with mixed and softwood trees of all species. If burning wood to heat your Maine home is nothing new, the high price of oil gallon packs less of a sting. You hear lament from those who don’t have a wood or pellet stove about how expensive heating their Maine home is going to be this winter. Time to think about insulating more. To spend less on Maine home heating energy costs.

Many of Maine houses were built when oil heating prices per gallon were in the teens, the homes very large to fit in all the family members. Heating with wood is nothing new to most local Maine house owners.

Heating Your Maine Home With Wood. Saving On Energy Bills Putting Another Log On The House Heater Stove Fire.

Less money spent on something else the plan to shoulder the weight of extra expense heating the Maine house.

Assume the position and open up the wallet wide. To pay for the higher heating oil from the beep beep beep backing up tank truck with the long hose and screw on nozzle. Most Mainer home owners don’t take the price hike of heating oil laying down. They go into battle stations to do something about lowering the house energy heating costs on Maine homes.

But if you are elderly, not so spry hefting a 16 inch or whatever size piece of hardwood to feed the Maine house heater stove.

Those are the really vulnerable Mainers on a small fixed income where there is no slack to tighten up the finances.

Folks who want to continue to age in place in their own home sweet home. But worry about how the heck are they going to heat the Maine house this winter? With the extra burden of high heating oil per gallon costs to tackle?

This blog post is about making your Maine house easier to heat and the added benefit, to coo the home.

Bigger, Older The Maine House, The Harder To Heat The Home. Maine, Affordable Housing But It Is On The Larger, Yesteryear Vintage That Can Suck Up Energy.

Insulating the older Maine housing stock and ways to economically stretch hard earned dollars. To cut back on heating oil consumption with some effort in beefing up the Maine house insulation.

Oh great, another blog post on insulating your house in Maine.

I heard the groans and loud audible whispers. Haven’t we got a slew of those that come up in a Google search already? I think more push to better insulate our older Maine housing stock and ways to underwrite it for the home owner is critical. Rather than just roll over and just complain, paying the long dollar for heating oil. Let’s get into insulation battle mode to attack the aging housing stock in the big, drafty existing small Maine town communities.

It’s supposed to be 83 degrees today on a July Maine summer day. But in the back of my mind I have been worried about what needs to be done now.

To prepare for Maine winter and knowing more insulation also makes the Maine house easier to cool. Not just tied to heating at whatever adjust house thermostat setting.

The Solitude, Peaceful Feeling Of The Maine Woods In Winter. Just Because It’s Winter, We Don’t Hibernate, Are Outside Every Day Of The Year To Enjoy Vacationland.

Mainers get up early, open all the house windows to capture the cooler temperatures.

Then shut the blinds, close all the doors, darken the place up to enjoy the cooler temperatures as a Maine summer day as the sun rises heating up the outside of Vacationland. A smaller one room air conditioner is installed. Maybe the Maine home owner is lucky enough to have a heat pump to cool a portion of their place. We don’t try to heat or cool the entire Maine home. Just the living absolute necessary portions then closing off the rest no one is using.

Hot or cold temperatures wherever your home in Maine is located and how to cope best with them.

It is way way easier to maintain a comfortable Maine home’s inside temperature if there is less living area to worry about and adequate insulation is in place. How much insulation is up in the Maine home attic, the cap over the ceilings over your head and under the roof?

Maybe some shade trees could help shield the home in the summer months and are needed. Insulation, be warm, save money.. that’s what Efficiency Maine is all over to reduce your energy costs.

Smaller Maine Town Living, More Outdoors Happens. Heating The Home Usually Involves Fire Wood If Oil Energy Prices Hike Higher.

When was the home in Maine insulated last and with what material?

Usually, the not knowing is because it’s hard telling accessing your attic area under the eaves. Many times where the square scuttle hole is to get into an attic is missing. Not easy to find or not out in the hall obvious. Maybe it’s stuck in one of the bedroom closets filled to the brim with clothes, boxes, luggage.

No hatch after looking everywhere? Make one, then let’s get a ladder. Open up that hatch on the Maine home. To see what’s in the attic for insulation. Now that you have access to the attic, what should the insulation R-value be? The pull down stairway attic entrance are quick and easy to access the attic. But when they are not being used during the winter months, they better be thoroughly sealed off to avoid lots of precious heat loss.

Treasure In The Woods Getting Your Firewood To Heat Your Home! Old Cars Past Their Prime. Hanging Around For Hunters, Hikers, Land Brokers.

And just as important, to avoid expensive warm house air hitting the cold roof line and forming condensation, the ice hanging off the Maine house eaves.

Ventilation is a twin sister to insulation issues and just as important as you button up the Maine house from the outside weather elements. Staying warm over a long Maine winter, the state got 25 million energy saving weatherization dollars last November to help fight the cold.

What Maine weatherization programs are out there to help elderly, anyone low income to improve their home’s insulation?

Making a Maine apartment the tenant has to heat is just as important to be proactive in reducing heating oil, electricity, gas, etc consumption. When Mainers are under stress, they don’t sit on their hands and feel helpless. Lowering the cost of heating the Maine single family or multi unit rental apartment house, where you work, a school, hospital, any building is priority one.

What other areas to improve for your Maine home or apartment building insulation?

Getting Around In Maine, Lots Of Options In Vacationland. Fire Wood One Option For Winter Heating Maine Houses.

Basement walls insulated four feet down, with the Maine house box sills filled too will help some of the heat loss.

Storm doors, a campaign to update not just the windows but the cavity around them all help make the Maine home more efficient to heat and cool too. More tips on insulating Maine houses to not over spend trying to heat them.

Statewide in Maine, I think more effort to tackle the insulation values in all the state’s housing just makes perfect sense.

Spending a little money to save a lot of it is common sense. Plus it makes Maine jobs. Someone has to feed the insulation hopper out in the yard with bags of cellulose as the guy or gal on the other end of the hose carefully fills the attic cap. Or taps the drilled holes in the side of the Maine home that need some insulation love filling the wall cavities.

The Wedding Cake House In Kennebunk Maine, One Of The Most Photographed Homes. Costs A Pretty Penny To Heat.

Here is another important link to visit to get help with insulating your Maine home.

Also places to check out for energy credits, deals on buying the insulation product you need as we wage war on the high cost of heating / cooling Maine houses.

How are you doing making your Maine house more energy efficient to beat the heat costs, to enjoy warm winters and cooler summers?

Share the ways you are shaving the energy costs so everyone can stop shivering and warm up to pro-active measures to insulate the Maine housing stock. Like a Maine farmer always thinking a season or two ahead, Maine home owners do the same thing. Even with 80 plus degree summer temperatures, you see Maine home owners with woodchuck like high piles of woods behind their houses.

Next Year’s Wood Pile In Tree Live Form. Ready To Knit On, To Slowly Cut And Split Into Just The Right Stove Lengths. Mainers Stay A Season Ahead With Their Wood Stash.

Cords of cut, stacked, seasoning wood for the next heating season is just boy scout readiness and making the most of any situation coming up the pike. Kinda partial to Jotul wood heater stoves. What’s your favorite brand? Thanks for sticking around to the end of this blog post on Maine heating, insulating your house.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 23, 2022
Small Maine Towns, Big Local Community Involvement

Small Maine towns, big local community involvement.

When you live in a small Maine town, you volunteer. All the time. Year after year, you are expected to show up and put in the effort to make the local event you worked on last year even bigger the next. This working together and home grown productions makes folks know each other better. Working side by side on a local community project is reward on a lot of levels.

Making Music, Small Maine Towns Community Members Hummed Together To Pull Off Amazing Events!

Summer Outdoor In The Park Music Concerts. McGill’s Band, Houlton ME.

This blog post shows a couple examples of local community involvement.

Pick a season and the local natives are working behind the scenes to pull off the event. Working with the same members on some and totally new committee members on others. These local community projects are one super way to know the talents of those living in our home town. You get to know the people very well in the conversations had while performing local community service.

Here’s a video on the Rotary International Dessert Silent Auction.

Another video to play, listen and watch as the 27th annual Northern Maine Soap Box Derby kicked off another all down hill gravity racing event.

The 4th of July parade, demolition derby, the mud runs are big too when there is a local state agriculture fair like the one in Houlton Maine. Watch the video, check out the many local events that just happened.

Do you pay money to purchase tickets for an event where you live now?

Or do you spend a year planning the next one? Meetings right after an event so everything is fresh to tackle the next one? Get togethers around the year to brainstorm and plan for the local Maine small town event, those are fun and the community benefits. Learn about the many small communities in Maine I get to serve in my real estate job and through service projects. Many of the projects are outdoors any of the four seasons.

Welcome To Maine, A Place With Many Facets To Visit.

It is not one project and then not lift a finger to volunteer until next year’s rerun of the event.

Several projects and mix and match of the individual members and service clubs tapped to coordinate to pull them off to benefit the tourists and local community members alike.

All Ages Love Going Up To A Maine Camp. Pets Too!

Lucky to live in a small Maine town and enjoy traveling instate to visit other parts of the state.

Many of these vacation trips are used for the blog post substance to capture in image, video and then hunt and peck out a Maine blog post. Thank you for stopping by to check out the latest blog post on some local events in small town Maine that just happened where I live in Aroostook County.

Maine, The Way Life Should Be! Welcome To Vacationland! Common Sense Still Used In Our Daily Life. Not Outdated.

Working on the next Maine blog post and trying to give you fresh content and a worthwhile read to not waste your time.

More and more videos are the best show and tell option to relay what is it like where I live in a typical small Maine rural town.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 10, 2022
Finding Your Way Home To Maine

Finding your way home to Maine.

Where you live now and why? Where have you lived, where you think you would like to hang your hat next?

Just where is home, is it Maine?

Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and a host of other musicians create the musical statement and the being stuck, “can’t find my way home.”

What fuels the need for “home” and what is missing when you are stayed away too long? Or you know you are way way too far from home. Musicians on the road in rock bands know what missing home feels like. If you are on a whirlwind gazillion city tour around the World. Where you played last night, where you will be on stage taking care of business again tonight is not so crystal clear.

More Wildlife Than People. Your Move To Maine Is Often To Get Away From Crowds Of People.

In my real job listing and selling Maine real estate the search for a home in Maine, property in Vacationland is a strong one.

Folks from around the globe are on the move. Some for work advancement, others to locate a safe place to raise a family. Your lifestyle pursuits, what you like to do for fun when you pause and refresh makes Maine a perfect glass slipper fit.

Finding Your Way Hiome In Maine. Is A Victorian House The Goal?

For many, the crystal clear Maine waterways, the lack of lots of people and the traffic jams they create all point in the direction of Maine.

Your move to Maine, leaving wherever you call home by putting it in the rear view mirror. Takes lots of courage. Plenty of faith. To pick a place, pack up and move to Maine is easier when you sell a property and pocket lots of cash. To be in a position to buy a home in Maine outright. Living mortgage free, look mom, no house payments.

The cost of living in rural Maine is way lower.

Wages if you are working to make ends meet are smaller too just like the house prices. It is all relative but more than the cost of the Maine house itself, the community spirit that permeates around the four walls, roof and floor are key considerations. Where to live, why to move and when is the best time to put your exit strategy into motion?

Finding Your Way Home To A Maine Lake Home. Is That’s Just The Ticket You Want To Purchase To Get To Maine?

Often kids in school delay the relocation to Maine. Or an elderly parent that needs you close by can make the move to Maine a recurring dream that stays on the drawing board. Maybe Maine. Someday.

Vacations to Maine are the temporary fix.

What’s It Like Living In Maine? Owning A Simple Maine Camp Means Lots Of Vacations First To Find Out.

Those Maine vacations are the reason why not Maine happens inside a person to consider this state so far north it should be in Canada.

When it is time to move and the how to do it best is tied very tightly to how’s the real estate market at your current house address? Real estate is way more than the three locations mantra everyone recites and knows by heart. Today, more than ever it is timing, timing, timing.

All Ages Love Going Up To A Maine Camp. Pets Too!

Sure, many want to move to Maine.

But can they? Pull it off.

Sell their old home in wherever is “there” to buy “here”.

Maine Sunrises, Maine Sunsets. Collect And Enjoy More Of Those In Your New Year 2022.

Short term rents come into play in the where you want to live today shuffle finding your way home to Maine.

Getting a job. Heck two or three part time jobs. Whatever it takes. Or bringing your work online remote employment with you. Making ends meet. Paying the bills. Funding the costly move from here to there all comes at a price. You gotta be sure. The stakes are high and time’s a wastin’. But it hard tellin’ not knowin’. You gotta be sure.

Parked In The Last Stall Of A Maine Barn. Folks Forced To Live Trapped, Contained Outside Of Maine. They Can’t Seem To Find Their Way Home To Maine.

If you have “issues” where you live now, some soul searching is needed to figure out what’s the real problem.

Where does it hurt and why. Gotta an itch to fix? Don’t move to Maine to “fix” things that follow you here. It is not other people that control all your happiness and despair. The inner attitude and who to blame, how to correct and your life expectations have to be true and realistic.

I have witnessed first hand folks buying a Maine home, and doing an about face less than a year later.

Packing up to relocate again and again. Making the move one more time continuously searching for something missing. Fuel by the anxiety of FOMO. Fear of missing out. Life is passing by and closing in just intensifies the “I’m screwing up my life royally”. Desperation is an awful way station to be parked at full of worry and wondering what’s next.

A Peek Of The Blogger’s Homestead Where Sheep Graze On A Fall Afternoon In Northern Maine’s Aroostook County.

Often what is missing is inside and the key to the lock binding the chains and holding you back is within you.

Isn’t that an Eagles classic song? Something about you can see the stars yet still not see the light? Already gone. No one wants to eat their lunch all by themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaM3Fj6Elns

Moving to Maine, way easier if it is just you, yourself and I. Or a couple, a partnership of two. When there are lots of kids in the mix, where they are in school, are they in a relationship, are they where they should be takes consideration. Moving to new areas is healthy if done for the right reasons and when the time is right.

Moving to Maine. Ever stop and wonder why not? What’s holding or pulling you back, what’s pushing you forward? The motto is “Maine, the way life should be”.

Find Your Way Home In Maine. Trading In The Crowded City For Country Living.

Finding your way home to Maine.

Tell me about the area. Show me around the local surroundings in the nooks and crannies of Maine. Full time, local native Mainer. I’ll give you the local insider guide tips and all the simple living in Maine list of short cuts. Thank you for reading and following our Me In Maine blog posts. Here to help when the time is right on your end. It starts with asking lots of questions, getting the answers and doing your “homework”.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 18, 2022
Maine Home Insulation | Warmer Winters Cooler Summers

Maine home insulation, making warmer winters, cooler summers happen.

More comfort at your home in Maine wherever you hang your hat starts with planning. No matter what the cost of energy to heat or cool your Maine home. No one likes to waste hard earned dollars.

Planning For The Next Maine Winter Heating Season Early On. Energy Weatherization Tightening Up The Maine Home.

But true Mainers watching the gas pump and heating oil prices hike higher don’t panic.

Live a few years in rural Maine and what to do to make the most of things is not so hard. Living in Maine makes you way way more resourceful, independent, creativel.

Less emotion and more plan of action is how Mainers maneuver harsh weather, spells of poor heath or during economic setbacks.

The towns in Maine are smaller and tighter and work together to conquer problems. Accepting the mantra “if it is to be, it is up to me”. Taking charge for the plan of attack on whatever the issue living in Maine as a full time native.

So Maine home insulation.

How to tackle the living space you call home. To make sure cracks and crevices are well sealed. Tight is right. Making sure that Maine home attic areas are super insulated and well ventilated.

Big homes in Maine, those are the biggest energy hogs to ride herd on all year long.

Large families, growing up on farms and working the mills, out in the back forty woodlot in Maine meant bigger housing needed. Large families of yesteryear number ten and more were common in Maine. More than the now standard 1.6 children per family in the USA. Maine has a lot of larger, grand older housing stock to insulated and heat as efficiently as possible. No one has money to burn in small town rural Maine.

The Bigger The Maine Home, The Greater The Cost Heating / Cooling It!

Chances are this is not your first blog post in the search for insulation tips to save hard earned dollars used to purchase energy.

Energy conservation is best approached from lots of angles. First, how big a place do you need now? Your real estate housing needs changes as families arrive and eventually leave the nest. Or housing multi generations under one roof to be the most economically efficient. The trend to share the roof line is a healthy one on many levels.

Those grandchildren benefit from gram and gramps helping instill values and developing the right Maine attitude for success in life.

Heat Loss, Making A Maine Home Easier To Cool. How Tight Is Your Maine Home? Thermal Imaging To Know Where To Tighten Up Your Home In Maine.

The kids enrich the the older generation’s quality of life too. And Mom and Dad sure could use the helping hand and back up support when their parents live local or share the same mailbox address.

Insulation tip number one is share space rather than lots of room but only a few people wasting it.

How much space do you really need and what are the reasons to use more than you need?

Saving Money Heating, Cooling Your Maine Home. Upgrading Heating Systems, Lighting, The Way You Heat Your Water.

In rural Maine, the desire to make others envious observing how much space your McMansion takes up is gone.

Practical, frugal, form follows function rules the day. Not trying to be snarky or put on airs to impress anyone.

Insulation tip number two is reduce what you use as family size shrinks.

Consider adding an efficiency apartment to Air BnB or rent out someone all alone. The income from the extended stay renter say that works as a traveler at the local health care facility can enrich your life and the tenant’s too!

Maine, The Way Life Should Be! Welcome To Vacationland! Common Sense Still Used In Our Daily Life. Not Outdated.

Close off what you don’t use. Less square footage means an easier time keeping it warm or cool depending on the month showing on the kitchen calendar.

Sometimes selling the big ark and downsizing to something one floor and smaller just makes sense.

Trading places with someone in the accumulation phase and raising or blending families who has out grown their current 2 bedroom ranch style home.

Insulation tip number three involves a physical inspection of your current Maine home.

Before throwing lots of money into the latest trending energy saving devices, examine the Maine house or apartment for tightness.

Loose as a goose with gaps air can come and go as it pleases is going to waste lots of energy dollars.

What’s capping your attic space, how efficient your windows and doors are, what heat loss happens in your basement area?

What is in the walls for insulation and before you add exterior vinyl siding, consider some outside foam board insulation.

Making heating and cooling your home a game, a sport, rising to the challenge.

Lots of rebates for energy savings if you look online or at the local Maine hardware and building store. Here’s is the Efficiency Maine home insulation website short cut link.

Planning, Thinking About Maine Winter Heater Happens Year Round. Staying A Couple Seasons Ahead How We Mainers Roll.

What you purchase for water heaters, home appliances, lighting fixtures and the how to warm and cool your living space has many facets.

Here are at home cost incentive options to save money at your residence. Saving money on your energy costs is not just limited to your Maine home either. Work, schools, health care facilities.. what gets chewed up on the commercial and institutional side of energy costs matters just as much. More on that work side of energy efficiency and incentive rebates options.

Growing up, each late fall the Maine farm house was banked with fir bows and sheathing.

Enjoy The Season You Are In, Preparing For The Next One Approaching. Winter Always In The Mental Planning Stages.

The trip to get fresh bows from the farm’s wooded sections was a ritual.

One practiced right along with having a year ahead supply of cut, stacked, seasoned fire wood. Wood to heat your home as a renewable resource was everywhere and tightening up the old farmstead was not as critical. Not like now where heating oil is precious and comes at a high cost.

In those early years, the state highway department crews put up snow fences along the major roadway arteries. To control drifting snow and save money spend winging back the new storm flakes to keep traffic moving efficiently.

All Four Seasons, Most Mainers Are “Outdoors” Year Round! Enjoying Space In Maine But Dressed Accordingly Prepared For Whatever the Weather Cast Delivers.

We dressed differently than some today too when winter weather was happening around us growing up in small town rural Maine.

Waiting for the school bus at the end of the farm house driveway, you had the winter coat zipped up tightly. The one bought with your own money picking potatoes with all your family and friends out in the farm field. Mittens, hat, stockings and scarf knit by mom or gram and maybe a long underwear layer. Prepared, comfortable, braced to weather any storm in life. Not shivering and feeling helpless wearing a short sleeve shirt, no hat, no gloves or coat.

Not trucked by your parents door to door and hanging inside 97% of the time year round.

No, no. Just one trip on the big yellow number 13 bus at 7:15 each morning with delivery home at 3:30 in the afternoon. Just in time for farm chores and some time before supper to play outside with family and friends.

Fireplace In Maine, Looking To Warm Your Bones With A Wood Fire?

When there is less money to manage, better use of the funds happens. Here’s more Maine energy saving blog posts to glean.

Creative, practical, everything designed for survival of your family and Maine community.

That’s the same approach used to how best to manage high energy costs. Most Maine homes have a variety of heat sources so the ability to “play” the energy market happens. Not being pushed into a corner with no options is not how hardworking Mainer’s run their lives. Staying a step ahead and expecting setbacks, preparing for them before they happen.

Dozing Off In The Maine Lakeside Hammock. It’s A Good Feeling Knowing You Have Next Year’s Firewood All In Place.

What are you doing to step up the game heating or cooling your Maine home?

Driving, Living, Deal With Winter And Snow. Everyone Living Full Time In Maine Stays Prepared For The Winter, The Heating Season.

Heat pump hanging off the side of your house or ceiling fans being installed to move the air up or down depending on the season? Any cutting edge energy saving building tips to share for new construction? Or old tried and tested methods to squeeze the maximum BTU value out of your hard earned energy dollars?

Do you heat your Maine home with cords of wood or pallet bags of pellets?

Considering buying an electric car or a moped or peddle bike? Do you ride share to your Maine job? Or telecommute to work remotely in Maine? Winter in Maine is always in the corner of your eye or back of your mind.

Now is the time to tackle the Maine home to make sure the energy dollars are not going up the chimney.

Making a game of how to heat your place best and to be the most comfortable. For peace of mind and comfort wherever your live, work or play in Maine.

Working hard to up on the latest insulation, weatherization Keeping the winter cold, Jack Frost from your door because your Maine home insulation is to snuff. All the latest weatherization energy saving rebates have been explored and tapped.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 6, 2022