MeInMaine Blog

Category: Uncategorized

  • In Maine, Playing Injured, Farming With Duct Tape, Bailing Twine, Haywire.

    The Weather Is Everything When Planting, Harvesting A Maine Crop Of Anything. Working With Broken, Ailing Equipment Is Nothing New When Money Is Tight, The Pressure On To Get Crop In.
    The Weather Is Everything When Planting, Harvesting A Maine Crop Of Anything. Working With Broken, Ailing Equipment Is Nothing New When Money Is Tight, The Pressure On To Get Crop In.

    Are you used to your day in day out routine going flawlessly, without a hitch and if it does not, your crank factor meter pegs out? You may not be cut out for living on a Maine farm.

    Surviving the low points. Squirreling away money during high times and investing in what is the highest priority on that farm. Being resourceful, creative. That is the spirit of every Mainer.

    On that farm like an athelete in a championship do or die game series, that is injured, you play thru the pain. As Carly Simon sang bird like, you “Haven’t Got Time For The Pain.” When the calendar in the farm house kitchen reminds you a storm called planting and harvest seasons have hit, you pick it up a notch. To get the process started, the seeds in the ground because there is a climate growing season clock ticking. And that mature crop of plants put away for the winter, or sold as field run out of the back end of your harvest operation.

    I blog a lot on a 180,000 +/- member real estate industry platform called Activerain. My job to promote the properties in Maine I list but also point out why I like living here. Why the potential real estate buyer looking for Maine property, liking the low low prices will be happy here too. The new servers of Activerain are not dialed in, performing like a spinning top. Yet. And as the glitch causes an interruption in service, it is interesting to see the reaction of the AR natives. Some take it in stride, work around the burps, hitches, cyber potholes. Other take it personal and want the world to know how frustrated they are. I am glad I don’t feel the need to vent and stay patient. Do the best I can and keep moving.

    For starters, the Activerain site should not be the end all marketing device for real estate.

    Like the long scull boats, some that have many pairs of rowers, you need to be using, feeding lots of blogs, video, social media, website platforms to get the message out.

    Fall back to another member of the team. Lean on other avenues that convey the message, broadcast in a slightly different nuance, approach, signal. Tiger Woods has more than a putter in his bag to get around the course, to win the golf competition.

    I think the Activerain server seizure, fits and starts as the server gets replaced may not bother me so much because of being raised on a Maine potato farm. I know what lean years feel like, how dependent on the weather a farmer’s family is. Making equipment do, last, extend with duct tape, bailing twine, haywire and a spot weld way way beyond the wear and tear it was designed for is how we kept that family farm. Thru thick and thin. Be tough skinned, tender hearted and roll with it. Deal with it. Never lose sight of the target, the mission, the day to day path thru the woods. Remembering lots of miles to cover before you sleep tonight. Getting bogged down, having a melt down takes too much out of your, hurts production, loses the championship game and makes you not fun to be around.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • “Heading To Maine, Bought A Waterfront Cottage On Grand Lake.”

    The Outdoor Entertainment Of Being On A Maine Lake, The Ocean, Something Connected To Waterfront.
    The Outdoor Entertainment Of Being On A Maine Lake, The Ocean, Something Connected To Waterfront.

    If you owned a Maine waterfront property, wouldn’t getting excited about the next three day weekend stretched in to four days to be on an open deck over looking a lake be therapeutic, healthy?

    To change up the scenery where you live now? Not to mention the advantages to owning a second home, a vacation place in Maine you could rent out carefully. Maybe you have been renting for the last few years. Think of the money someone has benefited from in your stay and you did not trash the place, make it look like a Stephen King movie was staged there.

    Maine waterfront can mean property on the ocean, a lake, river, stream or pond. There is something about water like an open fire that attracts. Maybe it gives off positive ions like the blaze in the fireplace or outdoor pit you gaze in to. Detaching and catching up with yourself in your busy life.

    Your kids splashing, fishing, learning to swim, sail and the nightly summer talks on the deck, grilled feasts are another reason. Maine waterfront is the best investment, the one you will have the most fun with. And appreciation?

    Well, more than one person has smiled and uttered the observation that “they are not making any more Maine waterfront real estate.”

    Your only homework is to figure out the monthly budget and to factor in if you owned a Maine waterfront property in this, this or this price range. You can do it and know years down the road will look back and kick yourself if you don’t. The time is right, here is an A-Z of properties in Maine, waterfront real estate from A-Z. And if this list does not quite do it, let us know your requirements, price range and I’ll tap in to our Maine MLS cookie car of ME waterfront real estate to help in the search. Here is an example of a place on 120 Butterfield Landing in Weston Maine for $159,900 with 110′ frontage on Grand Lake.

    Or another spot, a video to watch on the Maine waterfront, 26 Sandy Beach Road, Danforth Maine. Or a Linneus Maine log lake home video.

    Waterfront in Maine, lakeshore properties, you know it’s what the doctor ordered. To show down, smell the flowers, catch some fish, get new scenery and shake up your day to day routine. While you can.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine, Maybe That’s The Ringing You Hear In Your Head.

    Bail Of Where You Live Now, Relocate To Northern Maine, And Watch Your Health, Attitude Improve.
    Bail Of Where You Live Now, Relocate To Northern Maine, And Watch Your Health, Attitude Improve.

    Time to move from where you live now to Maine.

    If you have a ringing in your head that is not going away, and is getting louder, maybe if you listen closely you hear the distinct word “Maine”. If you can not sleep and the high pitch humming, ringing, buzzing, headaches and depression, mood swings, testiness, increasing state of anxiety is beyond a concern, maybe where you live is the reason for it all.

    Maybe nothing medically is wrong, but geographical you are experiencing urban sprawl, over development. Or just live in fear of gangs, numbed by the news of non stop stories each night about kidnapping, drive by shootings, crime on the upswing.

    Maine is the 4th lowest crime state. Aroostook County where I live is half of that pretty stellar crime statistic again.

    Why? Simple. Way way less people, more open space and all around elbow room. You jam rats in a small area and step back, watch how they behave. Same dynamic. Or it’s like you become a bear living with one, or two many in tight quarters. Man, the machine was not designed for cities, tight spaces, a corosive or hostile environment.

    Second reason for low crime, keys left in the vehicles parked in the yards is local Mainers work hard for all they have. They are proud of, brought up to respect the value of that hard work. The items you, anyone buy with that hard earned money and sacrifice. Don’t waste resources..yours, mine, anyone’s. Period. Basic, black and white pride of ownership, the way we roll. And not wanting to have someone trash your personal property and returning the same favor of leaving something not yours alone. Or even protecting it and getting involved if something does not look quite right at your neighbor’s down the road. Get a plate number, make a call. Even go up to the property, confronting the out of state vehicle at Mr Jone’s hunting camp with 100 acres to the south of you. We ask the guy what’s up, are you a friend of Mr Jone’s and hear the story, the yarn spun. See if his breathing increases, his eyes avoid contact with our own. Decide whether a call to the Maine state police or local sheriff, police department is in order. We have the neighbor out of state on cellular speed dial and the property owner appreciates the keeping a look out for something strange, out of place at their property.

    Pretty hard to beat the natural four season beauty of Maine, the sense of personal safety and that your property won’t get tampered with, anything stolen after a break in.

    So back to the ringing, the just not feeling your self these days. Get pure, real relief in Maine. Less noise of traffic, industry, more sounds of nature. Wind in the pines. Birds chirping happily on a sunshine rich day. Loons singing or crying depending on your perspective or their mood at the time on a Maine lake under a brilliant, intensed dotted black velvet fabric with more stars than you ever knew were overhead. What you have been missing due to all that light and air pollution where you call home now. The place that no longer is the neat little burg you moved to twenty years or more ago. Time to move, relocate.

    Maine, that’s the voice in your head, the sound being made inside. The volume increasing between your ears because you body is unhappy you are just not taking the cue to vamoos.

    Ask me about low cost Maine real estate on a lake, river for full or part time recreational use. Get healthy, get to Maine, the way life should be. Watch the Maine videos of local events and see what you are missing out on in so many ways, so many levels of your life.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Building On A Maine Lake, Waterfront Shoreland Zoning Do’s, Don’ts, Regulations.

    Arsenic Treated Decks, Soil Erosions, Not Situations Maine Lakes Enjoy, Are Happy About.
    Arsenic Treated Decks, Soil Erosions, Not Situations Maine Lakes Enjoy, Are Happy About.

    I remember when shoreland zoning in Maine was first tightening up, getting serious about protecting lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, the ocean and wetland here in Vacationland. 1972 was a magic date for setting up the rules, shoreland in Maine regulations.

    About the same time minimum lot sizes, plumbing codes got beefed up and what you could do or not do around a Maine lake was discussed, hashed out, put on paper, kicked in to law.

    Maine’s shoreland zoning administered by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection Agency (DEP), the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC), and local towns themselves around the waterbodies actually made the process of development around Maine’s lakes, rivers, etc streamlined. Defined, so that inconsistencies and lots of local hub bub, hooplah is lessened. Don’t get me wrong, there is always the guy who back in the 1960’s cleared the rocks 20 feet out in front of the lake cottage he has in Maine with a farm tractor, a back hoe. Creating a giant mud, silt plume and disturbing the shoreline, the natural balace of the vegetation, wildlife along that beach front. Man made and played with. I remember a local cottage owner being spotted from the air by local Maine environmental authorities and he was the first example publically brought to task when returning to the “beach front improvement” on his own, sans permits or permission. His defense that for years he had done this, this and this. Not anymore sailor.

    For a time the penalty for over removal within the first 75 and then 100 feet of the shoreline along a Maine waterbody, the waterfront was replanting in more strategic spots, a small fine.

    I remember a local real estate buyers on Grand Lake in Danforth Maine saying with a smile, I got rid of the trees obstructing the view and put the same number back in but where I wanted them and only a small fine.

    Now shorelines on many lakes have been videoed and local lake association in Maine watch, protect, police the property development around those lakes, ponds, etc. Giving the waterfront property in Maine to your kids, the next generation in as good or better shape or condition is the basis of stewardship. Respect for a lake, and selfishly protecting the value of that Maine waterfront property, the investment.

    Expansion of no more than 30% of the original footprint and how to calculate it because a thorn, and subject to lengthy debates on little Maine lake, ponds, rivers, oceanfront, etc. Local code enforcement officers that in a small rural in nature, population state like Maine assumed the helm of many towns on a part time, shared basis. Keeping up with Maine shoreland zoning regulations, changes for a one man or one woman small town office and its selectmen was overwhelming. In many cases these muncipal jobs held on a part time basis. And because of the friction and being the lake police so to speak, the burn out factor to keep track of violations, like whether that new deck is bigger than the one on the old Maine cottage. Or now, or ever did that original camp even have a deck becomes the day to day buzz around these small town offices. 250′ feet back from the waterfrontage is the shoreland zoning extra protection zone in Maine.

    I am president of the Drews Lake Property Owners Association, a member of the Maine Congress of Lakes Assocation and enjoy keeping local lakes clean, free of milfoil, protected from soil erosion and silt that chokes fish. If you were a Maine lake, could talk, you would gurgle a reminder that you and your buddies hate lawns. Weed and feed and competition for who’s lawn is the greenest, most golf course like means phosphorous, fertilizer heading in to the lake, causing algae blooms, lots of vegetation and weeds growing out front in the water in places where you never had vegetation before. Ground water run off from your lot is not suppose to race to the lake, picking up silt and debris, causing erosion along the way either. Lakes hate lawns. So do the wildlife that we here first but that will leave, disappear if the Maine waterfront resource is not protected, preserved.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

    207.532.6573

    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Land In Maine, With Less People, The Prices To Buy Are So Low, Under Valued.

    Low Cost Maine Land, You Can Find It In Northern Maine, Aroostook County.
    Low Cost Maine Land, You Can Find It In Northern Maine, Aroostook County.

    Land in Maine, it is one big state and to me a sleeping giant, with low cost acreage options available to buy a lot of land for very little money.

    The old adage to buy low, sell high applies to any comodity. Maine land in my opinion is way under valued. When you consider what the same land is selling for just a few miles across the Maine border crossing in New Brunswick Canada, you stratch your head. To buy prime farm land for $1000 an acre or less in Maine gets your attention. When to get the land a few miles east in Canada is $5000 per acre and higher for the same quantity property type.

    Or the same sticker shock happens the further south you go as you tool down interstate 95 out of Houlton Maine, Aroostook County.

    Another concern is food costs in this country that always had a cheap food policy..at least from the farmers growing it point of view. Where our food comes from, what it costs is becoming more of a concern healthwise, financially.

    Add to the equation that many folks that work hard for their money do not like to just hand it over to a stock broker these days. Too many CEO’s and corporate giants have been hauled up court house steps on the nightly news charged with a violations laundry list eroding the investor confidence to all time lows.

    Consider too the fun, serious outdoor recreational options Maine land offers and the decision to buy is a no brainer. From an acre for $3490 up to hundreds of acres, in Maine there is plenty of property to go around no matter what the size of the wallet you sit on. Scope out our Maine land buffet. Or consider this 200 Maine waterfront acres on river, stream too for in the $90’s! Recreational land, back woodlots are even cheaper per acre, down to the $500 per acre averages.

    Maine, land is here to tramp, dream about, use on vacations or for full time relocation, retirement.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Apartment House Rental Deposit, What About Getting It Back?

    Like Picking Maine Potatoes, Any Money Earned Is Carefully Spent. What Happens To No Returned Maine Rental Security Deposits?
    Like Picking Maine Potatoes, Any Money Earned Is Carefully Spent. What Happens To No Returned Maine Rental Security Deposits?

    How precious is that security of a month in advance in the Maine rental agreement you scribble your name on a while back as the renter?

    Your security deposit on your Maine home, rental house apartment was supposed to be put in to a special account, interest bearing to accrue to you too. Did the landlord do that?

    And when you move, assuming no damage beyond normal wear and tear, or lack of last month’s payment in full or proration, you want the deposit and interest made back right? What happens if the property owner, Maine landlord does not give all or a portion back?

    Well if he or she, the Maine landlord does not give you in writing notice within 21 days that you won’t be getting back some or all of the deposit due to an outlined list of damages and reasons why, things get dicey.

    Triple the deposit damages and having to pay the renter’s reasonable attorneys fees to recover it thru the Maine court system is what happens. Being a landlord has lots of responsibilities, tasks, laws that go with it on top of smoke and co2 dedector legislation that got beefed up, going in to force a few months back in Maine. Read more about rental laws in Maine, security deposits, and be up to date.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com