Polio plus Rotary International program and Maine.
The World wide efforts to eradicate polio continue. The polio plus push to rid the planet of the crippling disease started in 1985.
In the US, in 1975, almost 6,000 cases of paralyzing polio were reported. By 1994, the US was the first world country to report no new cases of polio.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are currently the only two countries with cases of wild type 1 polio.
In 1952, polio in the US peaked at over 20,000 cases. Hospital wards in this country were full of respirators to help paralyzed people’s breathing. Back in the 1980’s my local Houlton Maine Rotary club stepped up donations to polio plus.
This past week, the Temple Cinema movie theatre splashed a special free showing of the movie “Breathe” on the silver screen.
Free popcorn, soda and with a polio plus donation, movie goers also received a purple pinkie roll in the ink.
All to increase awareness. To show others you care about the polio plus program. and increase awareness.
Do you know anyone in Maine affected by the polio virus? Our past polio chairman felt strongly about polio plus because his brother in law contracted it. More to explore on ending polio.
Are we all clear for polio outbreak cases in the US?
Sadly No. In 2022 in New York’s Rockland County an unvaccinated man contracted the paralyzing polio virus infection. Children under 5 years of age one of polio’s biggest targets. Vaccination is the best way to protect again contracting polio.
Frequent handwashing, especially after bathroom visits and after changing diapers is key too. Children receive does of the polio vaccine by mouth.
More on ending polio and how you can help donate and become better informed about the paralyzing disease.
End Polio, Rotary Polio Plus Prevention Education
What are other countries doing to increase polio plus awareness? Lots. The link.
Are you member of your local Rotary club? I know the clubs in my Rotary district do an awfully lot of good locally, Worldwide too. When I look around the local Northern Maine area I can see so many things that would never have happened without Rotarians joining forces to get it down collectively. One person can do a lot but many people can get even more down working together.
Grab A Partner To Canoe River Race In Maine. Kayaks, Paddle Boards Welcome Too!
Everyone wants to come to Maine for outdoor recreation fun. But how does the state of Maine revenue tax folks look at your AirBnB, Vrbo or Craigslist etc vacation rental income.? Toying with renting out your private Maine vacation property?
This blog post about owner rules and regulations renting out Maine vacation property.
Not using your Maine lake cottage or downhill ski chalet and thinking why not rent it out for a few weeks? Sure would help pay the property taxes, the cost of insurance, maintenance and mortgage payments right?
Allowing others to stay, rent your cottage in Maine?
Casual Maine vacation rentals, what’s involved tax wise ? As a property owner you are in this group if letting other Maine vacationers stay at your place for 15 days a year or less.
What To Do For Fun Up In Maine On Your Short Term Rental Vacation?
You need to register, pay into the Maine revenue service . It amounts to 9% of the combined listing rental price and the on top cleaning and any guest fees.
Short term vacation renters are under fifteen days, long stays rentals considered 28 a days a year or more.
The words “Maine” and “Vacationland” are interchangeable but the state only has a handful of cities, 450 small town communities or plantations.
The major tourist traps, er I mean venues have local requirements. The bulk of the state’s lesser known tapped into vacation hot spots do not. The rental lone arranger operator has to get a permit too for your AirBnB, Vrbo, Craiglist property listing.
Agriculture, Farm Food Grown Close To Home, Locally Sourced Is The Best Tasting. Want To Homestead In Maine?
So moving on to what other tips to share in whatever length vacation rental in Maine, here are some top considerations.
Like any vacation rental property, you need money in advance to assure payment for the stay and a security deposit to cover damages. Standard cleaning fees can be added on to the vacation stay charge.
Clear as a bell, spelled out conditions of the stay help misunderstanding or legal remedies from happening.
Check out time is noon on Saturday at the Maine vacation rental property for example.
Small Town Living In Maine. Means Trail Rides With Your Family And Friends. Want To Vacation In Maine?
Much like the way a cruise ship whisks you off the floating vacation experience with steady pressure and amazing efficiency, your little one, two or more bedroom private hotel needs a procedure.
Check in time is 4PM in large bold print in several places avoids the needless calls asking when it is over and over. Also avoids chance of guests arriving and interfering with other happy camper stays or the housekeeping staff doing their tasks.
It’s like after last call and the bright lights come on and someone says “We don’t care where you go but you can’t stay here no more no more no more”. You the property rental owner want a good review to help attract more happy campers. Their friends on social media see and reach out because of what they like shared around the channels everyone haunts.
What you See On Maine Winter Recreation Trails. Wildlife, Scenery, A Bald Eagle, Moose. Like To Rent Out Your Maine Rec Camp Or Cottage Or Home?
Maine is a returnable bottle state but where does the property owner want those containers put? Bins for bottles and cans can generate funding raising help for a local Maine small town cause. Where do you want the vacationer to stash their beer suitcases, wine or pizza boxes?
Renting out your property for someone’s vacation use? Makes you nervous?
What to do for fun on vacation in Maine?
As a local insider who knows your way around the lay of the land “inn keeper”, put the suggestions in a loose leave binder. Have the tourist information brochures in a rack, local eatery lists with their menus.
River Rafting In Maine. Hang On, Paddle Hard, You Will Get Wet. Vacations In Maine Might Involve A Watery River Raft Ride.
Farmer’s markets, musical events, museums, rec trails to hike and bike, public landing waterways to access.
The what to expect for costs to activities all part of the neighborly hospitality.
Make your short term rental property user feel like they are getting more than just lodging accommodations and all the fringe benefits. Where the locals go for this and that.
The best family day trips, go here for fishing and hunting spots, pizza, burgers, steaks, seafood, dairy and pub style bar lubrications and panoramic photo moments.
Small Town Living In Maine, What’s Like? Home Made, Local Talent, Volunteers Pitching In.
For a family with kids, cottages for rent near amusement parks, go carts, carnival rides could be attractive.
But for an older couple, you want the total opposite. Who is the target audience for renting your vacation property in Maine?
Invite your lodging guests to local venues they might not be aware of that locals enjoy. Check out the three golf courses or ski areas here on the map. Help yourself to the corn hole and board games. Try your hand tossing iron trying to get ringers down at the horseshoe pits.
Personal recommendations and tourist information goes a long ways in helping your vacationer or extended stay resident feel right at home.
There’s a rope swing on this lake the kids will like.
Use the kayaks and canoe down at the shore, the gas grill on the open deck. Everyone coming to Maine wants to see a moose. Hear a lake loon or two. Where are the best odds for that near your Maine rental property location?
What a great picnic locations to enjoy the natural beauty of Maine while you munch on a chicken salad sandwich or crunch cucumbers, an hand picked wild apple or raspberries, blueberries, field strawberries? Know of any local community potluck suppers tonight?
Traveling Instate Maine To Enjoy Mini Vacations. Easy When You Already Live In Maine.
Many in the Maine tourist crowd want lobster and fresh Maine seafood.
A slice of wild Maine blueberry pie or fresh picked dish of strawberries or raspberries.
The video and media displays to share on social media promotion for your “home away from home” must have digital links.
Tap Your Toe, Sing Along. Music Made Locally And Live Is Huge In Maine Communities.
Maps to help your short term property user get out, about, there and back with ease erases worry or confusion. To anything and everything about what to do for fun on vacation up in Maine. To this particular corner of Maine.
Post the snowmobile and four wheeler ATV maps on the wall with the circled “you are here” X marks the spot.
Three reasons for the give your guests fun tip suggestions in the area around the Maine vacation property rental.
One, you are an ambassador to your state of Maine, county and local community. You are proud of your piece of ME and don’t hesitate to toot the horn on what the vacation day trip options are.
The local history of your part of Maine. Share it and help promote the pride and excitement. Immerse your traveler into everything local. You don’t get the spirit of the area staying a few days at a franchise motel by an interstate truck stop.
Anything On The Maine Waterfront Is A Popular Real Estate Search. Hot Temps Help Fuel That Market Segment. Want To Rent One?
Make the overnight, multi day experience better for your guest vacation up in Maine.
Two, while your rental vacation guests are out of the property or out on the waterfront it might be parked next to, less wear and tear happens. The neat thing about rental properties is the folks who pay for their week of heaven up in Maine are moving around sampling it.
Help them know what there are for entertainment or dining options to enhance their stay at your Maine rental property.
In small rural Maine vacation destinations, not everything appears on a glossing four color tri fold tourist brochure.
Pot Luck Suppers In Maine, Using Natural Ingredients.
The social media splash for things to do for fun in small Maine towns is what is shared online for reviews.
The images and videos tourist in Maine on vacation post get a lot of eye ball and ear drum impressions on the social media grapevines.
Help feed those channels. Local merchants, non profit museums and clubs will thanks you for the media exposure too.
Every local Mainer tries to protect their community and regional economy. Each vacation tourist dollar in Maine turns over six to seven times and helps all of the locals living here in Vacationland year round.
The Bigger The Maine Home, The Greater The Cost Heating / Cooling It!
The third reason to share the fun around your neat Maine vacation rental is for repeat visits. The online reviews, photos, video clips. The same people rent the same week at the same vacation property. Why?
Whoever stays at your place leaves wonderful reviews or never returns for one or many reasons. They had fun thanks to your neat, clean, affordable accommodations. And your helpful showing them around to assure they have a memory making experience worth repeating.
Your board games, photo albums, maps, lists of locals to call for goods and services are valuable to your out of town or state or country house guests.
Or if no advance information or help to know what to do after they arrive on vacation is provided, the property renter’s expectations were not met. No one wants a lousy review about an AirBnB or Vrbo property in an area you are proud of right?
Maine, The Way Life Should Be! Welcome To Vacationland! Common Sense Still Used In Our Daily Life. Not Outdated.
It’s the little things in your hired out personal lodging to make some extra money and provide additional area Maine rental income housing.
Get your Maine vacation renter up to speed, feeling like they know a thing or two about your area. The more they feel like they right at home and things are familiar, more higher quality relaxation happens. Hey look, a bottle of Frank’s hot sauce. Don’t have to buy salt, pepper and there’s a Keurig coffee machine.
Blueberries For Sal, Don Fendler’s Lost On Mt Kathadin, local Maine eye candy photography surf and turf books.
Splay them around the wire spool coffee table just so. Your wall art, magazines, loose leaf binders with how to have a super vacation in Maine.
How you decorate the simple or ooh la la vacation rental property in Maine considers someone brand new. Not as familiar with where everything is located around your local Maine community. Create the experience so they never forget what it was like up in Maine.
Tight Corners, Out On The Open Asphalt Go Cart Track. Welcome To Coastal Maine’s Attractions.
Give them something Maine four season outdoors or inspirational to remember their vacation.
Self help books and exercise healthier living in Maine equipment make your guest feel you do genuinely give a hoot about them. That they can help yourself because you trusted them with the key to a property you are proud to share.
Maine. Fresh air, clean water, no crowds, one of a kind all natural.
The Portland Seadogs Baseball Team Plays Home Games At Hacklock Field, Portland ME.
The vacation property can be an ideal extended stay, something besides a small same old local motel rental option when no vacancy happens.
Make sure your insurance policy covers vacation rentals and what inspections need in place to comply with the coverage rules, regulations, regulations. Safety first and last. Deck railing strong enough to protect your camper from leaning back and ending out in the pucker brush beside your lake property?
A visit to the local ER is not the recreational fun your Maine lodging guest signed up for right?
Have gas grills, kayaks, a couple bikes, binoculars or outdoor recreation tools and toys help your vacation renter enjoy added conveniences. And not need to pack a lot of extra bulky stuff on top of the Pinto or piled high on the trailer hitch tray on their old school International Scout.
The Coastal Fishing Zones That Slice & Dice Maine’s Craggy, Rock Bound Coastline.
Lastly, how many occupants in what you let the World consider renting for Maine vacations or extended stays? You don’t want three families horsing around and the added stress on your septic system. And using the place like Animal House community center.
I list, sell, manage and own waterfront properties and a rural farm rentals in Maine. The repeat, already know what you have property renters are trained and start to feel like your place is their own. It is or should feel like that if you go above and beyond to partner up to assure your property user you care about them.
The cottage, camp, timeshare vacation property renter appreciates the red carpet VIP local welcome to my hometown treatment.
The place to rent in Maine has to be clean, tidy and maybe run to a higher standard of housekeeping than where you call your real home.
Front Row, First Class Seating On The Maine Coast. Borders Little Machias Bay Downeast Maine.
If one burner only works on your cook stove. When the refrigerator spoils food due to can’t keep the temperature cool. Substandard conditions with real and personal property at your vacation property rental means bad reviews, no returns from the same lodging guests.
Same rules apply to rental properties in Maine that long term owners face.
Like an apartment house, what tenant are you after? One that trashes the place or treats it with pride and respect?
Do the neighboring owners thank or dislike you for all these crazy partying tenants?
More than the square footage or septic system was designed for chasing the almighty dollar? Was there value for the monetary exchange? What price point are you going after in your vacation property rental market? Does the place measure up as a value or someone feels short changed?
“The Starting Line Ups… For The Huskies, The ME Black Bears Tonight….”
Wouldn’t you want to return and spread the word back home about where you spend your Maine vacations if you have a great time?
Does the leave a comment or list some of your experiences on vacation book on the kitchen table show everyone had fun?
All people vacation differently due to interest, mobility, budget. Just sunrises, sunsets, a camp fire with a circle of lawn chairs. Gazing out over the wooded mountainside, rolling farm fields, the sparkling waterfront.
Paddling or swimming on a Maine lake or pond is enough for some.
Others want to know is there a casino, head to the water hole bars. Can you tell me Mister Host or Hostess is there an outdoor movie theatre, places with pulled pork and fish tacos or boiled lobster, maybe steamed clams, mussels or oysters.
Wildlife, Moose, Deer, Black Bear, Not People. What It’s Like Upta Camp In Maine.
Always what are we going to do for fun today depends on the weather forecast.
Your current guests in turn return the favor for the next ones. Everyone uses your what to do for fun in Maine vacation suggestions. And who knows, if they like it that much, let’s look over the vacation property listings and buy our own.
Who would you use for that search, comparison shopping to purchase a Maine real estate vacation property to enjoy and maybe rent out carefully?
Log Cabin, Cheap Maine Vacation. All You Need Is Your Own Place, A Camp.
Hope these blog tips on short term casual vacation rentals in Maine provided something you can use.
You probably have booked, stayed and enjoyed a few AirBnB or Vrbo rental properties to write down the list.
What did you like that your lodging guest would too? Questions? Thinking of investing in a vacation property in Maine of your own? To use a little until you retire but enjoy rental income to pay it off? Hardworking Maine real estate vacation properties from simple cabins to way way more plus everything in between.
Reach out, here to help find vacation rentals in Maine to lease out or even buy!
Think one Maine beach is pretty much like another up here in Vacationland?
Life Is A Beach Right? A Maine Beach Like Goose Rocks, Fortune Rocks in Kennebunkport ME!
Like people, soils, Maine beaches are different.
No the same. It’s not just the color and quality of the beach sand. It’s more than the amount of Maine beach frontage. The take away experience of any Maine beach is the way it is developed.
Goose Rock Beach in Maine is three miles long.
Whoa. That’s is one long stretch of Maine coast beach sand. Spacing is what hits you first blush with Goose Rock Beach in Maine.
Maine Coastal Beaches. Pretty Rare, Very Pricey. Goose Rock, Fortune Rock Beach A Great Investment. You Have To Wait For New Real Estate Listings.
The quaintness of the cottage and beach homes feels like a step back into time.
Vacationing up in Maine. Simplicity, well kept and quiet unlike wall to wall tourists when there are times where you feel you can not move. Or like you share the Maine beach with too many tourists and the resources are over taxed.
Going there as a young girl with her family for two week summer stints. We take yearly trips to Wells Beach continuing the tradition.
But the more time you spend in your “happy place” home away from home up in Maine, you branch out and explore. Really get to know a region of Maine and what is around it. Meg’s mom, sister Jessica went for a ride to seriously scope out nooks and crannies around Wells Beach Maine. All the kids and Meg had gone to Saco’s waterpark Fun Town Splash Town.
The Colors Of Maine Coastal Properties. Some Areas Just Gray, Tan, White And Weather Natural Shingle. Others Dare To Splash Brighter Paint Colors.
Goose Rock Beach was discovered and a return trip this past weekend felt like Wells Beach but transported back in time to the 1940’s, 1950’s period.
Prince Edward Island Canada can hit you with a similar feeling of nostalgia.
Anne Of Green Gables Home, Where The Red Pig Tailed Eleven Year Old Grew Up On A PEI Canadian Maritime Farm.
So Goose Rock Beach, what did we learn about this beach section of Kennbunkport, Maine?
(Sound of Maine map crinkling, unfolding.) Kennebunk and Kennebunkport are not one place.
Cape Porpoise is a section of Kennebunkport, Maine.
Fortune Rock Beach is in Biddeford, Maine is to the north, Wells Beach is to the south. Got your bearings yet? And you and I have not moved into all the islands off this section of Maine coast.
The woods and water for solitude in Maine have their own reward. Parked lakeside in Maine hits the soul. Waling a sandy beach or rocky shoreline with sea air and breeze. Hiking to the top of a mountain trail hits you deeply as you gaze out from peak perch.
There is nothing to compare with the Maine coastal beach sand, and rolling Atlantic Ocean waves in the “lobstah” state.
Fish Fresh From The Maine Coastal Sea. Barnacle Billy’s Crew Ham It Up For Tourists. J’s Oyster Fun Tasty Place to Sample Seafood In Old Port Too!
Part of it is more than the natural beauty setting. Add in the fresh seafood harvested fresh and local from deep blue and green water out front. And how hard the local property owners work to preserve and protect their piece of the Maine beach.
But underneath it all is like the trek to the Holy land. A deep spiritual emotion that wells up inside a person. Positioned near, on or in view the Maine ocean beach location for many is a mix of tradition, fond family memories.
The salt air, sea breeze, lobster boats, schooner sails and refreshing cold Maine coastal water provide life clarity.
Maine Coastal Beaches… Pick You Patch Of Sand. There’s Plenty.
Planning a vacation to Maine? Or live in Maine and looking for an instate getaway? Hope the travels around Maine posted on this Me In Maine blog post channel help provide suggestions you can use.
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.
Little things, like scotcharoos and whoopie pies pasted down family recipes. The tray you need to return when empty that came filled with cinnamon buns, yeast rolls, flaky biscuits, fruit explosion squares. Anything homemade not store bought off the shelves is pretty popular on the local level of wherever you live in small town Maine. When one by one the local Maine community steps up to create the signature dish everyone asks for in their family. That gets put on the local fundraising stage to raise money for another worthwhile cause.
Meet Your Maine Neighbors, Kinda Shy, Have Four Legs Instead Of Two.
Maine simple living is all about hand crafted from home made in the kitchen food goodies.
Hit ’em in the stomach is not a cheap shot and always works best for fund raising. For providing the covered dish dropped off with heating instructions for tonight’s meal for someone sick or on the mend. To help out the family hold down the daily routine with aid from others out in the community.
All those built from hand crafted home made in Maine scratch items not mass produced from China that are not available from Amazon, Overstock or Ebay cyber storefronts.
Just got off a Facebook silent auction for donated food items and local business service certificates raising money for a local Maine school project graduation. Handcrafted home made in Maine. The wildlife already know those wild apples, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, black berry naturally made by Mother Nature Maine snacks.
Winter Wonderland Walking In The Maine Star Filled Moonlight. Everything Sugar Dusted, Pure White Snow Coated.
The value goes up when you know the Maine chef or cook.
When there is a local cause attached in the fund raising it takes the bidding to a whole new level. COVID has made many forced to retreat and retrench in their own homes to spend more time in their kitchen. Exploring and discovering the joy of cooking. That only doubles and triples when what is created with your own two hands is used as a local fundraising merchandise.
The beautiful hand knit wood mittens with matching scarf and hat.
The by hand not a long arm loom quilt that is one of a kind special. The time to create whatever is given away makes the bidder after it appreciate the quality and value even more when you know the creator. The pie of your choice made especially for you the high bidder tastes even sweeter when you have met the cook.
Maine Hand Crafted, Home Made Outdoor Experiences. Like To Cross Country Ski?
Living in Maine is a lot about home grown, hand crafted do it yourself approach to everything around you.
Part of it is the satisfaction of creating it yourself. Another reason is don’t turn to the wallet or open up the purse to just pay for something when you could make some just as good or better without the swipe of a credit card.
Reaching into your pocket for the money to buy something makes the point of purchase a lot more real.
The pain of letting go of hard earned funds at the time of money exchange can help develop spending impulse control. To wait and see if a better deal comes along. Or is this a momentary gotta have it or just want it need? More on frugal living in Maine.
Every Christmas season my mom would create the largest array of home made pies, pastries, cookies and delicious morsels. Confectionery sugar involved, lots of green and red colors versions of the natural sweetener used liberally.
Handcrafted home made in Maine. Mocca balls rolled in coconut. Star and Christmas tree shaped butter cookies decorated with grandchildren helping supply the icing artwork. Divinity white, chocolate and peanut butter fudge cut in cubes. Peanut brittle tucked on the plate like stacked puzzle pieces. The smaller the Maine town the better the way the locals treated others out in the community.
Date and raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, peach, lemon flavored oatmeal and molasses cookies.
The kind you don’t see racked and stacked with the Keebler or Nabisco or generic store brand association. Where no two are exactly the same shape but all are unique handcrafted home made tasty melt in your mouth creations.
One of a kind and the special freshly prepared Christmas holiday platters created slowly and plastic wrapped or hidden in protected decorative tins.
Whoever got one of the Christmas doses of home made cookies made in the Maine farmhouse kitchen pantry appreciated them. Felt among the privileged. Those delectables became Christmas tradition for the cook and the receivers. Mom AKA Nana is gone. But the mental sight of her in her Christmas pattern apron. All those years worth’s of holiday memories seeing her create holiday magic in the Maine farmhouse pantry kitchen. What she distributed town wide lives is sadly missed.
Photos taken in some corner of Maine and placed in special frames.
Wrapped in tissue paper of red, green and white to drag out the opening the ribbon and bows to see what was inside. Someone took the time to create the gift. The ones opened up, dug into and enjoyed surrounded by the trappings of Christmas bright lights, pretty shiny bows and ribbons.
Like the person created card that goes with handcrafted home made in Maine not plucked from a Hallmark revolving metal rack or long row of expensive mass produced sentiments.
Maine setting seasonal photos with or without loved ones in them are special items to create and wrap for under the tree gift giving.
Slow cooked and from the heart always leaves the last minute store bought experience in the dust. It stands out and shows someone really cares and went the home made put on the kitchen apron route.
Or worked days with the finding just the right yard and pattern to pearl one, knit two something to match a coat. Care and attention increases your admiration for someone and boosts the real value of the treasure gifted. When the recipient of the gift is an elderly lives alone neighbor, family member or friend, what’s offered can have no nutritional value. But instead is a cord of wood cut, split and delivered for the kitchen or cellar heater stove. Or IOU to bank the house for winter, to be the handyman to hammer away at new steps, inside home repairs.
Fresh Maine Snow Covered A Local Christmas Tree Lit Up And Not Cut Down Kept Alive In The Winter Yard.
Local Maine communities help those who live within the small town boundaries.
We struggle, maintain and triumph together. And when a COVID19 happens, it is not so hard an adjustment. You quickly shift gears and know what to do. Help others. It makes the kettle bell ringing for the Salvation Army cause even more important. Bundle up, head outside and help raise funds for those who need it most.
I think hardships endured growing up make your more resilient and resourceful.
You have a wealth of experiences to draw from to know your job when a crisis hits a Maine community. Instead of hand wringing or whining or blaming someone, we get to work. Chiseling out a solution and the work around to do the best we can to not just get to the other side. But to quickly see the best course of action in our day to day to conquer the obstacle life setback.
We rely on the handcrafted and home made in Maine that is dependable and will last. There when you need it lasting if you just respect and take care of it. Knowing money comes hard for you and other. To dash out and replace things is not the way to slash and burn, eat drink and be merry in Maine.
Plowing, shoveling out the yard and steps of a neighbor. Mowing their lawn, asking if they need anything at the local grocery store. All those behind the scenes private gestures in a small Maine town are just what people do.
This sense of community and helping is one of the many attractions to living in Maine.
Had a lady call me this morning from Morrill Maine who moved there from Long Island, NY about fifteen years ago. She said she was looking for a land investment and surfing the net to discover new areas of Maine to make it. I asked her isn’t Long Island NY known for its large potato farms.
She said it was and how it broke down was in the south fork of Long Island you had your Hamptons and rich hoity toity blue bloods. In the south fork we the poor as church mice Puritans and that did the farming. Until everything got developed as the property taxes drove the farming operations out and one by one there go the vineyards too. Replaced with McMansions and commercial developments.
This woman wants a 100 acres in Northern Maine to raise some critters.
Shifting her focus from horses to cows. And buying the Maine land investment as a hedge, as a vacation place. And because she feels her area of Maine is changing. She told me a friend told her Maine does not really start until you hit the Kennebec River and above.
The desire to Maine farmland to homestead and not just for vacation use for fishing and hunting is increasing. Not folks wanting to wrangle large sprawling Maine farm operations but that desire to just grow what they consume. Peddle a little bid of the excess to keep the wolf with the bills away from their door. While back home on the farmstead the buildings are one by one handcrafted and home made in Maine constructed DIY style. Pay as you go rather than saddled with a 30 or longer year mortgage attached to the Maine farm property lifestyle.
A better way, saner way and healthier way of simple living in Maine is catching on.
COVID has just sharpened the focus on where to live and why as people reflect is it time to move and how about Maine? I hear good things about Maine, that beautiful state larger than all the other New England collection combined. Most of what is here is hand crafted and home made to last.
Here a property you can leave your shoes on and take a peek at what you get if you can see yourself living in Maine.
Picture what life here in Maine would be if you bought this current property real estate listing video.
Maine, like any place it is not for everyone.
But it sure is the perfect fit for many when the timing is right to get while the gettin’ is good. Thinking of Maine a lot more now? Like what you remember from your time in Vacationland during a handful of too short vacations? Want to come, maybe for good or at least half the year in Maine? Instead of where you live now? But suffocating while waiting for answers to red hot burning questions needing to be addressed? The COVID pandemic is easier to side step and avoid catching the virus. No matter if you think you could lick it or not.
Let’s shoot the breeze about Maine weather, what’s it like being a border town with Canada.
Or how many barrels of potatoes I could pick, what are local Maine schools like, anything on your mind needing answers. Crime is the 4th lowest for the country. No we don’t have gangs or drive by shootings. Locked doors, what are those?
Small Pleasures Are the Big Reward. Anything Home Made, That’s Simple Living In Maine.
Here to help and sincerely offer what I do know about Maine as a life long native resident with the inside tract from years of experiences. Thank you for reading this blog post on the little things, like home made Christmas goodie packages exchanged and enjoy this festive time of the year. Nothing compares with handcrafted home made in Maine anything.
Rural living offers lots of perks and you can still take the treks to the population centers to experience whatever is a small town does not offer. Whatever the small population can not support that large urban areas can. But living with the traffic, the crime, the high cost of living is not a daily struggle when you decide to hang your hat in a small rural area.
How’s This For a Back Drop Reading Your Favorite Book In Maine?
So living in a small town in Maine, what it the day to day like?
Well for starters, you feel the connection, you become very aware that you do care about others around you. And the feeling goes both ways. You have an intimate connection, you know the folks you meet on the streets and downtown in a small Maine town. Fewer in number is the population but working with the others who live around you happens. Whether it is through your job, church, school activities or community events. Or sharing the outdoors that Maine rural areas provide as the backdrop to small town living.
So what to prepare for living in a small town in Maine?
You don’t stay isolated, you don’t just attend events or shop and go home. There are lots of opportunities to pitch in, give back and make the small town living experience richer for yourself and others. If you move in from somewhere else, share what you have learned. And respect the local traditions if new to you because you now call home the small town in Maine.
Resist complaining about how life was different where you used to live compared to the small town in Maine. You moved here for a reason. Maybe it was the lake home for vacations that became a retirement property that caused the relocation. Maybe after you retired it was just too darn expensive to stay in the city setting where you used to chase the dollar.
But lack of traffic, no worries about crime, experiencing the bright star filled skies at night that pollution choked out are just a few life adjustments in small town Maine.
Small rural living is safer. Your family has less worries. Less time is spent on the road traveling to and fro. That creates more time for stuff you want to do to enrich your life. Smaller groups mean more intimacy, a stronger connection. You know each other more deeply in small rural towns. You need each other more because look behind you. You are it. Not a lot of competition for the endeavors you are designed perfectly to take on to make your small town living in Maine experience the best it can be.
Teaming The Horses, Working The Land In Maine Farm Fields. Amish Communities Do It Daily Around The State.
Purpose in life, it starts with having a major role in the script. Less change or shake up happening in small town living too. Because change happens slower and the pace of life is sane, predictable, and friendly. When you shop for groceries, go to the movies, pick up the local paper, you know the folks you meet and read about and their families.
When something happens, a fire, someone has cancer treatments ahead, folks turn out ten fold in small Maine towns.
It could be them needing the helping hand. There is a sense of responsibility to others and deep pride in the local community. Because you are an intricate part of it, Year after year pitching in to help make a local event bigger and better than it was before and planning the next year’s undertaking as soon as this year’s wraps up and is in the history books.
Shopping in small towns in Maine is at local one of a kinds, where the owner is in the store to provide you personal customer service. As a kid you work at these small Mom and Pop stores, diners, service providers. Your grandfather traded with the same family that started the business in the small town in Maine. There is a good feeling to doing business with a small town enterprise where you know the owner, where it is not a chain franchise. Where it is one of a kind shopping experience and everything is familiar, down to Earth and where you the shopper know you are needed as a customer. You feel appreciated.
Fresh Air, Working The Sand As Early Masons On A Maine Beach.
In small towns in Maine you also sense more than Mom and Dad are raising you. You don’t feel like a little kid but are treated with respect and guided into adulthood by all the members of the village. The neighbors are rooting for you. Proud of the sports or academic performance or how you represent the small town in Maine at whatever level or endeavor you choose.
These folks root for the home town boy or girl because they watched them grow up, had a hand along the way in their development.
They helped shape you the little sprout as a teacher, minister, little league coach, farmer, store employer or soap box derby sponsor.
The college scholarships awarded to those going on to higher education are many in number. Not one big contributor but lots of them supporting you as you go on to learn a trade, obtain a sheepskin diploma and enter the work force wherever it may lead you.
Lower cost real estate, smaller sized insurance premiums too and labor for repairs or construction following along in more affordable fashion. That is all part of the many perks to getting more for less in small town living. But the best benefit is the unspoiled outdoors in Maine. When less people tramp or trample an area, the pure and natural shine it has is preserved. Respect for the outdoor fresh air and clean water and wildlife is higher. Sacred and that good stewardship is passed on to the next generation.
Fmily Fun. Make A Splash, Paddle Around A Maine Coastal Community.
More than skilled in just one talent and bartering with lots of others to gain whatever is lacking until completion of anything lacking. We are lucky, grateful and don’t realize really to just how great an extent until someone from an urban area points out what is missing where they call home in the bright lights, big city landscape. We listen, hear what the city mouse regrets that usually revolves around needing more money, greater space, no crime and less traffic please. Help yourself to greater helpings of all those items that abound in small rural town living in Maine. And don’t stay away so long, Maine tugs as your heartstrings once you experience small town living in Maine.
