The state of Maine is cited in lots of surveys as the top place to consider in relocation, to make the move to Maine.
This blog post outlines the reasons that motivate folks to make the move to the great state of Maine.
The urge fueled by many factors. Space is one of the biggest ones. To own and enjoy acreage, lots of Maine land is a major part of the dream. Life not lived shoulder to shoulder and where you actually have a back yard. Clean water, clear blue skies, look at all those stars because no pollution from factory smoke stacks.
Welcome to Maine.
The best kept secret are the rural areas deeper up into Maine.
The Moving To Maine Relocation. Often Starts With Renting A Maine Waterfront Property.
Space is freedom, elbow room is plentiful in Maine.
Maine is a sparsely populated state with 450 small towns and villages but only a handful of cities. 91 percent of Maine is wooded, miles and miles of trees and trails to explore. Maine is not just more roomy, less people but there is good stewardship practiced in small Maine towns. Maine is 450 small communities, only a handful of cities.
Your elders teach you how to respect the natural setting around and to never ever take it for granted. Don’t mess it up for the next generation and tread lightly is the ingrained approach to living in Maine. That’s just how we roll and it is way easier when over commercialization or sprawl population pressure is none existent!
Collect Maine Lighthouse Experiences. Visit, Re-Visit. One Fun Thing To Do In Maine. Lighthouses, Coastal Settings Help Folks Think About Moving To Maine Or Investing Here!
So Maine space is abundant, a given and not an expensive luxury like many areas around the country.
What happens to people used to being penned in and caged, herded? When they cross the big green bridge on Maine’s southern tip, the traffic thins. They begin to loosen up and it’s easier to relax.
What else happens when you relocate, move to Maine?
A more relaxed version of you develops. The Maine added space, reduced traffic, lower crime combination works its magic. Suddenly you are freed up to fill your life with more of what matters. Four season outdoor recreation is one of the major reasons to relocate, move to Maine.
For many, it starts as a simple vacation and like any addiction, grows from there. Before you know it, the yearly trek to Maine turns into more trips back and forth across that big Green Bridge. And instead of spending the long dollar staying at a motel, lodge or cabin, it’s time to buy your own piece of ME.
Hitting The Rec Trails In Maine All Four Seasons. That Is What It Is Like In Maine. Vacations In Maine Lead To More.
The transition from where you lived before to Maine can be bittersweet.
There are trade offs and mostly involving further away from family members left behind. But often, friends and family learn from your move to Maine. Their visits to see you can cause relocation for them too.
The fun in Maine is low or no cost.
We have so many opportunities to pitch in and get involved in community events. You don’t need lots of money to enjoy Maine the further you go to get away from the coastal tourist traps. Those areas near the shopping outlets are not rural Maine at its finest.
The friendly, down to Earth helpful people who live in small towns are the best. Hardworking, family oriented, ready to help you out when you need it the most.
Vacations In Maine Lead To More. The Relocation, Move To Maine Start Because Of Great ME Vacations! Clean Water, Fresh Air, Less People, No Traffic.
You have to have less people around you to get more from your Maine location. Go further north, east and west up into Maine to see what I mean. Small towns are like big families. Lower population areas of Maine show less wear and tear. Way way less commercial development and regulations.
That’s another carrot dangled to attract property owners to sell high and buy low. Cashing in the value of their higher priced property and taking the chips. Investing them with money left over purchasing something in Maine. For many, no mortgage is needed to buy the Maine property.
A family starting out looking for wholesome small Maine town values weighs the pros and cons.
Moving to Maine for less expensive everything.
A simpler life style that is healthier for their kids.
Your Signs, The Hiking Trail Blue Dash Marking. You Are On A Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin Trail!
And with high speed internet, their old job becomes their new one. Packed along with their personal belongings for the new life in Maine. Telecommuting, working remotely is easy when a small Maine town or region has beefed up a strong IT infrastructure in place.
In small Maine towns, you don’t just buy a ticket and attend an event. You are somehow connected to the folks putting on the event year after year. Working behind the scenes, sponsoring some part of it. Home grown and the grass roots approach to building a Maine community is deeply satisfying.
The wildlife, the waterfront, the woods trails and farm fields in the great state of Maine.
Maine is lots of things that are all natural. Have you been to Maine and where? How was your experience? Visit Maine and see for yourself. Meet the friendly, neighborly, truly helpful people who call Maine their home. Thinking of Maine? Why relocate, move to Maine? Lots of reasons and most of them are found outdoors all four seasons in Maine.
It never fails to be in the local grocery or hardware store, the hair salon, barber shop or out and about in a small community in Maine. Here’s the question always on every Maine home buyer or seller’s mind.
“How’s the Maine real estate market?”
The answer is always where in Maine are you considering buying or selling in today? Maine is one tall, wide state and like the weather that has several zones, real estate market behavior is the same “it depends”. Where in Maine are we talking and what type of property listing are you eyeballing? Yours truly reaching for a Maine real estate business card in the image below.
Gathering To Learn, Network At The Maine Association Of REALTORS State Convention At Samoset Resort.
Just got back from a three day Maine Association of REALTORS state convention.
Here’s the take away for the often asked “how’s the Maine real estate market” question. For starters, a REALTOR, agent, broker does not just list and sell homes in Maine. Land sales in Maine because of the sheer size and lower, spread out population is one big component of listing sales too. Waterfront lots, building sites, land for recreational use with or without a Maine house are highly attractive to real estate buyers around the World. But what about home sweet home in Maine. How do the stats look in a state this big?
The Light House In Rockland ME Out Front Of The Samoset Where ME REALTORS Met This Week.
During COVID, folks seriously hunkered down to search for a new, less crowded location to call home.
To live that had wall to wall strong and long Internet service to telecommute to work. Maine was the number one pick and can you blame folks for pin the tail on Maine? You had lots of fun on vacation in Maine. Why not live where you love to spend four season outdoors for recreation right? So the COVID pandemic helped push Maine real estate property prices and inventory sales up up up.
But remember, where you buy and sell a home in Maine makes a very big difference in the numbers.
Registration For The Learning, Networking. This Year’s Maine REALTORS State Convention At The Samoset In Rockland ME.
At our 2022 Maine state REALTORS convention held this week at Rockland’s Samoset Resort, we learned overall real estate listing inventory is down 10%, home prices are up the same 10%.
Lucky to have the National Association Of REALTOR’s Lawrence Yun, chief economists for the NAR beam in for a ZOOM presentation. The live stream segment was very helpful and all tailor made to just Maine’s real estate market. Maine stands out on the map and there is a good star for affordable housing even with tight inventory supplies.
We are luckier than most and the look out ahead is brighter in Maine for property listing sales in the days ahead. Maine is the way life should be.
Maine’s REALTOR Convention Brings In Agents And Brokers From Around The State For Education.
Networking, continuing education credits to renew your Maine real estate license are all great reasons to gather at a state REALTOR convention.
But the talk around the meal time dinner tables, the sharing what’s it like in your community and real estate market compared to another in Maine is invaluable. You learn outside the continuing education classroom meet up from the conversations in the hallways, during snacks and socializing.
The common denominator is we all know how lucky each of us is to live in Maine and help others buy and sell a piece of property.
There is no other place on Earth I would rather live than in a small rural Maine community. These movers and shakers so active in their Maine communities are the “they” that need to do this or plan for that. During one of the three meals to fuel up at a state convention, you learn about Tom’s a scout leader, his son is working on his eagle scout designation. Pete is from Scotland, lost his wife less than a year ago and shows me a photo of his orange cat.
REALTORS are people, that are part of families, communities and very invested in wherever they live in Maine.
Sheryl has a duty to warm up the crowd and welcome everyone back to the REALTOR convention. Susan makes each convention better and more memorable, helpful than the one before with the help of all the other Maine Association of REALTOR members. The older seasoned veterans who have weathered a few real estate markets help the ones who are brand new with much to learn. But the younger more digital real estate agents, broker help those older analog members of MAR.
It’s like a family that all work their matchmaking magic on the find or sell a home, whatever type of Maine real estate listing type.
Early Morning With Rising Sun, Lots Of Mist, Dew At The 2022 ME REALTOR Convention.
You don’t pay your money to attend an event in small town rural Maine.
You are working behind the scenes yearly to pull off the community event again and again. That’s how you get to know the other residents living around you. Small towns, Maine has over 430 of them, just a handful of cities. Down home simple, friendly, common sense and grateful to live here Maine towns are like that.
More intimate, tighter connected and everyone willing to work for the common good to make the community a the best possible place to live. That’s Maine, what we are listing for sale way beyond the four walls, roof and floor of the structures. The just listed property listings with a silent salesman sign speared in the lawn out front to broadcast hey. This one’s for sale and probably will go into a multi offer scenario so can you say bidding war?
Maine REALTOR Market Report From Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist ZOOMs In To Annual Meeting.
Glad to be back in “The County” and it was a little over 3 hour drive all downhill to arrive at this year’s Maine REALTORS state convention in Rockland ME. No working vacation goes unpunished even with cellphones and the Internet email connections that are your traveling companion. Hope you are enjoying your fall in Maine or wherever you are.
It’s happening and it’s not a fluke. This blog post is a look at why the former trend of outward migration and population loss is reversing in my small town rural area of Maine. I see it and hear the reasons why every day as a Maine real estate broker. The call of the country and simpler living up in Maine. It’s all causing the relocation to Vacationland pace to pick up speed.
The Village In A Small Maine Town Raises The Kids.
The tug on the heart strings to move back to Maine small towns.
For some it is an easy decision to make.
They remember growing up in small Maine towns and know what they are missing from first hand experience.
Jobs and financial career goals the only reason that forced the move away from small town living in the first place. It was a reluctant but necessary natural progression. Population centers offered the largest variety of good paying jobs. Maine is a great place to live, always has been. But the catch is you have to be able to make a decent wage.
You gotta eat and want more than a hand to mouth existence if what you or your parents did for employment was tied to farming, fishing, mill work or cutting pulp in the Maine woods.
Bustling small Maine towns before the Interstate and Internet were vibrant with flourishing small Maine businesses. Working hard with the owner in the store dedicated to serving your friends, family and neighbors. Performing with fierce pride in your local school sport teams too. Maine rural communities offer a tightly connected small town way of life.
Able to telecommute to work online remotely during COVID was the dress rehearsal.
Folks everywhere across the land and around the globe learned we can do it from the comfort of our own home sweet home. We’re moving. Lower overheard for companies, happier workers not wasting time socializing around the water cooler. No hassles with traffic, crime, carrying a tazer. It all helped fuel the migration to Maine. Packing the Worldly possessions along with the current job and heading North up the pike to to work remotely in Maine. IF that last mile of Internet broadband connection is long and strong in place to make it a viable relocation option.
You are no longer in a city skyscraper corner office when the kids come home after school living in rural Maine.
The kids can now walk home from school because everything is so close in small Maine towns.
Picking Maine Potatoes, My Entry Level Job That Taught Me So Much.
A block to the store, two blocks to school, and kids hoof it rather than parents providing the valet drop and pick up daily dance. Multi generations living together is more efficient and the kids benefit from the wisdom of older family members nearby or sharing the same roof line. You don’t have the giant city salary but your expenses are way way lower to the ground. No worry about a white van kidnapping your kid either. The village watches and raises all the children.
You do more for yourself than hiring it out in small rural Maine towns.
The cost of living is lower in small town rural Maine because insurance is cut in half. No white vans lurking near your home that you worry about snacking your kids in the 4th lowest crime state either.
So so many Maine vacation places overhauled to be way way more than a three day or week long take a break stay.
When the COVID sky started falling and toilet paper was scarce. As the initial wave of adjustment to life as we knew it hit, anyone with a Maine coastal, lake shore, riverfront, woods retreat toyed with the thought.
What if I packed it in and headed up to Maine as my refuge to regroup?
To weather the COVID storm and tough it out for a spell until things settled down. But COVID is the hangover that did not go away. The virus is not a temporary condition and forces everyone to consider where they hang their hat and why for quality of living.
Perkins Cove Maine, Boats Anchored For The Night.
For many close to retirement, the memory of sea gulls and lake loons on Maine vacations is the all natural pure and simple drug. A carryover flashback OF memories of good times enjoyed during time spent here on the fun Maine rest and relaxation stint. For young folks struggling to make ends meet in the city, getting more for less financial overhead in small Maine town living has appeal.
Less people, more down to early friendly folks and all this four seasons outdoor unspoiled natural beauty.
Maine is a place you love her for what she offers and what she does not at the same time. Less traffic, lower crime, cheaper to live in Maine. That coupled with the friendly people and more elbow room. The ability to pitch in and feel you can make a difference as you add your talents to the mix. You are needed in the small Maine town special home grown connection. The village raises the kids and you are closer to the day to day action in smaller circles you travel in small Maine towns.
Older Teach The Younger. Small Maine Rural Towns Are Tight Family Connections.
When COVID’s trapped inside living stress doubled up, the little space with far too many people in the city made urban dwellers hanker low population Maine.
The common sense and pitch in to help out approach to living in small Maine towns looked pretty darn appealing. Small Maine towns are really like large families. You don’t pay to attend events, you are working them behind the scenes year after year.
Kids Helping Area Maine Farmers. Learning Work Ethic, Responsibility Early On To Benefit For Life.
Home grown beats store bought and the hands on to make the next event even better causes others around you to dig in and do more. That’s how small Maine towns work. You don’t just live and work there. Instead, you are the small Maine town and go above and beyond to maintain and increase the quality of life for others.
The polarity and division of the last national election just added fuel to the fire to pick up and move to Maine.
Feeling like buying 40 acres up in Maine might be the answer caused more emails, texts, office visits and phone calls to pour into our small Maine town real estate office. Land big and cheap. To plant a large garden, to cut, split and stack the winter wood. With next year’s stash for heating your home already steadily added to to be boy scout prepared.
Halloween Is Big, Trick Or Treating Is Safe.
Migration back to Maine for locals that had picked up roots and moved.
That’s part of the Maine real estate market activity. Others buying vacation property that could be more if the new owner decides to head to Maine. This market segment hedging their bets and looking for a fun but sensible insurance policy investment. Maine land is way way under valued and boy can you produce a lot of farm to table food if you work it. Enriched living, everyone from the smallest to the oldest family member has a role in the household.
Dangling, Handling The Ball To Advance Up The Maine High School Soccer Field!
Taught how to do it, to develop the right attitude for success. To approach a task carefully and perform it slowly. Easy does it. Like the early on advice to never run with scissors and to avoid getting hurt. But with expertise to plan your work and work that plan learned from past experience growing up in small town Maine.
Everyone is assessing today what exactly “quality of life” really means.
How to achieve it, maintain it, make it last. Maine small towns have far less obstacles and in most cases, money is not the deciding factor on where you live anymore. We Mainers are more hands on, have a skill set and don’t have to wait around for others to do everything for us. Raised in Maine, kids learn work ethic, gain self confidence and are shaped for adulthood. Happier, independent, not blaming others for why their life did not turn out the way it looks around the artificial social media circuits. “If it is to be, it is up to me” and being grateful enriches your life and those of the folks around you.
Any Season, Any Angle, Mount Katahdin Captivates A Person Any Age.
When you live in a city, the options to provide kids with their own hard earned money are not so common. Obstacles to work… that’s part of it. But also parents that don’t push for Jimmy and Jane to do chores and hold down entry level jobs. COVID fear make parents hover even more but also work legislation restrictions threatens skill building and opportunities first jobs.
In Maine small towns, kids mow lawns, deliver newspapers, have odd jobs around the neighborhood and bag groceries, stock shelves. If kids work out in the gardens, stack wood, pitch in with daily chores around a Maine household. Good things are going to happen.
Maine Home Offices, Working Online From Home Sweet Home Up In Maine. No Worried About FOMO Because We Are Grateful.
But if mom and dad hand you $20 bills and Zeke or Pebbles’ cell phone and car are better than their parents have.
If teenagers are not cutting grass, flipping burgers, delivering papers or helping area farmers, small businesses. Oh oh.
When they don’t babysit and are slumped on a couch peering into an eerie blow glow device, a full and rich dynamic life is not automatic. No skills, lazy, depressed and not able to connect the dots why happens.
Kids suffer when adults are hired to do those jobs they need to learn self sufficiency … that’s another part of it.
Outward migration from say Florida with over 400 people per square mile or California at 250 plus or New Jersey with over 1200 head count.
That’s another piece of the labor shortage puzzle. And why employers are paying so much to attract a labor force. That means the cost of goods and services provided will be sky high too.
A kid getting $14 an hour or higher working at a fast food outlet is too much and only going to lead to wanting higher wages than the job warrants.
The raking blueberries, picking potatoes, apples, working on a farm in Maine builds stamina, responsibility, develops a hustle in your step. You earned every cent you made when it is the sweat of your brow manual entry level kind.
My rural Aroostook County area is growing with folks rethinking where they live in a crowded areas with high cost of living, traffic, crime.
Mid Coast Maine Lighthouses. Lots Of Them To Collect Easily From A Boat Ride.
You will never ever see local signs stating “no one wants to work” because lazy is the by far worst label anyone could wear.
We are not lazy. All raised to work hard, pitch in and make a difference. The local Louisiana Pacific plant is expanding, Smith and Wesson employee numbers are going up and small rural areas a
Pitch In, Help Out, Make A Difference. That’s Why Maine Small Towns Quality Of Life Is Rich And Tightly Connected.
Some of the reasons to explain the move to Maine population increase numbers.
A change of pace and getting healthy by hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and daily exercise. That’s another perk living in big and beautiful wide open Maine. Maine is the way life should be. Life longer, live better up in Maine is the conclusion more folks are drawing these crazy days. Recreation is second to none on your own and the parks and rec programs are extensive. Lakes, rivers, mountains, scenic trails, picnic spots. Our backyard is outdoors everywhere you look out over the land in Maine.
This blog post nails down the reasons for why people moved away and now are returning to small town rural Maine.
Why new to the area folks are picking Maine as their next mailing address. Real estate inventory is being snatched up to meet the demand and the transplants from out of state are so amazed at small town living benefits. Their kids are learning the skills to be successful adults for wherever they end up living from growing up in small Maine town communities.
Maine Kids Learn About An Honest Days Work, But Do Any Of Us Make Honest Mistakes Any More?
Back in the early 1980’s I taught a University of Maine adult education class on real estate practices.
At the time you needed the practices class which highlighted the day to day of being a Maine real estate agent. To get your salesman or broker’s ticket. With courses taught by an attorney for the law, and appraiser for the valuation end of listing, peddling property listings part of the three course process.
One night before class started, while folks were filing in to pick their same seat as last session, one older lady had a major melt down. Each week she complained about not needing to be in the class. Looked for sympathy. But had let her real estate license lapse and the state thought differently. Said attend or else cease and desist the desire to be a Maine real estate agent. Find another line of work.
Always putting on the Ritz, dressed to the nines.
Extremely over dressed for class. More dolled up looking like ready to go out on the town and paint it red. This particular night, while wearing a sheer, frilly blouse with way way too many front buttons unemployed, not working. A gentleman from Mapleton accidently bumped, spills his coffee. A few drops land on her dry clean only expensive blouse that did not come from Kmart, Ames (pronounced in Maine AIM-zezzzzz) or Woolco.
Not losing the entire cup or even a tiny fraction when she suddenly turned around and ran in to the gentleman. Who pulled off a remarkable Columbia bean elixir save, recovery. While negotiating up the rows of seats to plant his keester in the one behind her. No No. Just a few drops was the claim if any at all were shed on her clothing in the java bump that she initiated. Foul was whistled shrilly. Wrongful doing air raid sirens sounded. Call in the coffee police. File a report. Put up the yellow do not cross police crime scene tape. Heads are going to roll.
Normally when a mistake is made, and this cup carrying class mate apologized, offered to pay for her blouse to be dry cleaned or replaced, then you expect things to settle down. Not in this case. Miss Snarky proceeded to ask him in the room full of large eyes and stalled midstream conversations how he could be so stupid. What was wrong with him was barked over and over.
You could silently feel the sway of the room when no side was picked in the mishap at the onset.
The boat listing to port. To suddenly the entire class was feeling badly for Mr Coffee. Wearing his hush puppy tie ups. Because it was an honest mistake, if any java, of the cup of Joe was actually spilled. And if it was he had sincerely, emphatically showed he was truly sorry. All apologetic beside himself. With sincerity written all over his face and his words to right a wrong being obvious to the rest in the real estate class room night session. Other classmate intervene to remind “he said he was sorry”, “let it go”. It was an honest mistake.
The powder keg, blown way out of proportion episode made me realize why juries award ridiculously large damage settlements. Sometimes they hate big companies that come out as greedy. Chasing the almighty dollar. If no remorse was shown, if extreme negligence is apparent without a shadow of a doubt. But also why folks get off the hook and not just on technicalities. Because of the way the people in the trial present, handle themselves. What is expected in society and when it is obvious the norms, values and what’s fair is out of whack? We all judge fairness based on what should happen with an honest mistake but what if it was our ox getting gored? Feel the same way? How situations get exploited, heading down a different rabbit trail.
The belle of the ball, over dressed with teetering tall sequined high heels was wet hen upset.
Could not let it go. The pressure cooker was whistling, steaming she’s gonna blow. Her dander up, ears back, teeth bared, showing in a grimace, snarl. You know who was about to be kicked, bitten. The personal attack approach left abandoned “the seeking sympathy from the class” reaction to her plight. This misdeed, tragedy, quandary instead of soliciting the class to join her cause, did the opposite. You could not help but feel sorry for the student just trying to take his seat behind her. The sprinkle spillage could not take on the epic proportions, draw any similarities to the sideways oil tanker one off the coast in Valdez, Alaska. Sorry.
Public opinion, is there an honest mistake made any more?
An honest mistake is unintentional, one not made with malice or any forethought.
You are being honest when you say I am sorry. It was a mistake admitted. And you don’t hide from any other intentional agenda or sheer reckless malice. Ah, and that leads us to the topic of forgiveness, situational ethics. Easier said than done it seems. Made any honest mistakes lately? How about everyone around you? Do they still happen in a world that has shifted, thinks more about me now than others?
Maine, big state, lots of special spaces, places to figure things out. Hear yourself think.
Maine Is Outdoors, Not Chrome And Glass, Gold Fancy. But Outdoor Natural Stunning Beauty. Come Sample ME.
The talents, skills you have that are unique to your personality are very much needed in a small Maine town.
Because fewer people and the “pitch in attitude” means you would be missed if you stepped away. You have a greater purpose and are way way more involved. You know your neighbors well because your leisure time is putting together local community events.
More and more phone calls, emails with a common theme, lament, okay whine.
Hearing in person from folks living in crowded cities that they are not happy. Have been in a funk. Had the condition for some time now. And starting to realize it is not their mate. But the surroundings of where they live that is causing strain, cracks. Coming up short.
Something is missing and life is flying by. Many live in fear of crime, gangs. Others just say their day to day is a big bone tiring race. Too hectic and the cause of the truck tire forming around their waist. All that gray hair or loss on whatever was on their heads.
And the sobering realization that they could never afford to retire where they live now. Nor would they want to although their area was at one time a neat place to call home. Before all the people moved in. And life changed big time. When the cost of living became nose bleed high across the board for everything. Everywhere they turned. Permits, regulation overload and being taxed to death left and right takes its toll. Causing many to consider a Maine move, retirement relocation to the Pine Tree State.
Or worry about raising their kids in an urban area, not in Maine is making them have second thoughts on where they should be living.
You don’t move to Maine to make a giant salary. You take money out of the equation. Find it is cheaper to live here. Because your fun is low or no cost when you are lucky enough to live in Vacationland full time. Maine housing, real estate price tags are a fraction of other places. And the long list of what we don’t have that includes traffic, people insincerity, often a mortgage, is just as special as the four season unspoiled beauty of Maine. All by themselves. There is space in the place called Maine.
What some spend only one week a year to see is at your disposal year round when you live in Maine.
Alpine ski a Maine hill or cross counry ply a field on a sunny winter day. Climb Mt Katahdin or a myriad of other hills of different degrees of difficulty other seasons. Spend time kayaking a Maine lake. Fishing a hidden stream. Biking a park way perimeter roadway. Hunt, hide out, collect images shooting photos. Of places that depending on the season, your place in life can look so vastly different. Clarity and awareness happen when you spend time in Maine. You appreciate the little things in Maine more.
Plant and grow your own Maine farm food to know what you are putting in your body.
Feeding your family at the daily meals. Gaining the independence, self reliant feeling do more and more yourself. Not hiring it out. As you become the Jack of all trades by necessity. And find you are more connected with other neighbors down the road after the same richness, quality of living. Safe place to raise their kids.
Examine the images of Maine and see if it stirs you. Hits an inner special place. Find what you are looking for, what is missing in Maine. Get here quick as you can.
Find Yourself In Maine. Small Towns Rich In Common Sense. Places Built To Last.
The answer to the right time to come to Maine?
As often as you can. Whenever you make time, need to for recharging, unplugging. Or just for answers to inner questions that just don’t get addressed when you are helter skelter, pedal to the metal out straight where you live now.
In nearly 33 years of listing, selling Maine real estate, over and over the underlying theme from out of state buyers of properties is this. Something is missing from their life where they live now. The buyer is looking for more than sticks and bricks. A whole new area, life setting needed. Because it is either too congested around them. They may have to travel too far to work to afford the lower cost area their home is in.
But the home owner is never home to see the kids growing up.
Latch key kids. Getting fat, lazy, and never happy. Whiners happen, are made. Or the cost to live in a sardine packed tightly urban area has just taken its toll in other stressful ways. Always bone weary, dog tired and all the city dwellers admitting they wondered what was wrong for a while. Were blind and thought everyone lived this way in the game of life. That it took some time to come to the same conclusion I hear over and over. Maine is different, special, unique and one of the last places out there to run away to.
The buyer of Maine property is seeing his or her life flying by. It is way past the time when they should have changed course and moved. Head to a place where man has not spoiled it by over commercialization. Where development is not a common place condition. Where permits, regulations, permission for this or that is not ham stringing a person.
Maine is simple. The friendly people are not but the setting is natural, easy, real. Not spun, not chrome and glass. Not pretentious or snobby. But instead evergreen fragrant with the sound of crystal clean splashing water. With views of landscape, waterfront and wildlife that were not meant to be wasted.
The location, the spot on the planet you are at governs everything that happens around, to you and your family.
Lower cost living means not so much worry about the mortgage hanging around your neck. Debt is not how we run our households in Maine. Stepping up the payments to not have that mortgage trumps the need for something new and shiny. The effort, expense to impress the neighbors or cause envy among your peers is replaced with pitching in to local small town events. Small Maine home town values. What you are after? Maine is the way it used to be everywhere else but sadly is not anymore.
We are involved in the local fabric of our towns in Maine.
Instead of standing around like spectators or paying admission to attend an event, we work them. Are part of the experience which is richer, more complete because we are in the planning, the behind the scenes. And active in our communities. Feeling connected to the folks that live here. Pride swelling for the local home town in Maine and all the folks in it. We share their successes, pray about their set backs. We need and lean on each other.
Where do you live now?
Do you feel something is missing? Anxious, jittery, restless and don’t know why? The way you spend your time now. All store bought past times or over indulgence of something you know is not healthy for you to cope? To handle it all? The “crutches” you use, throw them away and consider relocating, moving to Maine. Forget any stories from folks that have never been here about polar bears, igloos, dog sleds for travel. That’s Artic Circle. Not Maine.
Get here part or full time. Watch how your life begins anew. Start living. Because if you are standing still, stressed out and all around not so healthy, in the pink, there is another way. The place with the space. Maine. Get here quick as you can. To find out what has been missing.
