Tag: maine realtors

Blogging About Maine Small Town Peace And Quiet

Peace and quiet, Maine small town living offers plenty of both.

At a state Maine REALTORS convention this past week in Portland, it was great to be in Maine’s largest city for lots of continuing education credits. To rub shoulders, to compare notes with other professionals from around the state is invaluable to my small Maine real estate operation up here in “The County”.

Congratulations to Martin Cates, Maine Association Of REALTORS “Realtor Of The Year” Awardee.

REALTOR Of The Year In ME Broker/Agent? Martin Cates Received The Maine Association Of REALTOR 2025 Award!

Well deserved for years of community volunteering, real estate listing sales mentoring service Martin!

Lots Of Maine REALTORS Attended The State Convention In Portland Maine!

Heading north up Interstate 95 after this year’s MAR convention wrapped up, I thought about all the many areas of Maine there are.

Hard not to as the mile markers rack up and township signs flash by the jeep passenger side windows.

One session speaker had done the math, counted over 480 communities in the great state of Maine.

That’s a big number of small towns. A lot of little communities in Maine.

The common denominator for many seemingly is lots of peace and quiet all for season.

A commodity not so plentiful in population centers outside of Maine. But don’t believe the low bidder ad agency that often wins the contract for providing out state generated tourist information.

I like see, hearing about the real deal Maine. Not the re-constituted spun kind that regurgitates old not accurate story lines.

Here’s the A-Z of what Maine offers in cartoon form.

Maine Is Low Cost High Beauty Real Estate! Welcome To Small Town Maine Simple Living!

Too many paint the picture that small Maine towns once were thriving but not anymore.

Change is inevitable in life and Mainers adapt, retool and press on in highly creative ways.

Squeezing more from what they spend is a life skill learned and earned early in life.

Picking in the potato fields, raking in blueberry barrens or harvesting seafood in fishing villages that dot the rock bound craggy Maine coastline.

One Basket At A Time! Picking Maine Potatoes Skills Learned By The Lucky Youth Growing Up In A Fall Harvest Potato Farm Field.

Please don’t get the wrong impression about what it is like in Maine.

It’s an easy trap to fall into when many are waving their fingers and flapping their tongues. About something making them hot and bothered on the national stage.We don’t make everything about who you did or did not vote for last election, the one before that.

When from our perch in a small Maine town, we think the peace and quiet out in the vast low population setting is the key. To stay balanced and aware of what is really important in life.

Volunteering and helping others is what Maine simple living is all about in Vacationland.

Preserving family traditions and making sure the next generation is taught more than just how to survive life. But to enjoy and cherish how lucky we really are to live in a place so beautiful and unspoiled and not crowded.

Details, Fine Workmanship, Small Maine Towns Are Special! The Community Is The People, Not Empty Buildings.

Maine small towns are not sleepy but many just don’t get the press.

Nothing ho hum or boring. Undiscovered small Maine communities often feel like a step back in time by design.

What’s important is preserved and the respect passed on. All the members of the small Maine community have important jobs besides what they do for work.

Volunteering and signing up to do the task year after years helps all of us get to know the other community members. There is so much local talent and nothing needs to be “hired out”.

Can I Help You? Here To See A Maine Moose? You Are Seeing Double!

Small Maine towns surrounded by serene peace and quiet are left alone by politicians too.

Not enough voters to bother with and too much travel or ROI for their support. Everything is local, grass roots and home grown. Garden fresh close to home always beats out trucked in store bought right?

Simple living in Maine has a lot of advantages.

So waking up on a Maine lake, slurping my hot coffee and peering out over the water, I feel blessed.

Maine Lake Loon Fishing, Feeding It’s Young. Living Here You See The Skill Taught To Baby Loons On A Maine Lake.

Have my do list for the day back from the Maine REALTOR convention hammered out, am wrapping up the blog post on peace and quiet simple living.

Feeling energized to rise above and seize the day.

Knowing I really am so so lucky to live in one of the many small communities that make up the vast majority of the state of Maine. Where we talk not just text.

And most locals don’t suffer from FOMO.

Our energy is saved for the big challenges of day-to-day life.

Not feeling sapped, always filled with the fear of missing out and anxious that somehow, we are missing out on a perfect opportunity. That desperation only leads to hurried or financially unsound decision making.

Laugh. Laugh Loud. Maine Small Town Comedy Is The Most Entertaining!

Small town Maine living teaches you what priorities to keep straight and never forget to deep down contentment and happiness.

What really matters?

That easy living happens with peace of mind. That practical is not square. That debt is a cancer. Knowing relationships matter and need to be tended like a garden. And enjoying what you do for work, valuing your time is the secret. Thank you for reading, sharing, following our Me In Maine blog posts.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 10, 2025
Buying A Home In Maine, Rising Interest Rates

Buying a home in Maine with rising interest rates.

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

This blog post is about the Maine real estate market.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

August 16, 2022
Maine REALTORS | Not Bad People Once You Get To Know Them.

The jargon of a Maine REALTOR can raise eye brows and confuse, lose a person trying to follow one in a
A Maine REALTOR, Over 4200 Of Them In Vacationland.
real estate conversation.

CMA, GRI, DOM, FSBO … a Maine REALTOR sure does use some funny language, short hand to make his or her point. Get the job of listing, marketing, selling done.

Buying or selling Maine real estate is an emotional experience for the property purchaser or owner.

The job of a REALTOR, a real estate agent or broker is to educate, explain the process and tell it like it is from experience. Giving false expectations if a property is priced pie in the sky is not part of the job. Making representations about a property listing that are inaccurate, false, not honest isn’t either.

Disclosure of problem areas with a Maine property listing is way way smarter than trying to wrestle, dealing with it after a sale. But to know the real estate problem exists means thoroughly examining the property listing. Asking lots of questions to the owner, tradesmen that did work on the place. Even family members or neighbors if the sale is an estate property transfer.

Fifty percent of people settle down, move to within fifty miles of where they were born.

And to attract the attention of folks further away a Maine real estate agent, broker, REALTOR has a big part of his job putting his state on the map.

What it is like living where I do in Maine? The photos, blog posts, local community videos help paint the picture. Fill in the gray matter between the ears, behind the eyes of a Maine real estate buyer from outside Vacationland.

Maine REALTORS, the state has over 4200 of them.

Not such bad people once you take, make the time to get to know one. See them in action. Pretty darn involved in their local home towns, volunteering for community events and serving on boards. Parents, little league and hockey coaches. Sunday school teachers and sponsors of many non profit organizations. Hug one today.

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

January 22, 2012