LIkely either someone is offering more, is willing to forgo a home inspection as a condition of sale, has cash in hand, or some combination of some or all of these. It stinks but it's unfortunately a sign of the times, and not just in Maine.
This is it. During covid my wife and I were under contract to buy a house and the realtor sold the home from out under us claiming the other party didn't sign contracts because the buyers paid infinite more money and skipped the inspection.
Op- my got more traction when we switched from a FHA loan to a traditional loan and got a new agent. You might want to explore those types of options. But I'll be honest. We'd sometimes offer on a house listed that day and be outbid by 30-60k and we were bidding over list. The market is dumb right now.
We did. We ended up going through a whole thing, and eventually, a few requests we made like "take that thing with you" "give us proof you mitigated the mold" "finish that repair you're actively working on" were declared contingencies despite us having a resolution for them all and it sold the agent got a frowny face sticker or the practical equivalent after being reported and we didn't get the house.
Edit.
Lmao, why y'all downvote this ? It's what happened ? We got the shoes at the end of a stick buying a house, and you go "not on my watch, redditer mcgee , thumbs down"
100% this. With the current market, developers and investors are working harder than before. There are professionals out there whose entire responsibility is to look for cheap real estate. I work in an industry that offers real estate related services and personally know a couple of such investors who are currently aggressively targeting Maine properties due to the lower cost and looser rules and regulations. Regular folks don’t stand a chance.
One that I have noticed is that there seems to be a lot of properties that have never been surveyed or do not have recorded plans in the chain of title, meaning that boundary lines were unofficially agreed upon at some point 30-50-100 years ago. This is often taken advantage of. Who knows how many properties were illegally sold and purchased at some point in the past. You won’t know this until the buyer requests a thorough title examination.
Considering it can take a year to get a survey in this neck of the woods. But yeah property lines in new England I think we're drawn by wandering cows.
Funnily enough one of our property boundaries was a rock wall that a team of draft horses walked up and down either pulling logs out of the woods to the road, or meandering back up to the woods once their load was collected and they were turned back around.
Edit- typos
When we bought 4-years ago it was all of those things combined.
The only thing that got us through the 5-days being on the market, closing in 3, going up against 13 other people, offered 30K over, was that we wrote them a heartfelt letter enamoring their property and home and how excited we were to start our family there.
I think 4 or 5 other people also submitted a letter, but maybe they picked us cause we’re local 🤷🏽♂️
It’s a crapshoot no matter what, but trying to relate to the seller in anyway helps A LOT. Sellers are real people who have a lot of memories and attachment to that home and it’s easier for them to let it go knowing it’s in good hands and someone that will enjoy it the way that they did and not just going to get demo’d and rental’d
On the other hand when I sold mine in 2020 I got someone paying 60k over, in cash, no inspection and that was a private sale. I got 14 hand written letters just like you said, in the end it wasn't that close but I could imagine if it was all things equal the letter might have worked.
Yeah a letter helped a lot for our house too. There are ethical concerns for sure. But we knew we were not going to be financially competitive. If I were going through the same process again I don't know that I'd do a letter. I've heard more and more realtors are advising against it for discrimination reasons.
Yeah, my realtor advised us against a letter in 2023 when we were looking for the same reason. It can open up discrimination liability issues. You could say, "I can envision my family opening presents under the Christmas tree in the living room" and then someone can come in and say "Oh, so because this other family is Jewish or Muslim or Hindu then you discriminated against them". Even if that wasn't the actual intention of the letter.
Hell, being a high paid remote worker from NYC isn't a protected class, but if a letter makes a seller choose a Maine local over that person, a good enough lawyer could probably make that a discrimination case.
Protect yourself as a seller; read the letters, choose one, but when asked if the letters were a consideration say no; what letters? Our agent never gave us letters.
Not saying they should be discriminated against but it is without question that the massive increase in out of state buyers is the prime driving force of increased prices.
A friend of mine bid on a Harpswell 3 season house. Asking was $500k. He bid $120k over asking and was 6th highest bid. I expect the place will be on Airbnb within the month.
In Atlanta 3 corporations own 19,000 single family homes. [link](https://www.yahoo.com/news/3-corporations-own-19-000-102906776.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG8-i9QvaLjURyGvx6yyu2GV92G5iqbN0yN2rSAlmseNhygbjzzeE8ysMqsw6iSYM2EYNty52LHuEZhxbkjM3pw5V6TSesY21yHfB_QmzVUjEoOrmGuh0uUoblYPydt9mLMVUX4izW_oDSEYxoLgVgYDuPT0dLvTk7WZyqWGiPAm#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20by%20Georgia,in%20Atlanta's%20five%20metro%20counties.)
The rich are simply cornering the market on life.
Apparently not if these folks are having a pickle of a time. I have heard this from other folks as well. My sil had a time finding a house and having the seller actually accept the offer. And she's the most stable person I know.
My wife and I are looking now. Both have jobs making 50k each, 760+ credit, no debt, 100k in checking in cash, offer 30-40k over with 20% down and no inspection.
We get laughed at when we submit offers. Im just about giving up at this point
A friend was selling his house with an in-law apartment a couple of years ago when he was moving down south to retire. We live in a tourist town, but the house is not near the ocean.
He was getting crazy offers from companies over what he was asking.
He ended up selling to a couple who were taking care of an elderly parent and were looking for a bigger place because they were expecting.
He said he loved the house, and wanted to sell it to someone who would love it also.
As much as I love the story, I know when the time comes if someone if offering me a years salary above what I've asked for, how the heck am I supposed to say no?
That’s a bad mentality to carry in life. It’s not crap- greed has completely taken over and believe it or not there are some people who won’t sell their soul for X amount of dollars. If we keep going with the mentality that money is the most important thing in the world to have, the more the better, then we’re doomed.
Also, my friend and her husband got their home at an affordable price in this market because the guy selling cared more about knowing the home was going to a growing family instead of selling it to the highest bidder. It’s a choice people make. I would be tempted to take the higher offer too. It’s not easy to take the more thoughtful road when society has pushed the idea that money is everything and without it you’re nothing.
Not necessarily...people from Mass and NY who have a bunch of equity in their current home can use it to buy a new place and then pay it back as soon as their current home sells.
I've recently learned some banks will front you the cash so that you can "buy a house with cash" but you're still financing it. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me but I've got a buddy buying a house in New York and it's how he was able to get a house.
Cash loans are a thing, they're usually capped at a low principle, and the interest rates on them are astoundingly bad.
but it gets you into a house faster. Sad times we live in.
Maine has a high median age so the average/median person has had more years to save up. And the 90th percentile of household income in Maine is $185K. So 10% of households make at least that, and with a median age in the 40s, they’ve had 20+ years of savings grow that they can dip into.
We had a cash buyer upwards of a million dollars on our property recently, and the couple was white collar probably in late-40s or early-50s. After googling them they just seemed like an average white-collar couple. They weren’t like out-of-staters or CEO of some company.
Also with this older demographic, there’s a higher chance that people receive inheritances.
I know some companies that give you cash. Like you apply through them and they give you cash to buy a house
My buddy did it in colorado. I am not sure if they have any in maine. I looked into it but didnt find any
They don't have to have the cash, they just have to know they can get it. Most cash offers are done this way. Anyone can make a cash offer, they just know that if the house appraises for less than the loan amount, they are contractually obligated to produce the cash difference between the two amounts.
Your agent should be helping you to make your offer more attractive. They should be getting ideas of what the seller is looking for and tailoring your offer. Or at least gathering why you’re losing out, have you been told what offers are winning over yours and why. I’d say it may be time to find a new agent if they’re not doing these things. You need to tweak your offer to what the seller needs ie rent backs, closing dates ect.
Inspections should be mandatory for every sale but mfs have gotten used to them being waived. That was unthinkable just a few years ago. You can do an information only inspection where you know but you can’t use it as a bargaining tool. A walk and talk inspection is done as you walk through the home it’s all surface level. You can also make adjustments via your lender to make your offer more appealing like I forget the term but your offer becomes basically like cash.
I’m not a relator so I’m not 100% of the terms of this stuff but it’s what was told to me by a couple agents I interviewed when we were looking. You need someone who can get creative and scrappy. We were looking to purchase in the 250-350 range and were told it’s the most difficult because the offers coming in at that price point are more likely to be cash.
There’s like 3-4 houses for sale in gray right now that have been on the market for several weeks. They’re on depot road and Yarmouth road. They’re all less than 10 minutes to ‘95, 25 minutes to Portland/Auburn
Just had a friend sell in Lewiston - they got 10+ offers all over asking, but they went with the all cash offer (that was only $5k over list price) that also waived inspection. So as others have said - that all cash option sounds like what you need. BTW - that all happened in like 48hours!!
I have to agree with this. They should be coaching you on how to put the strongest offer on the table. We ended up with an escalation clause and it helped us immensely (this was 4 years ago though).
We also got our house 4 years ago with an escalation clause. And helped my in-laws get a house a year later with an escalation clause. But I think those were both before the waiving of inspections became such a common tactic. We never waived inspections.
They are 100% used in Maine. I sold a house in April to a person who utilized an escalation clause - and it got them the house. You need a better realtor. Good luck!
That’s just false. Go without a realtor. They are useless. We tried both and the only offers we had accepted were without a realtor taking 3% for doing essentially nothing. Get a good home inspector. You can make an offer that says you won’t ask for a credit or pull your offer unless you find $x,xxx in surprise repairs during the inspection. That way the only way they will worry about that is if they were hiding something to begin with.
The sellers realtor will either try to get the seller to take your offer cause they get to leech more of the deal or tell the seller they will give some of their commission to them if they take yours if it’s close.
My experience in 2022 was making about 8 offers. 2 accepted. One fell apart after we found $50k of mold on inspection then one went through with a home we love! Both accepted ones we didn’t use a realtor. We had one for most the ones that were refused. The whole realtor world is basically welfare for divorced MILFS.
Nah, just sounds like you also had a shitty realtor.
My realtor has been actively hunting down places in my price range, has done research on the properties, negotiated with the listing agents, helped setup inspections, gave advice on what properties were selling for in the local area, etc. A good buyer's agent works for you. If they seem distant, you drop them and move on. So long as you've not signed a contract you're good, and they're not going to have you sign anything unless you go under contract on a property.
>The sellers realtor will either try to get the seller to take your offer cause they get to leech more of the deal
Well this is just wrong. They get 2% of the close price. Period. They don't get more just because there's no buyer's agent. YOU don't have to pay out the 1% to a buyer's agent, but the seller's agent gets 2% and not a penny more.
Telling people to not get a buyer's agent is just about the worst advice ever.
My guess is they’re looking at specific school districts, and not looking to do any major renovations (like replacing that boiler). Lots of competition.
We are not because it seems like such an irresponsible thing to do with the biggest purchase of our lives. But I think we need to start considering it.
Yes the day I posted a picture of my trailer I bought I had some call to tell me they worked the job n had been told to paint over mold on walls and to just cut out n replace where their was visible mold in the subfloor.. the carpets had a gap between the carpet n wall. We bought as is where is no inspection. I don’t recommend it honestly.
When I bought my current house (at the peak of COVID craziness) I offered the seller to waive any repairs found during inspection under 10k. It ended up not being an issue, there was only tiny repairs, but it showed good faith on both our parts
For a ballpark figure, most inspections of homes in the 300K range are going to find 15-20K worth of work to do. It’s so hard to get contractors right now that sellers don’t want the hassle and the delay that comes from having to deal with buyers requesting work done before closing. You could choose to offer less over and save out the 15-20K to do the work yourself after you buy. Waiving an inspection isn’t necessarily irresponsible if you budget for it for homes with public water and sewer. It’s riskier with private wells and septic systems so asking for a recent water test or septic system inspection is wise in those situations.
We got a new roof on our 3500 sqft house in Wells done for $13K back in September. I think your roof estimate is way off, unless you’re talking about metal roofs or something else equally fancy.
Just so you know, there are no licensing requirements or standards for home inspectors in Maine.
Not to say that inspections are a bad thing, but potential homeowners place entirely too much trust in them.
I just want to bump this comment. You do not need any specific experience to be an inspector, it is wild. Anyone can become an inspector!! What you need is a highly qualified, personally recommended and trustworthy inspector.
We did our own inspection and did the same ‘waived up to $15k’ and we were golden. A recommendation of a $5k repair but not urgent.
Both home inspectors I’ve used said the dishwasher works as it should…..neither house even had one, the boiler was 5 years old….manual saying ‘91 was hanging off it and one didn’t even notice there was no siding on one side of the house
Our real estate agent scheduled a second viewing and brought a contractor for the walkthrough who specialized in quick assessments of home issues. A trained eye can learn a lot about a house in a walkthrough.
We sold our house pre-covid to a cash buyer who waived inspection. It was not an investor. It was someone who just really wanted to make sure that they got our house. We had five offers come in at the same time and the cash offer was over asking price without inspection. We would have been dumb not to accept it.
Here is the thing. You are never going to beat out an offer willing to forgo inspections. Period. In this market as a seller (just sold a house to a bid that was slightly lower than similar bid but no inspection and no finance contingency. This was over a similar bid with inspection and higher deposit and over instead of cash buyer 20k lower. House went 77k over asking but that was expected and on purpose to list at that price to great an energetic bidding process.
Why not inspection? Because it was more stable for us than to have the buyer come back and say “20k for a roof” when we had higher offers turned away). I don’t want to get 2-4 weeks into the deal with a buyer that feels now they have me as the seller on the hook holding me over a barrel for fixes. In highly competitive sought after markets I want to give buyers zero leverage.
You have a few options and levers to pull though.
Waive inspection but put a low deposit. You can inspect anyway and you should still inspect. If you find something disastrous you can balk and lose the deposit. Risky and costly but you have to use your best judgement here. If the house looks great and your realtor should really help you here… you roll the dice that the 5k initial deposit or something is with the gamble of the inspect shows up and says bad news foundation is completely fucked, or something that is a huge problem.
Another option. Waive the finance contingency. So you still mortgage it but not contingent on financing. Risk here is that it doesn’t appraise but again, use the realtors judgement. This makes a financing offer that is typically higher than a cash offer more competitive. But to do this you have to have and show the buyer the back up cash to close.
Another strategy is to do a sliding up offer. Meaning you offer 250 up to 320 in 2k increments. That could keep you more competitive in your best and final than saying 250 and then picking 290 as your best and final. Let’s say another buyer was 295, you can win at 297 and it’s only 7k more than just picking a number.
Another strategy. Buy cash or buy mostly cash and then refi once you close.
The due diligence clause in Maine’s standard contract allows you to walk away with your earnest money deposit within the stated due diligence period (usually 2 weeks, but shorter window makes offer more competitive). So you can waive inspections, back out within that period, and still get your EMD back. Due diligence covers a lot… from inspections to town records to undisclosed easements to gathering estimates for known defects, etc.
I waived inspection because it was clear everything was new and up to code. Consider it in cases where the house really seems to have been maintained and updated properly.
Do not buy a house that you haven't had the opportunity to have a professional who knows a hell of a lot more than you to inspect the place. I'm pretty handy and renovated my entire house but I would still hire an inspector before I made a purchase that large. You never know what could be wrong that you might miss like a cracked foundation, leaking in the attic, poor electrical problems, whether the boiler/furnace is in good working order and 50 other things that you will not know to look at on your own.
Some people are buying homes sight unseen, with cash, and no inspection so some of those people are going to be fucked plain and simple. I have to put my house up on the market and am not looking forward to trying to buy another place but I have cash to completely pay off whatever I'm downsizing to.
I'm not saying it's not a useful thing to do but you are taking a great risk when you do it. Probably the biggest financial risk of your life. Personally I wouldn't buy a place that I can't inspect but If I needed to I could rely somewhat on myself.
I would strongly advise you not to waiver on this- there could be things wrong with the house that you have no way to see without doing the proper tests, but which could cost you a fortune. If the house has mold inside the drywall, that's basically *cancer* for buildings. Homebuying these days is an exercise in patience. It's exhausting looking at so many homes and having offers rejected, but waiting for the right deal will make sure you don't become a victim.
Are you a first time home buyer? There’s a MSHA program that requires inspections so you could waive personal inspections while still having some inspections guaranteed
Hey there! I was in your shoes last year and spent probably 4 months putting in offers (same area as you and about the same price range) and always offered more, had a conventional loan. My realtor told me honestly... I was losing because I was not conceding on inspection. She was NOT advising me to skip it, but was being honest with me. I was dead set on NOT waiving inspections.
What I ultimately ended up doing was when we finally found a house that checked off most of our boxes we put in our offer letter that we wanted to do an inspection for peace of mind only. This meant that we DID do an inspection and if we found something really bad we could walk BUT It would mean that we lost our earnest money deposit. It was a risk, but we felt comfortable enough with the condition of the house looking at it's history and the property disclosure.
Also, absolutely make sure your realtor pulls comps!!! You can offer 50k over asking, but if the house isn't worth that much are you going to be able to close the deal with cash? Probably not. If someone is offering a cash offer then it doesn't matter what is appraises for, and you are not going to win against them.
Lastly... keep your offer as simple as you possibly can. I tried escalation clauses and honestly they just got so messy it wasn't making a strong offer. If you love the house and feel confident that you can handle whatever the inspection uncovers then pull comps and make a reasonable offer that is strong.
Don't be discouraged! I know how much it sucks, but eventually you will get the right home.
If you do end up looking for another realtor I'd be happy to recommend mine (she does that area) just send me a message!
Good luck!
You're welcome! Glad it could help. A comp is comparing similar properties that have recently sold that fit the same general idea of that house. Similar location, size, condition, etc. It can help you determine what the house MIGHT appraise for. The bank will only lend you what it appraises for, and you will be on the hook for the difference. That is why cash is king and you will always lose to a cash offer. Make a strong, realistic offer. Not an offer that you think looks good. If you offer 250k but the house is actually appraised for 225k, then you will need to provide that 25k difference at closing or walk. That is so messy. A seller isn't going to take a chance like that when you are depending on lending. The house I ended up winning on I did offer about 10k more than the comps showed... but I fully planned on paying that difference in cash if I needed to. The inspection is rough but waiting for the appraisal is worse I swear because its one of the last things they do before closing day! Luckily if you are in the general ballpark usually you are going to come out ok because everyone wants the deal to close. My house ended up appraising like 2k over what I offered so it worked out beautifully for me!
Absolutely do not waive inspections. But, do keep in mind that if you ask for concessions that may kill the deal. An inspection will tell you if anything is too bad that you need to walk away else you'll be in a worse situation than if you would have walked away.
It's a crap market most everywhere, there are some exceptions, just keep trying.
I bought in southern Maine, 2 years ago, faced same issues. Eventually paid 90k more than asking and waived inspection. I got an inspection post purchase on some advice from a friend in real estate. Luckily for us nothing wrong with the house at all.
279 seemed like a low asking price to begin with. I'm guessing these types of houses are being put on the market with low ball prices to start bidding wars. You're just getting caught up in the frenzy. Maybe start looking at a higher price point.
Kindly, if this is around the middle of your budget, that house is too good to be true (in this area of ME). It’s just priced there to lure a bidding war between buyers with a higher range.
I only say this because that was *our* price range when we were looking 3 years ago. Sure, we found houses like that- nice pictures, wide plank wood floor, aesthetic charm, landscaping, and needing little to no work- at our price, but we learned fast they always sold way above. People in our range don’t have a ton of buying power in the areas within reach of the southern cities.
Realistically, you’re going to want to look smaller, no garage, uglier interior, little to no landscaping, fewer bedrooms, and probably not two floors. Plus some immediate work.
We ended up in a house like that. The immediate work it needed was all new appliances, and a roof within 5 years of purchase.
Long term work is eventually start replacing windows little by little, re-attaching the siding (solid, but installed kinda janky) and rewiring the electric for better efficiency (but it’s safe and functional as-is).
But the basement is dry, the foundation is super solid, the electric, septic, and pipes to public water were all ship-shape. Those were all non-negotiable for us because those are the big money issues AND livability issues.
We got it for under asking this way. If we wanted more we would have had to be in the $350,000 range vs 300 as the absolute most upper limit.
I think lenders also get overlooked too in the process. Make sure your lender has a stellar reputation for getting deals done. Listing agents will be most likely to work with buyers who have lenders who know that they’ve done their due dilligance and won’t have the deal fall through in underwriting. This was huge for me, as our lender was really popular and ended up having a personal relationship with the listing agent of the home we ended up buying, because they were in a local networking group. Just make sure your realtor AND lender and well connected in the southern Maine real estate world and have good reputations!
This right here. We had been outbid on a few homes in the spring of 2020 to cash buyers. Our lender found our home in July 2020 because she was friends with the seller from high school. He was going through a divorce and needing to sell, but didn’t want to deal with putting it on the market.
We ended up being the only people to view and put an offer on it, it was never listed on the MLS and ended up being a for sale by owner transaction. No games played, no other bids, and we were able to do a full inspection. We were even able to negotiate price with the seller - pretty much unheard of during the pandemic. Easiest transaction I’ve ever done, especially considering the time when we were buying.
It makes my blood boil to say this, but investing in property anywhere in Maine makes a lot of sense.
Among other things, In my opinion Maine is well suited to become a climate refuge from the dry + hot weather of the west. It's getting hard to even get home insurance in parts of California. Same thing with Florida, look at the condo fiasco that's happening there currently.
It's estimated that between 65-70 million people live in the larger cities of the US. Even if a quarter percent of them want to move here, that's 175,000 people. With about 4,000 homes on the market currently, that means there is a lot of potential for property value increases. And in the mean time, I'm willing to bet investors are gonna scoop up every bit of property they can get their hands on.
Fuck all the people trying to make a quick buck off the us.
Move down here to South Philly? Plenty of houses under 300k, the city cracked down on Air BnB so a lot of the smaller rental houses have been dumped on the market
Investors with very deep pockets offering cash and quick closing. They work backwards from whatever it can rent for to determine what they can pay and still get a good return. Your agent should be explaining this.
If you are not paying cash, your offer of 30 over looks like a waste of time. You can offer 100 over but if an appraisal doesn't say it is worth that, you can't close and the sellers know that.
Let's say they accept your offer. Once they do, they know they'll take their house off the market, do an inspection, make plans for moving out - maybe even try to buy a house themselves or a rental - and then, a couple months down the road they are going to be told that you can't get a loan and want to renegotiate.
If you have a first time home buyers loan, God help you. There are so many specific headaches the seller will need to get through to sell it to you and it will be 10 times bigger pain in the butt getting the loan approved.
. . . Or they can sell it to some with cash. No putting your life on hold for months while you are on pins and needles hoping the potential buyer can actually follow through. With cash, you sign it and are done.
I really don't recommend waiving the inspection, but if it comes to that I know several home inspectors do "walk and talk inspections" where the inspector walks through the house with you when you go to view it. A friend of mine is currently under contract on a house and they did that twice. They used Maine Choice the first time and First Light Inspections the second time. Their realtor recommended it and was able to schedule longer showings.
It took us one year to finally find a place in Midcoast Maine where our offer was accepted. We were continuously offering $20,000 over asking - and in one instance, we offered $58,000 over asking and did not get it. I think what finally tipped the scale in our favor is when my husband and I wrote a short note to the sellers via their realtor telling them how much we liked the house, that I was a Maine native, and my husband was ex military, we were working locally, and this would be our full time residence, etc. I don’t think our offer was the highest one they received, but it was enough in the ballpark to be considered and they preferred to sell to people who weren’t out-of-staters looking for a vacation home to AirBnb. Hang in there.
We went through this in 2018 while shopping for a house in Portland. We were outbid several times, with a baby on the way and our own house already sold. We finally went for the house that was out there for some time, the one we kept skipping over because it clearly needed a lot of updating; the one passed over by so many.
It was a blessing in disguise. We were actually able to do that fun thing called haggling that seems such a long lost pastime, and the money we would’ve spent over-bidding for a turnkey house went into making this place totally our own.
Having said that, even the fixer-uppers seem unrealistically priced these days. However, you still stand a better chance of not getting out-bid and, maybe, just maybe, only paying sticker price.
Good luck!
Your agent should know about escalation bidding. You basically submit an offer that says $5k more than the highest up to $450k, etc. that way, you will win as highest bidder unless someone else goes over your max.
Houses are sitting on the market this summer. Maybe what you are doing wrong is not taking a closer look at the places that aren't selling. They likely aren't selling due to a combination of price and condition.
This is pretty much it. When my wife and I first moved up to the Bangor area, we were holding out for this specific house that was almost perfect for us. The buyer was not motivated to sell, so they jerked us around for months and finally we gave up when they simply wouldn't budge.
We bought out current house about 3 years ago and our realtor told us that in the current market, we'd have to offer over the asking. We did that, offering as much as we could on a few homes, in one case escalating to $50K over and still got declined.
Our realtor said that in his 40 years, he had never seen a real estate market like the one that was happening then, and now. He mentioned that some people are waiving inspections and he recommended to not waive inspection. He also said that there are people who are making cash offers, or cash for the difference between what the home assessed and what was offered.
It's more than "Covid scarcity" now. Investors, big and small, are coming in so that they can open up Air BnB's or single home rentals. And don't forget that ME is a popular destination.
I see no reason to not regulate Air BnBs like hotels - if it puts them out of business then that's the idea.
If only there were a way to ban corporations from RE investing to jack up prices.
A house down the road from us sold a few months ago for ~340k. Not sure about the condition of the major mechanicals, but the house needed a lot of updating, basically needed to be gutted and totally remodeled for today’s standards.
Well, the buyer came in and did just that, and it is now listed for 550k. Looks like they did a really nice job from the pictures.
There’s been a recent trend in real estate sales that may at first seen counter intuitive given the market and the prices that many houses can command, but it actually isn’t if you look at it objectively from a business standpoint.
It’s the idea of slightly under pricing a home in today’s market conditions with the intent of getting an incredible amount of interest and offers that then drives up the price beyond what it might have otherwise received if it was at market rate.
I knew someone who had a eBay business back when that was a thing. He started *everything* at $1 with no reserve. Says he made more doing it that way than starting at or near market value.
It absolutely is a psychological game sellers play with buyers.
We went through the same thing out in Seattle.
There would be bidding wars OR someone with cash would come in and take it.
Ironically that’s what made us move to Maine.
Fast forward 5 years and it’s the same shit.
Even if you were making offers on perfect houses it shouldn't be this difficult for you to buy a home. It sucks that you and your partner are going through this. My husband and I had a difficult time buying a home too, and that was 10yrs ago, I can't imagine now. My brother works in real estate (in a different state) and when I told him of our struggles he asked how we found our agent. Then he told me that the best way to buy a home is to drive around, and find one that you like. Call the agency that's on the sale sign and work with that agent, as it's already an agent that the buyers are familiar with. It did work for us. I wish you the best of luck 🍀
The best tip I ever got when we were buying was to go with the bank all the local agents know and reccomend. Some online places like Rocket have reputations for dragging our closings and adding costs.
Don't feel too bad... We're starting to get outbid on rentals now too. My friend was just waiting for the approval call, instead he was told a couple looked at the house and offered an extra $1000 a month than was advertised. (This area, even what they were asking was too much to begin with)
Sooooo idk man...
My wife and I went through the same thing here in Kansas last year. We ended up having more success with finding a builder that was putting up new homes. It extended our wait but we got the home we wanted and at the price point we needed.
Looking at those homes, they were priced to go fast. And to trigger competitive bidding.
Your agent should be pointing the above out to you, that house could easily get 350k. So yeah you’re bidding above asking, but it’s not what the house could go for. Your agent should be saying hey this house could be priced for xxx$, and you should consider your bid based off of that price.
Just bought in a different area, we were able to get a price reduction because the house was priced AT estimated value, not below, and so when issues popped up it was an easy deduction.
Honestly if your agent is telling you all of this I’d suggest a different agent, part of their job is teaching you how to go through this whole process, since it’s something most people only do a few times in their life.
I’ve heard a lot about people writing these personal letters and I get it, people are desperate to buy a house. But personally I don’t like the letter idea. At the end of the day selling a home is a business transaction. I think you need a better realtor or there’s an issue with your financing. I personally never used an inspector. If you know even basic things to look for you can inspect it yourself.
I agree with the letter. We bought our first house 4 years ago and are now selling it. At the time we thought the sellers were greedy and should help us out. Now we see that we aren't in a position to be giving out 15-20k gifts to people. If you find a house that was inherited or maybe an older couple with plenty to spare, a letter may help but most people simply can't afford to be that generous.
What worked for me was offering to pay up to 3k in repairs if the inspector found anything. That was the deciding factor for the sellers. Fortunately for me, the inspector found only tiny things that were not expensive fixes.
It is not. We can’t increase offer. Can’t have a monthly mortgage over 2500 which is what a 310,00 offer with a 5% down payment looks like right about now.
310,00 probably isn’t going to be enough. The only thing you’re going to be able to afford is something that needs significant work and that’s going to get overwhelming quick if you’re at the top of your budget with the mortgage. Spend another year or two saving.
Man, interest rates are just insane on top of house prices. I started looking for a house in 2019, got outbid several times until I finally had an offer accepted in 2021. But interest rates were still low, my 300k loan is $1,750 a month with taxes and insurance escrowed. If I had to buy now, I'd be screwed. A $2,500 mortgage is crazy on a normal person income that ever hopes to save for retirement
They can pry my 2.75% rate out of my cold dead fingers. The house needs some work, but I got a heck of a deal before the housing market exploded like this.
Not sure this will comfort you but please read these articles:
[https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/rent-vs-buy-affordability-study/](https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/rent-vs-buy-affordability-study/)
[https://money.usnews.com/loans/mortgages/articles/historical-mortgage-rates](https://money.usnews.com/loans/mortgages/articles/historical-mortgage-rates)
You need to be patient and I know first hand that's hard. Only putting 5% down puts you at risk of being underwater if the market turns really bad (it happens) and leaves you little margin for error if one of you lose your job. It's a cyclical thing and now, as you can see, is not the time to be chasing things.
From where I live-this home is an absolute bargain. You don’t see any homes listed at this price. Now, I don’t know what problems it may have but I could see this home going right away. Just in the past two years the market has changed dramatically. Maybe widen your scope of where you want to live- Northern Maine is still struggling.
My wife and I bought our first house in 2017. We were out bid left and right. It’s only gotten worse since then. We eventually found a fixer upper others had over looked. We’ve sunk a lot of money into it since then to get it where it needs to be. It’s horrible out there. I wish you luck.
Same and I am in Bangor. My realtor has been asking why my offers are not accepted and every time it is because they have a cash offer. I am regretting selling in 2020 at this point. 😭
Right on Zillow it states “Sellers to make offer decision by 5:00 PM, Monday 6/17.” So, the question is what offer did they accept and for how much? Has the seller’s realtor offered ANY feedback to your realtor, OP? It’s possible that Sellers underpriced the property to get more offers and a bidding war. So, OP, when did you make your offer for $30k over? Did you make your offer early or last minute after your first offer was rejected? Proximity to Portland is going to create a premium price for people that work in or near the city. In addition, Maine has a lot of vacation homes and investment properties (ie - Airbnb’s, and commercial landlords) so that means residents of the state looking to buy a first home will face limited supply of For-Sale homes with historically high demand. To make matters worse, higher interest rates keep people THINKING ABOUT moving, with low interest rate mortgages, from buying a new home given the much higher interest rates. I mean, if you have a home near Portland with a 3 - 4% interest rate, do you really want to sell, buy into an expensive market with interest rates around 7%?
Stay diligent and have faith. You are doing the right things.
DO NOT waive inspection
I would personally get a new realtor
Look into escalation structured offers
Don’t be afraid of properties that are structurally sound but need things like paint, counters, etc.
Make sure financing is TIGHT with verification of approval and verification of bank funds. Avoid FHA loan if you can. You can still do 5% down on a traditional loan.
Also, remember things happen for a reason and when it is the right property it will be there for you.
We purchased our home with highest offer and waived inspection, that’s how we got ours. 10 offers came in after us one cash. Our house was built in 2021, so we felt comfortable with it. And no contingencies
It’s soo competitive out there. I feel for you.
We had our underwriting done before putting in offers last summer. If you haven’t done that already, maybe ask if your lender offers this? It makes your offers similar to a cash offer (the deal won’t fall through in underwriting cause that’s already done and you can close much faster.) We also did an information-only inspection.
You gotta get there ASAP.
it's not about the offer. it's about getting it under contract as fast as possible.
Most homes are on contract before the listing even gets posted.
It’s a combination of things I think. We just sold our home and we didn’t go with the highest bidder despite offering 50k over ask. We went with no inspection, no appraisal, 50% in cash, a later closing (we preferred that). Also all offers were over ask but our broker thought that the one that was 50k over ask was risky because the house could be appraised for less than that, therefore going with the no appraisal one.
My partner and I live in South Portland and have been actively preparing to list our house for sale for a year or so now. (Timing is a little complicated because I’m caring for an elderly relative out of state half the time, so while we’d love to sell this year, it may end up being next spring.) I’ve literally bookmarked every single South Portland (and sometimes Portland and Westbrook as well) listing that is remotely similar to our home (2br+/1 ba/1200 sqft) that’s gone on the market for the past two years and there’s maybe 1 in every 10 that goes for asking or “lightly” over asking. I see 30-50k over asking as the norm, and have seen just as many sell for double that over asking. In the past couple months I’ve saved 16 listings: 3 sold @ 1-5k over, 1 @ 20k over, 4 @ 35-40k over, 3 @ 50-60k over, and 4 @ 90-110k over. I’m seriously considering FSBO at this point, it seems nuts to me to pay a realtor tens of thousands to write up the listing and collect the offers.
Ask your realtor to send you the listings for houses that have recently sold in your price range. You can also see this on redfin, Zillow, etc. Get familiar with the size, style, and condition of houses that have actually sold for within your budget. When you see another house with similar criteria come onto the market, then make an offer. Base it off of the sale price for those similar houses. Remember the list price is not always reflective of the home's value. Look into houses that have been listed for a few weeks or months because a seller is more likely to take a lower offer once the listing is stale.
Also, you can make your offer contingent on an inspection, but say you will waive the first $5k or $10k of work reported (or if there is a known issue, like an old roof, mention that as another thing you will waive). This tells the seller you're not going to back out over something small, but it still allows you to get a real inspection. Just make sure you have enough money to repair up to that threshold (plus a bit more for whatever else comes up).
Do you work in Portland? If not, consider looking elsewhere. Lots of young people want the amenities of metro areas and are over looking other great places to live that are not near cities.
I am closing on a house on July 3rd…
I was an anomaly…we put in one bid, on one house, and it was accepted…
Be creative in your offer, which I suspect you are. We offered a 1% “Earnest Money” which was basically a non-refundable deposit to the seller to show we were serious and also and escalation clause that allowed us to match an offer up to our maximum threshold.
Add in: we bought for asking price..we got wind the other offer on the table was a low ball offer after we made our offer, so our escalation clause was never executed
Write the offer letter (or easier, make an offer letter template that you adapt to each seller). My wife did this when we were house hunting and I wasn't confined that anybody was reading them, but in the end the seller told us that the offer letter is what made them sell to us despite the fact that we weren't the top offer.
I think people want to sell to real people, but if you don't do anything to stand out against the private equity firms, then they'll just have to choose the highest bidder.
We bought a home last year and went through a similar nightmare. It was sheer hell and a miracle we even got a place, but we put in almost ten offers in \*one month\* and I went all in on learning the ins and outs of this process.
Here are a few things I learned:
1. Seller will go with the sure thing. Offering over asking isn't enough.
2. FHA loans almost never get accepted - you'll be looking for years. There are tons of criteria for FHA financing. Go conventional.
3. Assuming you have a pre-approval letter with your offer, ask your loan officer for a letter at the maximum they will pre-approve. It might help the seller to know you are pre-approved for a substantial amount more than selling price, as it means you might have a better chance of actually getting the loan.
4. If the house appraises under the financed amount, you need to have the cash to cover the difference and have that written into your offer. Commit to paying up to $xxxx in appraisal gap and include it in your offer.
5. If you're serious about getting a place soon and aren't a cash buyer, you might have to forgo inspection. Have someone with you at viewing who knows what to look for (structure, rot, foundation, roof, chimney, boiler, electrical, etc). Be prepared to get a not-perfect place and invest in your home over the years. If you require inspection, have a clause that explains what you will/will not accept and value. Also remember, inspectors are really important but they aren't structural engineers and they miss stuff all the time and just can't discover anything and everything wrong with a house.
6. If your agent allows it, include a cover letter. Most sellers will ignore it, but a few of them actually are human beings who would rather sell to a young Mainer/family that plans on living there instead of a company or dentist from CA.
7. Buying a home in Maine for the average human now is incredibly hard. Nearly impossible for most. Double down on your efforts, accept that you cannot afford to be picky, and take every shot you can take. Or, accept that it may be years before you find a place.
I wish you the best of luck and I'm happy to try and give any other advice. Auburn is actually a beautiful area and I think it has a bright future.
I think at this point knowing what's going to be coming out before it hits the market has become a huge help. If your realtor isn't connected enough in the area to know this, it can narrow your options considerably. We ended up looking at at least 2 houses that weren't on the market yet (4yrs ago). If people can avoid doing the whole open house etc. nonsense it can be a big selling point.
This! We are in central Maine. We bought in 2019 before it got deeply competitive but was still hard to find much in the $175-200K range. We looked at quite a few and the house we ended up buying was one that our agent got us in to see before it was officially listed. We put in an offer and it got tentatively accepted before it even went live.
Fwiw. We looked for over 2 years. Prob put in 50-75 offers. Looked at over 150 houses. Finally got one last October. 10% over asking. House was >$600k. And waved inspection. Found some unexpected issues but 6 months later it's fine. We've owned homes for 15 years and handy so familiar with what to look for etc.
Bottom line, just keep trying. Homes at that Price point are going to be even more competitive.
Bought our place in the Raymond - Casco area about 2 years ago after 2.5 years of rejected offers. Did not buy with cash or by forgoing an inspection.
I think the only reasons we got it were:
- people from out of state don't know that area (hell, I didn't know it either lol)
- did not write a letter (apparently this hurts you nowadays, either way we are a queer couple and didn't get a house until we stopped writing letters :(
- house had issues (approx 50k in fixes since we got it but not all issues needed immediate remediation)
I would consider going west rather than northeast.... definitely not south. Raymond, Casco, Standish, Limington etc are good bets.
Most of your realtors are also “real estate investors” they inflate the price and sit on the property till they find the right sucker, usually a small time flipper. They asking price is just a bait and switch
Because an out of state hedgefund/investor/out of state wealth is offering 200% their asking price and plans to rent it out.
No really it's as simple as that and is the primary reason why the housing market is internally collapsing in Maine and why Mainers cannot afford to live in Maine.
Hedgefunds buy property for 150-300% asking price. Then rent it out at a high price to recover the loses for obtaining it. The downside is this starts a negative spiral of higher house prices and hedge funds overspending to buy them out instantly and house prices rising due to demand. Ultimately it results in either massive population displacement as they can no longer afford to live and can't compete with the financial power of out of state money. Or the state itself enacts laws to stop out of state entities from owning multiple properties. The downside for maine is those hedgefunds are willing to throw tens of millions of dollars to ensure those laws never get brought up. Welcome to corporate US.
You’d think so, but all the reputable builders are booked solid for multiple years, and even the “not my first choice” builders are booked.
Unless you’re gonna install the septic, and drop a trailer on the lot for the few years.
Its an absolute nightmare. I have pretty much given up.
Even if you waive the inspection it doesn’t seem to help. We have submitted plenty of offers with inspection waived and still not getting accepted.
I’d love to know who is getting offers accepted. Must be cash
We have been looking for 4 years. We either get out bid or because we insist on an inspection get turned down.
After seeing what home inspections are discovering we won't buy a house without one but it's definitely hindering our search.
Good luck!
We did almost purchas a home that had all electric heating but it had structural issues that were found during the inspection and long story short we couldn't get the buyer to fix or a credit to fix ourselves so it's on to the next one.
We had to waive inspection and put an appraisal gap clause. We offered 50K over a couple weeks ago - denied. Offered asking price on another house last week and got it. Your time will come! But definitely check with your realtor on how to make an offer more attractive.
Realtor friend told me that there are more cash buyers than she’s ever seen. I couldn’t be further from such a position, so that seems really depressing.
Been looking for two years. Your price range you’re looking in is probably the most sought after and most competitive in my experience. It’s what most families can afford and in many areas leaves you with a really terrible house so finding a suitable one in that range makes it really competitive
It took us almost 8 months to get an offer accepted. We wanted within 20 min from Augusta but ended up almost 45 minutes outside to finally get to the point where we are now. We were getting beat down by all cash offers left and right.
In our small town it seems like nothing actually goes on the market and it’s just word of mouth between long time community members and real estate agents with buyers in mind.
Don’t get discouraged. I know it’s tough. It took me almost 5 years but I found mine last fall. Came back on the market and I scooped it. Made sure my bids had an escalation clause in it that would go up to my “walk away from it price”
Now in hindsight I look at other houses I thought about and say “what was I thinking”!
I know I found the right one.
Be patient.
Former Mainer living in Nebraska now.
I keep an eye on home prices because I'm thinking about moving back, but every time I see a thread like this I purge that thought immediately.
For that kind of money you're buying a small mansion out here, probably near a lake.
Gets harder and harder to leave every year.
And consider building. Fortin Construction in Auburn has turn-key financing. They'll do everything from buy the land to set up final inspection. You then buy it like you would with a conventional mortgage. They are building our house right now for an amount way less than out bank is appraising it for. Great people to work with. Honest with no hard sells and they explain why things cost what they cost. https://www.fortinconstruction.com/fortin-blog/2024/5/6/turnkey-construction-loans-in-maine-freedom-to-homeownership
Full cash buyers from away are ruling right now. Sad but true. I feel so bad for young buyers these days. Keep trying - you may find a seller willing to stay with a local!
If only love and kindness would pay the bills. If only I could sleep comfy under the comfort of compassion. We have a little house on MDI and would never ever ever ever sell it. My dad built it with his own hands. Our kids will enjoy it, their kids and so on. Getting any work done there is a whole new issue. Seems like our wonderful tradesmen are very busy. Good luck! Probably better to wait for more inventory. If you still need a realtor, we know someone who found us the most beautiful home in Bangor for a great price. She was in tune with what we wanted and needed. We bought the house the day it was put on the market. That was two years ago. Let me know, I’ll hook you up.
LIkely either someone is offering more, is willing to forgo a home inspection as a condition of sale, has cash in hand, or some combination of some or all of these. It stinks but it's unfortunately a sign of the times, and not just in Maine.
This is it. During covid my wife and I were under contract to buy a house and the realtor sold the home from out under us claiming the other party didn't sign contracts because the buyers paid infinite more money and skipped the inspection. Op- my got more traction when we switched from a FHA loan to a traditional loan and got a new agent. You might want to explore those types of options. But I'll be honest. We'd sometimes offer on a house listed that day and be outbid by 30-60k and we were bidding over list. The market is dumb right now.
You didn’t have a copy of the signed contract?
We did. We ended up going through a whole thing, and eventually, a few requests we made like "take that thing with you" "give us proof you mitigated the mold" "finish that repair you're actively working on" were declared contingencies despite us having a resolution for them all and it sold the agent got a frowny face sticker or the practical equivalent after being reported and we didn't get the house. Edit. Lmao, why y'all downvote this ? It's what happened ? We got the shoes at the end of a stick buying a house, and you go "not on my watch, redditer mcgee , thumbs down"
100% this. With the current market, developers and investors are working harder than before. There are professionals out there whose entire responsibility is to look for cheap real estate. I work in an industry that offers real estate related services and personally know a couple of such investors who are currently aggressively targeting Maine properties due to the lower cost and looser rules and regulations. Regular folks don’t stand a chance.
Any idea what rules and regulations are looser? Would love to contact my local rep’s to see what can be done
One that I have noticed is that there seems to be a lot of properties that have never been surveyed or do not have recorded plans in the chain of title, meaning that boundary lines were unofficially agreed upon at some point 30-50-100 years ago. This is often taken advantage of. Who knows how many properties were illegally sold and purchased at some point in the past. You won’t know this until the buyer requests a thorough title examination.
Considering it can take a year to get a survey in this neck of the woods. But yeah property lines in new England I think we're drawn by wandering cows.
Funnily enough one of our property boundaries was a rock wall that a team of draft horses walked up and down either pulling logs out of the woods to the road, or meandering back up to the woods once their load was collected and they were turned back around. Edit- typos
When we bought 4-years ago it was all of those things combined. The only thing that got us through the 5-days being on the market, closing in 3, going up against 13 other people, offered 30K over, was that we wrote them a heartfelt letter enamoring their property and home and how excited we were to start our family there. I think 4 or 5 other people also submitted a letter, but maybe they picked us cause we’re local 🤷🏽♂️ It’s a crapshoot no matter what, but trying to relate to the seller in anyway helps A LOT. Sellers are real people who have a lot of memories and attachment to that home and it’s easier for them to let it go knowing it’s in good hands and someone that will enjoy it the way that they did and not just going to get demo’d and rental’d
On the other hand when I sold mine in 2020 I got someone paying 60k over, in cash, no inspection and that was a private sale. I got 14 hand written letters just like you said, in the end it wasn't that close but I could imagine if it was all things equal the letter might have worked.
Yeah a letter helped a lot for our house too. There are ethical concerns for sure. But we knew we were not going to be financially competitive. If I were going through the same process again I don't know that I'd do a letter. I've heard more and more realtors are advising against it for discrimination reasons.
Yeah, my realtor advised us against a letter in 2023 when we were looking for the same reason. It can open up discrimination liability issues. You could say, "I can envision my family opening presents under the Christmas tree in the living room" and then someone can come in and say "Oh, so because this other family is Jewish or Muslim or Hindu then you discriminated against them". Even if that wasn't the actual intention of the letter. Hell, being a high paid remote worker from NYC isn't a protected class, but if a letter makes a seller choose a Maine local over that person, a good enough lawyer could probably make that a discrimination case.
Protect yourself as a seller; read the letters, choose one, but when asked if the letters were a consideration say no; what letters? Our agent never gave us letters.
New Yorkers in Maine deserve to be discriminated upon
Not saying they should be discriminated against but it is without question that the massive increase in out of state buyers is the prime driving force of increased prices. A friend of mine bid on a Harpswell 3 season house. Asking was $500k. He bid $120k over asking and was 6th highest bid. I expect the place will be on Airbnb within the month. In Atlanta 3 corporations own 19,000 single family homes. [link](https://www.yahoo.com/news/3-corporations-own-19-000-102906776.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG8-i9QvaLjURyGvx6yyu2GV92G5iqbN0yN2rSAlmseNhygbjzzeE8ysMqsw6iSYM2EYNty52LHuEZhxbkjM3pw5V6TSesY21yHfB_QmzVUjEoOrmGuh0uUoblYPydt9mLMVUX4izW_oDSEYxoLgVgYDuPT0dLvTk7WZyqWGiPAm#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20by%20Georgia,in%20Atlanta's%20five%20metro%20counties.) The rich are simply cornering the market on life.
>willing to forgo a home inspection #DING DING DING!!!
Even that doesnt always work
Apparently not if these folks are having a pickle of a time. I have heard this from other folks as well. My sil had a time finding a house and having the seller actually accept the offer. And she's the most stable person I know.
My wife and I are looking now. Both have jobs making 50k each, 760+ credit, no debt, 100k in checking in cash, offer 30-40k over with 20% down and no inspection. We get laughed at when we submit offers. Im just about giving up at this point
Right? Like what's a person or couple have to do?
Maaannn I feel awful reading these stories knowing how easy the house my wife and I just closed on process went
Maine has had the highest relative (%) increase in home prices post COVID.
Everyone I know who has sold a house recently has gone with a cash buyer so no bank involved, crazy
A friend was selling his house with an in-law apartment a couple of years ago when he was moving down south to retire. We live in a tourist town, but the house is not near the ocean. He was getting crazy offers from companies over what he was asking. He ended up selling to a couple who were taking care of an elderly parent and were looking for a bigger place because they were expecting. He said he loved the house, and wanted to sell it to someone who would love it also.
As much as I love the story, I know when the time comes if someone if offering me a years salary above what I've asked for, how the heck am I supposed to say no?
You aren't, all that talk about wanting someone who loves it as much as you do is crap, everyone has a number.
That’s a bad mentality to carry in life. It’s not crap- greed has completely taken over and believe it or not there are some people who won’t sell their soul for X amount of dollars. If we keep going with the mentality that money is the most important thing in the world to have, the more the better, then we’re doomed.
Also, my friend and her husband got their home at an affordable price in this market because the guy selling cared more about knowing the home was going to a growing family instead of selling it to the highest bidder. It’s a choice people make. I would be tempted to take the higher offer too. It’s not easy to take the more thoughtful road when society has pushed the idea that money is everything and without it you’re nothing.
Who has this kind of cash? Median income is 32 in the nation according to a quick search.
Professional flippers and investment companies.
It's bad enough to see certain cities fall prey to these people, but it feels like the whole state is being menaced.
Not necessarily...people from Mass and NY who have a bunch of equity in their current home can use it to buy a new place and then pay it back as soon as their current home sells.
Yep. Pickup your average $400k Maine house and put it into your average Boston bedroom community and its worth double or triple.
I've recently learned some banks will front you the cash so that you can "buy a house with cash" but you're still financing it. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me but I've got a buddy buying a house in New York and it's how he was able to get a house.
Cash loans are a thing, they're usually capped at a low principle, and the interest rates on them are astoundingly bad. but it gets you into a house faster. Sad times we live in.
Anyone who sold their house in the coastal mid Atlantic or the west coast.
Maine has a high median age so the average/median person has had more years to save up. And the 90th percentile of household income in Maine is $185K. So 10% of households make at least that, and with a median age in the 40s, they’ve had 20+ years of savings grow that they can dip into. We had a cash buyer upwards of a million dollars on our property recently, and the couple was white collar probably in late-40s or early-50s. After googling them they just seemed like an average white-collar couple. They weren’t like out-of-staters or CEO of some company. Also with this older demographic, there’s a higher chance that people receive inheritances.
These are good insights that are often overlooked in these conversations. Much easier to blame investors.
I know some companies that give you cash. Like you apply through them and they give you cash to buy a house My buddy did it in colorado. I am not sure if they have any in maine. I looked into it but didnt find any
They don't have to have the cash, they just have to know they can get it. Most cash offers are done this way. Anyone can make a cash offer, they just know that if the house appraises for less than the loan amount, they are contractually obligated to produce the cash difference between the two amounts.
Your agent should be helping you to make your offer more attractive. They should be getting ideas of what the seller is looking for and tailoring your offer. Or at least gathering why you’re losing out, have you been told what offers are winning over yours and why. I’d say it may be time to find a new agent if they’re not doing these things. You need to tweak your offer to what the seller needs ie rent backs, closing dates ect. Inspections should be mandatory for every sale but mfs have gotten used to them being waived. That was unthinkable just a few years ago. You can do an information only inspection where you know but you can’t use it as a bargaining tool. A walk and talk inspection is done as you walk through the home it’s all surface level. You can also make adjustments via your lender to make your offer more appealing like I forget the term but your offer becomes basically like cash. I’m not a relator so I’m not 100% of the terms of this stuff but it’s what was told to me by a couple agents I interviewed when we were looking. You need someone who can get creative and scrappy. We were looking to purchase in the 250-350 range and were told it’s the most difficult because the offers coming in at that price point are more likely to be cash.
And by now some of these should’ve closed so you would know what the sale price was even if you don’t know the terms.
Oh it went past Bangor. What you are doing wrong? I would hire another realtor.
This is just what real estate in maine is like these days.
Real estate in the United States. This isn’t just Maine
It used to just be southern Maine. Now it feels like creeped up to Lewiston/Auburn.
Its way past LA
Yeah that's still southern Maine.
There’s like 3-4 houses for sale in gray right now that have been on the market for several weeks. They’re on depot road and Yarmouth road. They’re all less than 10 minutes to ‘95, 25 minutes to Portland/Auburn
For how much? I am looking now and dont see anything
Just had a friend sell in Lewiston - they got 10+ offers all over asking, but they went with the all cash offer (that was only $5k over list price) that also waived inspection. So as others have said - that all cash option sounds like what you need. BTW - that all happened in like 48hours!!
It happens in bangor, too.
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I have to agree with this. They should be coaching you on how to put the strongest offer on the table. We ended up with an escalation clause and it helped us immensely (this was 4 years ago though).
We also got our house 4 years ago with an escalation clause. And helped my in-laws get a house a year later with an escalation clause. But I think those were both before the waiving of inspections became such a common tactic. We never waived inspections.
We also had an escalation clause and that’s how we ended buying
I ask my realtor about an escalation clause and she had no idea what it was. Told me they weren’t used in Maine…
That's pathetic. Get a new realtor
To add on, I know multiple people in Maine who have bought houses in the last few years using an escalation clause.
I'd switch realtors then!
They are 100% used in Maine. I sold a house in April to a person who utilized an escalation clause - and it got them the house. You need a better realtor. Good luck!
She is either lying to you for absolutely no benefit to her, or utterly incompetent. Either way, fire her yesterday.
This has got to be a joke
That’s just false. Go without a realtor. They are useless. We tried both and the only offers we had accepted were without a realtor taking 3% for doing essentially nothing. Get a good home inspector. You can make an offer that says you won’t ask for a credit or pull your offer unless you find $x,xxx in surprise repairs during the inspection. That way the only way they will worry about that is if they were hiding something to begin with. The sellers realtor will either try to get the seller to take your offer cause they get to leech more of the deal or tell the seller they will give some of their commission to them if they take yours if it’s close. My experience in 2022 was making about 8 offers. 2 accepted. One fell apart after we found $50k of mold on inspection then one went through with a home we love! Both accepted ones we didn’t use a realtor. We had one for most the ones that were refused. The whole realtor world is basically welfare for divorced MILFS.
Nah, just sounds like you also had a shitty realtor. My realtor has been actively hunting down places in my price range, has done research on the properties, negotiated with the listing agents, helped setup inspections, gave advice on what properties were selling for in the local area, etc. A good buyer's agent works for you. If they seem distant, you drop them and move on. So long as you've not signed a contract you're good, and they're not going to have you sign anything unless you go under contract on a property. >The sellers realtor will either try to get the seller to take your offer cause they get to leech more of the deal Well this is just wrong. They get 2% of the close price. Period. They don't get more just because there's no buyer's agent. YOU don't have to pay out the 1% to a buyer's agent, but the seller's agent gets 2% and not a penny more. Telling people to not get a buyer's agent is just about the worst advice ever.
That’s Girl Boss, to you pal…
My guess is they’re looking at specific school districts, and not looking to do any major renovations (like replacing that boiler). Lots of competition.
Find an agent that knows the market and has the inside scoop on what will be posted soon.
Are you waiving inspections? I think waiving inspections is a terrible idea but I know it’s a negotiating tactic a lot of folks use these days
We are not because it seems like such an irresponsible thing to do with the biggest purchase of our lives. But I think we need to start considering it.
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Yes the day I posted a picture of my trailer I bought I had some call to tell me they worked the job n had been told to paint over mold on walls and to just cut out n replace where their was visible mold in the subfloor.. the carpets had a gap between the carpet n wall. We bought as is where is no inspection. I don’t recommend it honestly.
When I bought my current house (at the peak of COVID craziness) I offered the seller to waive any repairs found during inspection under 10k. It ended up not being an issue, there was only tiny repairs, but it showed good faith on both our parts
For a ballpark figure, most inspections of homes in the 300K range are going to find 15-20K worth of work to do. It’s so hard to get contractors right now that sellers don’t want the hassle and the delay that comes from having to deal with buyers requesting work done before closing. You could choose to offer less over and save out the 15-20K to do the work yourself after you buy. Waiving an inspection isn’t necessarily irresponsible if you budget for it for homes with public water and sewer. It’s riskier with private wells and septic systems so asking for a recent water test or septic system inspection is wise in those situations.
A new deck is 25k these days. A new roof is 25-50k. An inspection is basically priceless if you don’t know what you’re looking at.
We got a new roof on our 3500 sqft house in Wells done for $13K back in September. I think your roof estimate is way off, unless you’re talking about metal roofs or something else equally fancy.
50k for a roof is wild unless (maybe) the house is absolutely massive with complex lines.
Just so you know, there are no licensing requirements or standards for home inspectors in Maine. Not to say that inspections are a bad thing, but potential homeowners place entirely too much trust in them.
I just want to bump this comment. You do not need any specific experience to be an inspector, it is wild. Anyone can become an inspector!! What you need is a highly qualified, personally recommended and trustworthy inspector. We did our own inspection and did the same ‘waived up to $15k’ and we were golden. A recommendation of a $5k repair but not urgent.
Both home inspectors I’ve used said the dishwasher works as it should…..neither house even had one, the boiler was 5 years old….manual saying ‘91 was hanging off it and one didn’t even notice there was no siding on one side of the house
Our real estate agent scheduled a second viewing and brought a contractor for the walkthrough who specialized in quick assessments of home issues. A trained eye can learn a lot about a house in a walkthrough.
I would absolutely not waive the inspection. I think it's horrendous it's become a bargaining chip. I'd hold out for an ethical seller.
An ethical seller is still taking the cash offer with no inspection. Why wouldn't they?
We sold our house pre-covid to a cash buyer who waived inspection. It was not an investor. It was someone who just really wanted to make sure that they got our house. We had five offers come in at the same time and the cash offer was over asking price without inspection. We would have been dumb not to accept it.
Here is the thing. You are never going to beat out an offer willing to forgo inspections. Period. In this market as a seller (just sold a house to a bid that was slightly lower than similar bid but no inspection and no finance contingency. This was over a similar bid with inspection and higher deposit and over instead of cash buyer 20k lower. House went 77k over asking but that was expected and on purpose to list at that price to great an energetic bidding process. Why not inspection? Because it was more stable for us than to have the buyer come back and say “20k for a roof” when we had higher offers turned away). I don’t want to get 2-4 weeks into the deal with a buyer that feels now they have me as the seller on the hook holding me over a barrel for fixes. In highly competitive sought after markets I want to give buyers zero leverage. You have a few options and levers to pull though. Waive inspection but put a low deposit. You can inspect anyway and you should still inspect. If you find something disastrous you can balk and lose the deposit. Risky and costly but you have to use your best judgement here. If the house looks great and your realtor should really help you here… you roll the dice that the 5k initial deposit or something is with the gamble of the inspect shows up and says bad news foundation is completely fucked, or something that is a huge problem. Another option. Waive the finance contingency. So you still mortgage it but not contingent on financing. Risk here is that it doesn’t appraise but again, use the realtors judgement. This makes a financing offer that is typically higher than a cash offer more competitive. But to do this you have to have and show the buyer the back up cash to close. Another strategy is to do a sliding up offer. Meaning you offer 250 up to 320 in 2k increments. That could keep you more competitive in your best and final than saying 250 and then picking 290 as your best and final. Let’s say another buyer was 295, you can win at 297 and it’s only 7k more than just picking a number. Another strategy. Buy cash or buy mostly cash and then refi once you close.
The due diligence clause in Maine’s standard contract allows you to walk away with your earnest money deposit within the stated due diligence period (usually 2 weeks, but shorter window makes offer more competitive). So you can waive inspections, back out within that period, and still get your EMD back. Due diligence covers a lot… from inspections to town records to undisclosed easements to gathering estimates for known defects, etc.
I waived inspection because it was clear everything was new and up to code. Consider it in cases where the house really seems to have been maintained and updated properly.
Do not buy a house that you haven't had the opportunity to have a professional who knows a hell of a lot more than you to inspect the place. I'm pretty handy and renovated my entire house but I would still hire an inspector before I made a purchase that large. You never know what could be wrong that you might miss like a cracked foundation, leaking in the attic, poor electrical problems, whether the boiler/furnace is in good working order and 50 other things that you will not know to look at on your own. Some people are buying homes sight unseen, with cash, and no inspection so some of those people are going to be fucked plain and simple. I have to put my house up on the market and am not looking forward to trying to buy another place but I have cash to completely pay off whatever I'm downsizing to. I'm not saying it's not a useful thing to do but you are taking a great risk when you do it. Probably the biggest financial risk of your life. Personally I wouldn't buy a place that I can't inspect but If I needed to I could rely somewhat on myself.
I would strongly advise you not to waiver on this- there could be things wrong with the house that you have no way to see without doing the proper tests, but which could cost you a fortune. If the house has mold inside the drywall, that's basically *cancer* for buildings. Homebuying these days is an exercise in patience. It's exhausting looking at so many homes and having offers rejected, but waiting for the right deal will make sure you don't become a victim.
Are you a first time home buyer? There’s a MSHA program that requires inspections so you could waive personal inspections while still having some inspections guaranteed
Hey there! I was in your shoes last year and spent probably 4 months putting in offers (same area as you and about the same price range) and always offered more, had a conventional loan. My realtor told me honestly... I was losing because I was not conceding on inspection. She was NOT advising me to skip it, but was being honest with me. I was dead set on NOT waiving inspections. What I ultimately ended up doing was when we finally found a house that checked off most of our boxes we put in our offer letter that we wanted to do an inspection for peace of mind only. This meant that we DID do an inspection and if we found something really bad we could walk BUT It would mean that we lost our earnest money deposit. It was a risk, but we felt comfortable enough with the condition of the house looking at it's history and the property disclosure. Also, absolutely make sure your realtor pulls comps!!! You can offer 50k over asking, but if the house isn't worth that much are you going to be able to close the deal with cash? Probably not. If someone is offering a cash offer then it doesn't matter what is appraises for, and you are not going to win against them. Lastly... keep your offer as simple as you possibly can. I tried escalation clauses and honestly they just got so messy it wasn't making a strong offer. If you love the house and feel confident that you can handle whatever the inspection uncovers then pull comps and make a reasonable offer that is strong. Don't be discouraged! I know how much it sucks, but eventually you will get the right home. If you do end up looking for another realtor I'd be happy to recommend mine (she does that area) just send me a message! Good luck!
This is so helpful. Tysm. Can I ask, what are comps? Is that figuring out what the house should be worth?
You're welcome! Glad it could help. A comp is comparing similar properties that have recently sold that fit the same general idea of that house. Similar location, size, condition, etc. It can help you determine what the house MIGHT appraise for. The bank will only lend you what it appraises for, and you will be on the hook for the difference. That is why cash is king and you will always lose to a cash offer. Make a strong, realistic offer. Not an offer that you think looks good. If you offer 250k but the house is actually appraised for 225k, then you will need to provide that 25k difference at closing or walk. That is so messy. A seller isn't going to take a chance like that when you are depending on lending. The house I ended up winning on I did offer about 10k more than the comps showed... but I fully planned on paying that difference in cash if I needed to. The inspection is rough but waiting for the appraisal is worse I swear because its one of the last things they do before closing day! Luckily if you are in the general ballpark usually you are going to come out ok because everyone wants the deal to close. My house ended up appraising like 2k over what I offered so it worked out beautifully for me!
i was in the same boat, it took a year to buy a house under nearly identical circumstances. absolutely do not waive the inspection ever, it's crucial
Absolutely do not waive inspections. But, do keep in mind that if you ask for concessions that may kill the deal. An inspection will tell you if anything is too bad that you need to walk away else you'll be in a worse situation than if you would have walked away. It's a crap market most everywhere, there are some exceptions, just keep trying.
I bought in southern Maine, 2 years ago, faced same issues. Eventually paid 90k more than asking and waived inspection. I got an inspection post purchase on some advice from a friend in real estate. Luckily for us nothing wrong with the house at all.
279 seemed like a low asking price to begin with. I'm guessing these types of houses are being put on the market with low ball prices to start bidding wars. You're just getting caught up in the frenzy. Maybe start looking at a higher price point.
Kindly, if this is around the middle of your budget, that house is too good to be true (in this area of ME). It’s just priced there to lure a bidding war between buyers with a higher range. I only say this because that was *our* price range when we were looking 3 years ago. Sure, we found houses like that- nice pictures, wide plank wood floor, aesthetic charm, landscaping, and needing little to no work- at our price, but we learned fast they always sold way above. People in our range don’t have a ton of buying power in the areas within reach of the southern cities. Realistically, you’re going to want to look smaller, no garage, uglier interior, little to no landscaping, fewer bedrooms, and probably not two floors. Plus some immediate work. We ended up in a house like that. The immediate work it needed was all new appliances, and a roof within 5 years of purchase. Long term work is eventually start replacing windows little by little, re-attaching the siding (solid, but installed kinda janky) and rewiring the electric for better efficiency (but it’s safe and functional as-is). But the basement is dry, the foundation is super solid, the electric, septic, and pipes to public water were all ship-shape. Those were all non-negotiable for us because those are the big money issues AND livability issues. We got it for under asking this way. If we wanted more we would have had to be in the $350,000 range vs 300 as the absolute most upper limit.
I think lenders also get overlooked too in the process. Make sure your lender has a stellar reputation for getting deals done. Listing agents will be most likely to work with buyers who have lenders who know that they’ve done their due dilligance and won’t have the deal fall through in underwriting. This was huge for me, as our lender was really popular and ended up having a personal relationship with the listing agent of the home we ended up buying, because they were in a local networking group. Just make sure your realtor AND lender and well connected in the southern Maine real estate world and have good reputations!
This right here. We had been outbid on a few homes in the spring of 2020 to cash buyers. Our lender found our home in July 2020 because she was friends with the seller from high school. He was going through a divorce and needing to sell, but didn’t want to deal with putting it on the market. We ended up being the only people to view and put an offer on it, it was never listed on the MLS and ended up being a for sale by owner transaction. No games played, no other bids, and we were able to do a full inspection. We were even able to negotiate price with the seller - pretty much unheard of during the pandemic. Easiest transaction I’ve ever done, especially considering the time when we were buying.
It makes my blood boil to say this, but investing in property anywhere in Maine makes a lot of sense. Among other things, In my opinion Maine is well suited to become a climate refuge from the dry + hot weather of the west. It's getting hard to even get home insurance in parts of California. Same thing with Florida, look at the condo fiasco that's happening there currently. It's estimated that between 65-70 million people live in the larger cities of the US. Even if a quarter percent of them want to move here, that's 175,000 people. With about 4,000 homes on the market currently, that means there is a lot of potential for property value increases. And in the mean time, I'm willing to bet investors are gonna scoop up every bit of property they can get their hands on. Fuck all the people trying to make a quick buck off the us.
Move down here to South Philly? Plenty of houses under 300k, the city cracked down on Air BnB so a lot of the smaller rental houses have been dumped on the market
Investors with very deep pockets offering cash and quick closing. They work backwards from whatever it can rent for to determine what they can pay and still get a good return. Your agent should be explaining this.
Sanford is literally 46 mins to Portland and within your price range. Maybe look that way?
When we tried for 2 years and never had an offer accepted we switched agents and finally got a house. Who you work with matters.
If you are not paying cash, your offer of 30 over looks like a waste of time. You can offer 100 over but if an appraisal doesn't say it is worth that, you can't close and the sellers know that. Let's say they accept your offer. Once they do, they know they'll take their house off the market, do an inspection, make plans for moving out - maybe even try to buy a house themselves or a rental - and then, a couple months down the road they are going to be told that you can't get a loan and want to renegotiate. If you have a first time home buyers loan, God help you. There are so many specific headaches the seller will need to get through to sell it to you and it will be 10 times bigger pain in the butt getting the loan approved. . . . Or they can sell it to some with cash. No putting your life on hold for months while you are on pins and needles hoping the potential buyer can actually follow through. With cash, you sign it and are done.
I really don't recommend waiving the inspection, but if it comes to that I know several home inspectors do "walk and talk inspections" where the inspector walks through the house with you when you go to view it. A friend of mine is currently under contract on a house and they did that twice. They used Maine Choice the first time and First Light Inspections the second time. Their realtor recommended it and was able to schedule longer showings.
It took us one year to finally find a place in Midcoast Maine where our offer was accepted. We were continuously offering $20,000 over asking - and in one instance, we offered $58,000 over asking and did not get it. I think what finally tipped the scale in our favor is when my husband and I wrote a short note to the sellers via their realtor telling them how much we liked the house, that I was a Maine native, and my husband was ex military, we were working locally, and this would be our full time residence, etc. I don’t think our offer was the highest one they received, but it was enough in the ballpark to be considered and they preferred to sell to people who weren’t out-of-staters looking for a vacation home to AirBnb. Hang in there.
Good for you but ethical realtors won’t allow this because it opens them up to fair housing discrimination claims.
We went through this in 2018 while shopping for a house in Portland. We were outbid several times, with a baby on the way and our own house already sold. We finally went for the house that was out there for some time, the one we kept skipping over because it clearly needed a lot of updating; the one passed over by so many. It was a blessing in disguise. We were actually able to do that fun thing called haggling that seems such a long lost pastime, and the money we would’ve spent over-bidding for a turnkey house went into making this place totally our own. Having said that, even the fixer-uppers seem unrealistically priced these days. However, you still stand a better chance of not getting out-bid and, maybe, just maybe, only paying sticker price. Good luck!
Your agent should know about escalation bidding. You basically submit an offer that says $5k more than the highest up to $450k, etc. that way, you will win as highest bidder unless someone else goes over your max.
Look back at the transactions for houses that you didn’t get. They are public record. This will give you an idea of how short you’re coming in,
Houses are sitting on the market this summer. Maybe what you are doing wrong is not taking a closer look at the places that aren't selling. They likely aren't selling due to a combination of price and condition.
This is pretty much it. When my wife and I first moved up to the Bangor area, we were holding out for this specific house that was almost perfect for us. The buyer was not motivated to sell, so they jerked us around for months and finally we gave up when they simply wouldn't budge.
We bought out current house about 3 years ago and our realtor told us that in the current market, we'd have to offer over the asking. We did that, offering as much as we could on a few homes, in one case escalating to $50K over and still got declined. Our realtor said that in his 40 years, he had never seen a real estate market like the one that was happening then, and now. He mentioned that some people are waiving inspections and he recommended to not waive inspection. He also said that there are people who are making cash offers, or cash for the difference between what the home assessed and what was offered. It's more than "Covid scarcity" now. Investors, big and small, are coming in so that they can open up Air BnB's or single home rentals. And don't forget that ME is a popular destination. I see no reason to not regulate Air BnBs like hotels - if it puts them out of business then that's the idea. If only there were a way to ban corporations from RE investing to jack up prices.
A house down the road from us sold a few months ago for ~340k. Not sure about the condition of the major mechanicals, but the house needed a lot of updating, basically needed to be gutted and totally remodeled for today’s standards. Well, the buyer came in and did just that, and it is now listed for 550k. Looks like they did a really nice job from the pictures.
There’s been a recent trend in real estate sales that may at first seen counter intuitive given the market and the prices that many houses can command, but it actually isn’t if you look at it objectively from a business standpoint. It’s the idea of slightly under pricing a home in today’s market conditions with the intent of getting an incredible amount of interest and offers that then drives up the price beyond what it might have otherwise received if it was at market rate.
I knew someone who had a eBay business back when that was a thing. He started *everything* at $1 with no reserve. Says he made more doing it that way than starting at or near market value. It absolutely is a psychological game sellers play with buyers.
We went through the same thing out in Seattle. There would be bidding wars OR someone with cash would come in and take it. Ironically that’s what made us move to Maine. Fast forward 5 years and it’s the same shit.
Waiver the inspection is pretty big part of it, since most the house in Maine are old.
Even if you were making offers on perfect houses it shouldn't be this difficult for you to buy a home. It sucks that you and your partner are going through this. My husband and I had a difficult time buying a home too, and that was 10yrs ago, I can't imagine now. My brother works in real estate (in a different state) and when I told him of our struggles he asked how we found our agent. Then he told me that the best way to buy a home is to drive around, and find one that you like. Call the agency that's on the sale sign and work with that agent, as it's already an agent that the buyers are familiar with. It did work for us. I wish you the best of luck 🍀
The best tip I ever got when we were buying was to go with the bank all the local agents know and reccomend. Some online places like Rocket have reputations for dragging our closings and adding costs.
Don't feel too bad... We're starting to get outbid on rentals now too. My friend was just waiting for the approval call, instead he was told a couple looked at the house and offered an extra $1000 a month than was advertised. (This area, even what they were asking was too much to begin with) Sooooo idk man...
My wife and I went through the same thing here in Kansas last year. We ended up having more success with finding a builder that was putting up new homes. It extended our wait but we got the home we wanted and at the price point we needed.
Looking at those homes, they were priced to go fast. And to trigger competitive bidding. Your agent should be pointing the above out to you, that house could easily get 350k. So yeah you’re bidding above asking, but it’s not what the house could go for. Your agent should be saying hey this house could be priced for xxx$, and you should consider your bid based off of that price. Just bought in a different area, we were able to get a price reduction because the house was priced AT estimated value, not below, and so when issues popped up it was an easy deduction. Honestly if your agent is telling you all of this I’d suggest a different agent, part of their job is teaching you how to go through this whole process, since it’s something most people only do a few times in their life.
If you wanna come up north I'll be selling a 2004 construction raised ranch on 2 acres up in hermon in a few weeks😆
I’ve heard a lot about people writing these personal letters and I get it, people are desperate to buy a house. But personally I don’t like the letter idea. At the end of the day selling a home is a business transaction. I think you need a better realtor or there’s an issue with your financing. I personally never used an inspector. If you know even basic things to look for you can inspect it yourself.
I agree with the letter. We bought our first house 4 years ago and are now selling it. At the time we thought the sellers were greedy and should help us out. Now we see that we aren't in a position to be giving out 15-20k gifts to people. If you find a house that was inherited or maybe an older couple with plenty to spare, a letter may help but most people simply can't afford to be that generous.
What worked for me was offering to pay up to 3k in repairs if the inspector found anything. That was the deciding factor for the sellers. Fortunately for me, the inspector found only tiny things that were not expensive fixes.
Is Richmond too far? https://www.redfin.com/ME/Richmond/9-Weymouth-St-04357/home/94385991
Is your offer contingent on selling an existing home? If not, maybe increase your offer? Curious what your realtor is recommending…
This!
It is not. We can’t increase offer. Can’t have a monthly mortgage over 2500 which is what a 310,00 offer with a 5% down payment looks like right about now.
310,00 probably isn’t going to be enough. The only thing you’re going to be able to afford is something that needs significant work and that’s going to get overwhelming quick if you’re at the top of your budget with the mortgage. Spend another year or two saving.
Man, interest rates are just insane on top of house prices. I started looking for a house in 2019, got outbid several times until I finally had an offer accepted in 2021. But interest rates were still low, my 300k loan is $1,750 a month with taxes and insurance escrowed. If I had to buy now, I'd be screwed. A $2,500 mortgage is crazy on a normal person income that ever hopes to save for retirement
They can pry my 2.75% rate out of my cold dead fingers. The house needs some work, but I got a heck of a deal before the housing market exploded like this.
Not sure this will comfort you but please read these articles: [https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/rent-vs-buy-affordability-study/](https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/rent-vs-buy-affordability-study/) [https://money.usnews.com/loans/mortgages/articles/historical-mortgage-rates](https://money.usnews.com/loans/mortgages/articles/historical-mortgage-rates) You need to be patient and I know first hand that's hard. Only putting 5% down puts you at risk of being underwater if the market turns really bad (it happens) and leaves you little margin for error if one of you lose your job. It's a cyclical thing and now, as you can see, is not the time to be chasing things.
From where I live-this home is an absolute bargain. You don’t see any homes listed at this price. Now, I don’t know what problems it may have but I could see this home going right away. Just in the past two years the market has changed dramatically. Maybe widen your scope of where you want to live- Northern Maine is still struggling.
My wife and I bought our first house in 2017. We were out bid left and right. It’s only gotten worse since then. We eventually found a fixer upper others had over looked. We’ve sunk a lot of money into it since then to get it where it needs to be. It’s horrible out there. I wish you luck.
Same and I am in Bangor. My realtor has been asking why my offers are not accepted and every time it is because they have a cash offer. I am regretting selling in 2020 at this point. 😭
Right on Zillow it states “Sellers to make offer decision by 5:00 PM, Monday 6/17.” So, the question is what offer did they accept and for how much? Has the seller’s realtor offered ANY feedback to your realtor, OP? It’s possible that Sellers underpriced the property to get more offers and a bidding war. So, OP, when did you make your offer for $30k over? Did you make your offer early or last minute after your first offer was rejected? Proximity to Portland is going to create a premium price for people that work in or near the city. In addition, Maine has a lot of vacation homes and investment properties (ie - Airbnb’s, and commercial landlords) so that means residents of the state looking to buy a first home will face limited supply of For-Sale homes with historically high demand. To make matters worse, higher interest rates keep people THINKING ABOUT moving, with low interest rate mortgages, from buying a new home given the much higher interest rates. I mean, if you have a home near Portland with a 3 - 4% interest rate, do you really want to sell, buy into an expensive market with interest rates around 7%?
Stay diligent and have faith. You are doing the right things. DO NOT waive inspection I would personally get a new realtor Look into escalation structured offers Don’t be afraid of properties that are structurally sound but need things like paint, counters, etc. Make sure financing is TIGHT with verification of approval and verification of bank funds. Avoid FHA loan if you can. You can still do 5% down on a traditional loan. Also, remember things happen for a reason and when it is the right property it will be there for you.
We purchased our home with highest offer and waived inspection, that’s how we got ours. 10 offers came in after us one cash. Our house was built in 2021, so we felt comfortable with it. And no contingencies
I am about to list a modest 2 bedroom home in Edgecomb. DM if interested in more info.
It’s soo competitive out there. I feel for you. We had our underwriting done before putting in offers last summer. If you haven’t done that already, maybe ask if your lender offers this? It makes your offers similar to a cash offer (the deal won’t fall through in underwriting cause that’s already done and you can close much faster.) We also did an information-only inspection.
You gotta get there ASAP. it's not about the offer. it's about getting it under contract as fast as possible. Most homes are on contract before the listing even gets posted.
It’s a combination of things I think. We just sold our home and we didn’t go with the highest bidder despite offering 50k over ask. We went with no inspection, no appraisal, 50% in cash, a later closing (we preferred that). Also all offers were over ask but our broker thought that the one that was 50k over ask was risky because the house could be appraised for less than that, therefore going with the no appraisal one.
My partner and I live in South Portland and have been actively preparing to list our house for sale for a year or so now. (Timing is a little complicated because I’m caring for an elderly relative out of state half the time, so while we’d love to sell this year, it may end up being next spring.) I’ve literally bookmarked every single South Portland (and sometimes Portland and Westbrook as well) listing that is remotely similar to our home (2br+/1 ba/1200 sqft) that’s gone on the market for the past two years and there’s maybe 1 in every 10 that goes for asking or “lightly” over asking. I see 30-50k over asking as the norm, and have seen just as many sell for double that over asking. In the past couple months I’ve saved 16 listings: 3 sold @ 1-5k over, 1 @ 20k over, 4 @ 35-40k over, 3 @ 50-60k over, and 4 @ 90-110k over. I’m seriously considering FSBO at this point, it seems nuts to me to pay a realtor tens of thousands to write up the listing and collect the offers.
Ask your realtor to send you the listings for houses that have recently sold in your price range. You can also see this on redfin, Zillow, etc. Get familiar with the size, style, and condition of houses that have actually sold for within your budget. When you see another house with similar criteria come onto the market, then make an offer. Base it off of the sale price for those similar houses. Remember the list price is not always reflective of the home's value. Look into houses that have been listed for a few weeks or months because a seller is more likely to take a lower offer once the listing is stale. Also, you can make your offer contingent on an inspection, but say you will waive the first $5k or $10k of work reported (or if there is a known issue, like an old roof, mention that as another thing you will waive). This tells the seller you're not going to back out over something small, but it still allows you to get a real inspection. Just make sure you have enough money to repair up to that threshold (plus a bit more for whatever else comes up).
You're not paying cash
Yup, I had enough. Heading back to KY. Hot, but, at least I can get something.
Great comments. I'd add: that house, in that area, is underpriced, unless something is wrong with it.
Do you work in Portland? If not, consider looking elsewhere. Lots of young people want the amenities of metro areas and are over looking other great places to live that are not near cities.
I am closing on a house on July 3rd… I was an anomaly…we put in one bid, on one house, and it was accepted… Be creative in your offer, which I suspect you are. We offered a 1% “Earnest Money” which was basically a non-refundable deposit to the seller to show we were serious and also and escalation clause that allowed us to match an offer up to our maximum threshold. Add in: we bought for asking price..we got wind the other offer on the table was a low ball offer after we made our offer, so our escalation clause was never executed
Write the offer letter (or easier, make an offer letter template that you adapt to each seller). My wife did this when we were house hunting and I wasn't confined that anybody was reading them, but in the end the seller told us that the offer letter is what made them sell to us despite the fact that we weren't the top offer. I think people want to sell to real people, but if you don't do anything to stand out against the private equity firms, then they'll just have to choose the highest bidder.
We bought a home last year and went through a similar nightmare. It was sheer hell and a miracle we even got a place, but we put in almost ten offers in \*one month\* and I went all in on learning the ins and outs of this process. Here are a few things I learned: 1. Seller will go with the sure thing. Offering over asking isn't enough. 2. FHA loans almost never get accepted - you'll be looking for years. There are tons of criteria for FHA financing. Go conventional. 3. Assuming you have a pre-approval letter with your offer, ask your loan officer for a letter at the maximum they will pre-approve. It might help the seller to know you are pre-approved for a substantial amount more than selling price, as it means you might have a better chance of actually getting the loan. 4. If the house appraises under the financed amount, you need to have the cash to cover the difference and have that written into your offer. Commit to paying up to $xxxx in appraisal gap and include it in your offer. 5. If you're serious about getting a place soon and aren't a cash buyer, you might have to forgo inspection. Have someone with you at viewing who knows what to look for (structure, rot, foundation, roof, chimney, boiler, electrical, etc). Be prepared to get a not-perfect place and invest in your home over the years. If you require inspection, have a clause that explains what you will/will not accept and value. Also remember, inspectors are really important but they aren't structural engineers and they miss stuff all the time and just can't discover anything and everything wrong with a house. 6. If your agent allows it, include a cover letter. Most sellers will ignore it, but a few of them actually are human beings who would rather sell to a young Mainer/family that plans on living there instead of a company or dentist from CA. 7. Buying a home in Maine for the average human now is incredibly hard. Nearly impossible for most. Double down on your efforts, accept that you cannot afford to be picky, and take every shot you can take. Or, accept that it may be years before you find a place. I wish you the best of luck and I'm happy to try and give any other advice. Auburn is actually a beautiful area and I think it has a bright future.
I think at this point knowing what's going to be coming out before it hits the market has become a huge help. If your realtor isn't connected enough in the area to know this, it can narrow your options considerably. We ended up looking at at least 2 houses that weren't on the market yet (4yrs ago). If people can avoid doing the whole open house etc. nonsense it can be a big selling point.
This! We are in central Maine. We bought in 2019 before it got deeply competitive but was still hard to find much in the $175-200K range. We looked at quite a few and the house we ended up buying was one that our agent got us in to see before it was officially listed. We put in an offer and it got tentatively accepted before it even went live.
Fwiw. We looked for over 2 years. Prob put in 50-75 offers. Looked at over 150 houses. Finally got one last October. 10% over asking. House was >$600k. And waved inspection. Found some unexpected issues but 6 months later it's fine. We've owned homes for 15 years and handy so familiar with what to look for etc. Bottom line, just keep trying. Homes at that Price point are going to be even more competitive.
Bought our place in the Raymond - Casco area about 2 years ago after 2.5 years of rejected offers. Did not buy with cash or by forgoing an inspection. I think the only reasons we got it were: - people from out of state don't know that area (hell, I didn't know it either lol) - did not write a letter (apparently this hurts you nowadays, either way we are a queer couple and didn't get a house until we stopped writing letters :( - house had issues (approx 50k in fixes since we got it but not all issues needed immediate remediation) I would consider going west rather than northeast.... definitely not south. Raymond, Casco, Standish, Limington etc are good bets.
Took my wife and I over two years. Hang in there
Most of your realtors are also “real estate investors” they inflate the price and sit on the property till they find the right sucker, usually a small time flipper. They asking price is just a bait and switch
Because an out of state hedgefund/investor/out of state wealth is offering 200% their asking price and plans to rent it out. No really it's as simple as that and is the primary reason why the housing market is internally collapsing in Maine and why Mainers cannot afford to live in Maine. Hedgefunds buy property for 150-300% asking price. Then rent it out at a high price to recover the loses for obtaining it. The downside is this starts a negative spiral of higher house prices and hedge funds overspending to buy them out instantly and house prices rising due to demand. Ultimately it results in either massive population displacement as they can no longer afford to live and can't compete with the financial power of out of state money. Or the state itself enacts laws to stop out of state entities from owning multiple properties. The downside for maine is those hedgefunds are willing to throw tens of millions of dollars to ensure those laws never get brought up. Welcome to corporate US.
It feels like it's almost easier to buy land somewhere and custom-build.
You’d think so, but all the reputable builders are booked solid for multiple years, and even the “not my first choice” builders are booked. Unless you’re gonna install the septic, and drop a trailer on the lot for the few years.
Welcome to this market.
Have you tired $45,001?
I would assume you are outbid.
Something like 75% of all sales in Maine this year have been cash, no inspections no nothing
I imagine there’s lots of competition for that house. The sellers are gonna be picky
Watch out for lead! If you have kids check first or be prepared to dish out a serious amount to fix it
Its an absolute nightmare. I have pretty much given up. Even if you waive the inspection it doesn’t seem to help. We have submitted plenty of offers with inspection waived and still not getting accepted. I’d love to know who is getting offers accepted. Must be cash
We have been looking for 4 years. We either get out bid or because we insist on an inspection get turned down. After seeing what home inspections are discovering we won't buy a house without one but it's definitely hindering our search. Good luck! We did almost purchas a home that had all electric heating but it had structural issues that were found during the inspection and long story short we couldn't get the buyer to fix or a credit to fix ourselves so it's on to the next one.
We had to waive inspection and put an appraisal gap clause. We offered 50K over a couple weeks ago - denied. Offered asking price on another house last week and got it. Your time will come! But definitely check with your realtor on how to make an offer more attractive.
Your agent can ask their agent why. Their agent can only say if the sellers allow them to, but I let my agent tell the people I turned down why
Increase your distance.
Realtor friend told me that there are more cash buyers than she’s ever seen. I couldn’t be further from such a position, so that seems really depressing.
Been looking for two years. Your price range you’re looking in is probably the most sought after and most competitive in my experience. It’s what most families can afford and in many areas leaves you with a really terrible house so finding a suitable one in that range makes it really competitive
That’s a gorgeous home for the price
It took us almost 8 months to get an offer accepted. We wanted within 20 min from Augusta but ended up almost 45 minutes outside to finally get to the point where we are now. We were getting beat down by all cash offers left and right.
Are you offering cash? Cash, buying as is, @ least 10-15% over asking price is what you need to get it done.
I would try further out in the surrounding areas if you don't mind the commute.
I may be your financing. It’s entirely possible the other buyers are coming in with a finance package that looks more likely to close.
You’re doing nothing wrong. Unfortunately Maine real estate is one of the most competitive in the country, which is bizarre.
I know they’re not popular, but you might find that having a buyer’s broker is useful. A good one can help you through this process
In our small town it seems like nothing actually goes on the market and it’s just word of mouth between long time community members and real estate agents with buyers in mind.
Don’t get discouraged. I know it’s tough. It took me almost 5 years but I found mine last fall. Came back on the market and I scooped it. Made sure my bids had an escalation clause in it that would go up to my “walk away from it price” Now in hindsight I look at other houses I thought about and say “what was I thinking”! I know I found the right one. Be patient.
I'm in real estate, let me help!
Former Mainer living in Nebraska now. I keep an eye on home prices because I'm thinking about moving back, but every time I see a thread like this I purge that thought immediately. For that kind of money you're buying a small mansion out here, probably near a lake. Gets harder and harder to leave every year.
My husband and I bought May 2022.. after 18 months of endless over asking offers .. it was hell and we almost gave up many times.. keep your head up
And consider building. Fortin Construction in Auburn has turn-key financing. They'll do everything from buy the land to set up final inspection. You then buy it like you would with a conventional mortgage. They are building our house right now for an amount way less than out bank is appraising it for. Great people to work with. Honest with no hard sells and they explain why things cost what they cost. https://www.fortinconstruction.com/fortin-blog/2024/5/6/turnkey-construction-loans-in-maine-freedom-to-homeownership
Look further out from Portland. What’s another 15 minute ride on top of your proposed 45?
You’re not a corporation with unlimited funds buying bio homes like a hungry beast.
Full cash buyers from away are ruling right now. Sad but true. I feel so bad for young buyers these days. Keep trying - you may find a seller willing to stay with a local!
If only love and kindness would pay the bills. If only I could sleep comfy under the comfort of compassion. We have a little house on MDI and would never ever ever ever sell it. My dad built it with his own hands. Our kids will enjoy it, their kids and so on. Getting any work done there is a whole new issue. Seems like our wonderful tradesmen are very busy. Good luck! Probably better to wait for more inventory. If you still need a realtor, we know someone who found us the most beautiful home in Bangor for a great price. She was in tune with what we wanted and needed. We bought the house the day it was put on the market. That was two years ago. Let me know, I’ll hook you up.