Both sides
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
A lot of people buy in Maine without standing in the house until shortly before settlement. It works, and it works on one condition.
Somebody has to be there who will tell you what is wrong with the place as readily as what is right about it.
The point of a video walkthrough is not to sell you the house. It is to show you what the photographs left out: the room that is smaller than it looks, the slope in the floor, what is actually next door, the condition of the road.
Emma attends the inspection in person and does the final walkthrough on your behalf, and she will tell you to walk away when that is the answer.
Maine distances are deceptive. Two towns that look adjacent can be forty minutes apart on a two-lane road, and that drive is a different proposition in February than it is on a clear day in June.
Before you commit to an area, the useful questions are how far to a grocery store, how far to a hospital, who plows the road, and what the commute is in winter.
Buyers from out of state frequently assume public water and sewer. Outside the city centres, most Maine property has neither.
That means a well to test, including arsenic and uranium, and a septic system to inspect. It is manageable and it needs doing.
Oil and propane are common, heat pumps increasingly so, and a few houses still run on wood. Ask for actual annual costs rather than estimates.
An uninsulated farmhouse heated with oil is a very different monthly number from a newer build with heat pumps, and that difference does not appear in the listing price.
Electronic signature handles most of the paperwork and remote settlement is usually workable. Confirm the specifics with your lender and the title company early.
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
Wells, septic, oil tanks, lead and shoreland zoning. The questions Maine actually asks.
Including when the answer is that a house is not worth it, or that you should wait.
Yes, and it happens constantly. What makes it work is somebody standing in the house on your behalf who tells you what is wrong with it as readily as what is right, attends the inspection, and does the final walkthrough before settlement.
Distance and winter, in that order. Towns that look close on a map can be forty minutes apart on a two-lane road, and that road is different in February. The second is assuming public water and sewer. Most rural Maine property is on a private well and septic.
It is a bigger factor than almost anything else, and it is invisible in July photographs. Road maintenance, plowing on private ways, how far you are from a grocery store, and whether a camp road is passable all matter in a way they do not in August.
Electronic signature for most of it, and remote settlement is usually workable. Your lender and the title company will confirm what they need, and it is worth establishing early rather than during the final week.
Tell Emma what you are trying to do and when. If the answer is that you should wait, she will say so.