real estate: Topsham, Maine Building Lot - Neighborhood of Your Dreams! - 01/30/13 12:51 PM
Type in your SEO text here... … (2 comments)

real estate: MAINE OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND - April 28 & 29, 2012 - 04/28/12 06:10 AM

If you are just beginning your search for a new home, Open Houses are a great way to get started and there are plenty of them happening all over Maine this weekend.
Advantages of beginning your home search by viewing Open Houses include:
You don't need to be working with an agent, or even call an agent, to see these homes - just stop in!
You can start looking at homes to get an idea of what you get for your money in different towns, areas and neighborhoods.
You can get decorating ideas (sometimes!) for your own home.
You will … (2 comments)

real estate: The Tiny Home Trend - 02/08/11 08:47 AM
The Tiny Home Trend
I posted a link on my facebook page yesterday, and it attracted a bit of interest:  The Tiny Home Trend, so I thought I'd share it here.  Our local TV station in Portland, WCSH6's evening news magazine, "207" (named for the only telephone area code in the state) aired a segment on the Tiny Home Trend here in Maine.
Tiny Homes in Maine make so much sense - - in terms of energy savings, if nothing else!  The "207" story tells about 2 Mainers - one, an artist, who lives in a 400 sf home and the other, a builder … (7 comments)

real estate: Distressed Property Owner - I Just Spoke With Your Listing Agent - 01/12/11 09:46 AM
No, Distressed Property Owner, I'm not trying to steal a listing, but I just spoke with Your Listing Agent.  You see, I represent a Buyer who is under contract on a short sale; the deadline to obtain Short Sale Consent from Seller's lender is looming and it isn't looking good.  Buyer wants to look at other properties but isn't really interested in other short sales where the same bank holds the mortgage.  Normally, I would insert my rant about that bank here, but this is a different subject.
Here's what happened:  My Buyer found 4 properties to look at - one of … (5 comments)

real estate: Home Owners Have Greater Net Worth - 01/11/11 09:03 AM
Home Owners Have Greater Net Worth
Federal Reserve Board statistics tell use there is a significant difference in average net worth between Home Owners and Renters - - Home Owners have greater net worth than Renters.   How can that be, aren't home owners saddled with huge debt that is putting them into foreclosure and bankruptcy?  Yes, many are, but that would be caused by a global economic melt-down and wide-spread job losses rather than one person's decision to buy, or not buy a home. 
What the "financial crisis" and recession did was to re-set home values at lower levels which creates … (2 comments)

real estate: Create Jobs and Home Buyers Will Come - 07/24/10 08:07 AM
Create Jobs and Home Buyers Will Come
I don't know about you, but most of my transactions this year have been first-time home buyers, cash sales, short sales and foreclosures - not a move-up buyer in the batch!  While tax credits were nice and low interest rates are a plus, they aren't helping real estate sales at all price points.  If you have to sell in order to buy, you could still be pretty much stuck.  And sales in the lower price ranges now seem to be drying up, too, as good inventory gets snapped up quickly.  For Buyers in the … (6 comments)

real estate: Snow on the Pumpkins! Busy Selling Season! - 11/06/09 07:01 AM
Snow On The Pumpkins        
We actually had our first snowfall in Bath, Maine yesterday but nothing "stuck" - This morning, I woke to this pretty scene of Snow on the Pumpkins on my back patio. 
I have to tell you that the cooler fall weather hasn't stopped the real estate buyers in our area (if anything, it has energized them) and it's become quite the busy season; with the imminent passage of the extended and expanded home buyer tax credit, real estate professionals may not get a break this winter!  I'm working quite a bit with relocations - our area is affordable and we still have a … (6 comments)

real estate: Fringe Benefits of the Real Estate Profession - 10/23/09 08:00 AM
One of the coolest and most useful fringe benefits of working in Real Estate is that we know and can recommend all kinds of service providers to our clients - everything from attorneys to contractors to lenders to stores who carry the right stuff at good prices.  So while our companies don't offer paid sick leave, health insurance, paid holidays, etc., the benefit of these relationships is that we have this wonderful, vast pool of people to call on in our own times of need!
My story:
Last night, I came home from a lovely evening at the Merrymeeting Board of Realtors annual meeting where my Allen … (6 comments)

real estate: Top Ten American Streets - Bath's Front Street Wins Major Award! - 10/09/09 07:02 AM
Front Street in Bath, Maine received a major award this past week - Our own Front Street was named one of the Country's Top Ten Streets by the American Planning Association!  At Wednesday's City Council Meeting, City Planner Jim Upham said, "the Association chose Front Streetfor its combination of hardscapes and landscapes, its natural environment and its reflection of local culture and history."  Front Streetis in good company with streets in Williamsburg, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor and Little Rock.
When people visit Bath, they are impressed that our downtown area, while appealing to visitors, was not created for visitors - it is a real, working … (2 comments)

real estate: The Fine Art of Real Estate - 08/31/09 10:09 AM
At Allen & Selig Realty's Bath Office, we practice The Fine Art of Real Estate!  I'm happy to report that Art and Real Estate are both alive and well in Mid-Coast Maine!  The Mid-Coast Region of Maine has one of the most vibrant art communities you will find anywhere.  In Bath, during the summer, the Five Rivers Arts Alliance sponsors Bath's 3rd Friday Art Walks from June - September.   During these precious summer evenings, local artists open their studios, as do galleries and local businesses displaying their art, and invite everyone to come see the work and meet the artists.  
At … (2 comments)

real estate: Local Schools Champion Community Garden Effort - 04/16/09 08:43 AM
Regional School Unit #1 (RSU 1) students are launching a Community Garden!  The vegetables they grow will go to the school cafeterias and local food banks.
Kicking off the gardening season, community members are invited to attend an Open House at the Bath Middle School Green House, Thursday, April 16, 2009 from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm.  Bring gardening gloves and trowels, if you have them, and come help dig the dirt!  There will be opportunities for continued volunteerism throughout the spring and summer, as well.

The Community Garden will be located near the corner of Lemont and High … (2 comments)

real estate: The Jekyl & Hyde Realtor? - 12/10/08 12:55 PM

I started to write this post a month ago and never quite finished it.  A recent blog by Rich Jacobson, Establishing an Internet Presence:  "Are You Creating a False Front?" , dealt with the images we project with our photographs on the internet and our business cards.   The piece I had been working on was along those same lines but I was questioning a more "in person" scenario.   Thinking about this again now, it really has to do with much the same question:  Is the professional image we painstakingly create, in person or on the world-wide web, reality or fiction? 
I … (34 comments)

real estate: Our Rapidly Changing World - - Shift Happens - 10/28/08 10:15 AM
I've had several interesting careers so far in my adult life; I came to the real estate profession from the world of education - I was an educational technician (translation: teacher helper) in a kindergarten classroom - - and don't think lessons learned there (mostly from 5-year olds) don't come in handy every single day!  Talk about a "business" with challenges! 
A guidance counselor I used to work with sent me this video link; it's pretty much made the rounds of the educator community  - - if you haven't already seen this, take 6 minutes at the end of your day and watch … (0 comments)

real estate: The Response that Never Fails to Surprise! - 10/24/08 11:09 AM
Wherever I go, inevitably, someone who knows I sell real estate will ask "So, how's business these days?"  Well, unless they've been living under a rock (and I personally know only 1 or 2 people who have been), they know that global financial markets are strangled, house values are down, unemployment is up, credit markets have tightened and short sales and foreclosures are on the rise.   Honestly, I've not seen anything like this in my lifetime. 
 Are these well-meaning inquiries from people who care about me and my business?  Or, are they just asking to see me squirm, expecting to hear … (4 comments)

 

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