Twenty years from  now we will all look back and think how simple paperwork, the home buying real estate process was back in 2009.

Consider one local yesteryear appraiser named Sam Sylvester in Houlton Maine.. Sam gets a call from the local bank, if the bank manager himself did not make the determination of value on a place to consider, to evaluate. Sam cruised thru the property, scoped out where the owner thought the bounds were, did not do a CMA, did not sketch out the floor plan, did not take pictures. Did not hit the town office or registry deeds. He remembers when the home was built, who built it and how it was maintained over the years. He used to deliver papers to the Fergusons. The mom made the best date filled cookies. The dad worked for the Bangor and Aroostook railroad. After the tour of the property, he would move the valuation to his mental back burner and go on with his other tasks. A few days later, he would shut the door to his office, ponder the value and type out a one sentence appraisal like ....

     "Have inspected, studied and evaluated the home on 17 Maple Street and its current value as of the above date is Forty Seven Hundred Dollars ($4700).

Respectfully submitted, Samuel Sylvester"

     He would walk it into the bank. Done and on to other real estate appraisal missions. He kept a carbon copy to recall the lengthy, voluminous detailed home value analysis. The buyer of 17 Maple Street had saved up his 20 to 25% down payment. The loan was done locally.  No secondary mortgage market hoops to jump thru, no Lending Tree banks competing for his loan. Local in every way and the bank making the loan with the hefty down payment in today's standards did not have many foreclosures or non-performing mortgage notes.

Today three trees need to be killed to produce the paperwork and documentation to get the closing over with. The usual skyscraper thick loan folder from the "loan a-Ranger" was skinny, malnourished compared to today with just a few sheets of paper. And the fellow with the combination to the vault did not hand out pens, note pads, important document folders branded with his logo or try to sell them life or home owner's insurance. No flood insurance certification. No standardized HUD 1. No appraisal with pictures of comps, competing listings and all the appraiser's credentials printed out in a 40 page propaganda spin.

Simple, quick real estate closing. And the owner of the home financed all the furniture to the new buyer too right down to the cooking pots, pans, high chair in the attic, Maine coon cat, African violet plants and the Christmas cactus in the front room.

     When you think about wouldn't it be nice if the bank making the loan was your neighbor? Helped on the Rotary float this 4th of July and your wife was the cub scout den mother for one of his kids? And you coached his daughter in basketball, sponsored her in a local soap box derby race? The defaults would be nil unless a giant factory was the only local employer and went to its knees from foreign competition. A banker at the front of the line with no sale of the mortgage each week to another financial enterprise in some other country or planet. The banker that made the loan held responsible. He who would be left holding a bad, risky loan and who could have his head on the chopping block if too many mistakes were made. Wouldn't that make the success percentage with a loan based on the buyer's character..not just his fica score or job history or debt ratios? How retro-real estate huh?

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Maine, Simple, Down to Earth, The Way Life Should Be And Was Before.