The variety of Maine home mortgage options to help buyers own real estate is large and varied but the RD (Rural Development USDA) house loan can be one of the more tedious to corral, to end up screwing a SOLD sign rider panel on out front.
One of the real estate closings we had yesterday afternoon was a USDA RD home loan started 20 months ago and went through three houses to finally stick.
First Maine home, a quality place for in the $50's (you're in Maine remember, "always the low price" like Walmart touts). The Maine home buyer all approved, the home ready for inspections from roof to electrical and everything in between.
The house sided, updated heating, plumbing, etc but if a contractor that is looking for lots of work does the examination for the USDA, inflated and various extras are tacked on to the physical shake and bake routine.
Final analysis from the USDA RD folks was would the seller contribute over $20,000 to bring it up to the standards the contractor determined were needed to have a real estate closing? No thanks, one Maine home down.
Second Maine home, bring in the neat, clean sleek country ranch with double garage, oak floors, paved drive, big deck and 3 bedrooms. Place appraised for $80,000 the purchase price on the USDA RD loan paperwork limits. So far so good. Inspections come in super and a few loose ends taken care of by the seller of this home with a brand new hot water furnace. Happy ending right and Andy gets to attend a closing, receive a check, buy groceries and clothe the four kids? Not yet partner. Hold your horses. Did I 
tell you about the buyer's car that did not make it up a large hill in Aroostook County and threw a rod, blew a piston? Well like the horse with a broken leg it end up four wheels in the air pointing skyward and had to be put down to end the suffering.
The car replacement bumped the debt ratios up to a point that the real estate buyer approved for an $80K home suddenly saw that place vanish on radar. Would the owner sell it for $67,500 the new "most we can spend for a home" figure thanks to the car dying at the wrong time? No thanks and there you have boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen home number two down the drain for these folks. Dust yourself off, regroup and the search continues.
Enter house in Houlton Maine number three. Cute cape with hardwood floors, great personality and one neat neighborhood with two bedrooms for these folks that have no children nor plan to. Easy to heat, already insulated somewhat to USDA RD specs, their big pet peeve in Northern Maine. All the inspections, some different folks used for them to go easy on the place that is a bargain for $67,500 the Maine real estate buyer's new price range limbo pole limit to lean way way back, get under.
Had the Maine real estate closing 20 months from when the process to get a set of house keys of their own started. And the home buyers are some kind of excited. Have been living in a substandard Maine mobile home with leaking roof causing mold and cold. Limping along and with the help of a hardship letter written to Washington DC during a time of USDA funds being depleted, exhausted finally getting the money freed up and allocated so we can all huddle around a Maine real estate closing table. Long drawn out affair but a sale is a sale.
And like they say in hockey, there are not ugly goals. Same applies to Maine real estate home sales.
You remember the easy cash no fuss no muss sales by cutting your real estate teeth on deals that have lots of drama, twist and turn life intrigue and government red tape to chainsaw through to get to the long long simulated wood real estate closing table with all those chairs and pens. Maine, I don't just live, work and play here, I am one big personal fan of Vacationland.
