Before secondary mortgage market packaging to sell the paper on a property, it was save up the twenty five percent down payment to mortgage, buy the home.
Took some time. The purchase made the priority in the life of the couple, family who wanted to buy a home. Leave the rent rut.
So they went without many things, the priority was the roof over the head.
Not another tattoo or body piercing. Not something they did not need. Like the latest and greatest electronic device or a new ride to impress.
Careful spending, impulse control exercised in the easy does it. To get the keys please to that first home.
When local was where it happened in small towns, buying a home made the loan all about character.
And study of the property, along with the borrower. To see what jumps out like red flags about the interview, loan application. The ten foot pole marks on the property considered too.
That take away of the overall gut feeling on the all important question.
Is this a foreclosure waiting to happen or not kinda loan? Wondered the banker who knew your Dad from bowling down at the club. And helped your Uncle Bob coach you on little league. To hustle to first base even if it was a walk not a hit.
The two rubber stamps in the top drawer of the lender who was the appraiser, credit counselor, underwriter all in one.
"Accepted" or "Rejected" were the two flavors of the direction the home loan could go in blue or red. No 50 shades of gray or straddling the fence getting long, painful deep reaching splinters.
That big quarter of the property purchase ker plopped down in green backs at the real estate closing made all the difference.
The letting go, you can take it back was not in the tea leaves or crystal ball broadcast.
The borrower knew you could not have everything going and money in the bank.
Small rural living is still like that. Priorities are clear, life is kept simple. Debt is not your friend and if you must, be careful. By not getting spread too thin. To avoid being up against it. Upside down, head over heels in the red for spending and wrecking your credit. Damaging your reputation of paying your bills on time or labeled as one that does not at all.
Could be the drive through super size that meal deal is part of the shift in attitude, expectations.
Or highly effective marketing that mesmerizes, hypnotizes the audience to go on. Whatever feels good. You deserve it and just buy the product or service. Don't worry. You'll find a way to pay for it later. Maybe.
Living beyond your means, frowning at the concept of saving money for a raining day. Thinking I deserve it right now and don't have to work for it like my parents, gramps and your grandmother too.
And when purchasing a home you can afford that is less than up to snuff.
But all you can swing because of all the debt you carry, real estate buyers can get a little demanding.
What do you expect for a $14,500 Maine home? Be glad it has a metal roof, vinyl siding, storage shed, modern windows.
Don't be looking for granite counter tops, crown molding and three bathrooms.
Or one Maine house for sale we just put under contract for in the upper teens.
I am glad where I live in rural small town Maine.
Nothing is taken for granted, the awareness is 20-20 before life events happen.
The expectations are realistic, the willingness to roll up the sleeves and do whatever it takes is not questioned.
Hard work for everything they have around them is what propels the small Maine town home buyer. No born with silver spoons, CCR fortunate ones traipsing into the real estate office as a rule. And frugal is not cheap. There is a difference.
Is that the attitude, the bulk of the folks you deal with in your real estate market outside Maine?
Here it is not threatening law suits because the place did not have features that price range does not offer. Or when the relocation does not agree with them, because the neighbors don't find them so friendly and back away here it comes.
Searching for ways to rattle the sabers.
To suggest they are lashing out. Ten minutes away from the run to lawyers.
Itching for court house steps, lady justice to make someone pay. The more the merrier brought into the legal drama because they are not happy.
And somehow others are responsible for it. We run into a few Eeyores.
We referee those situations on occasion but as a rule, folks move to Northern Maine to get away from those kind of neighbors. To have few or no neighbor at all and just enjoy the space. The knowing they are not bothering anyone, no one is in their face either. And that all comes with the low cost real estate listings, simpler approach to living in Maine.
I'm Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
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