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Buying Real Estate in Maine

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Portland Maine
Coastal Maine
Southern Maine
Free Buyers Packet

Just Released:
1st Quarter 2010 Housing Report

 

Contact
John Herrigel
Green Tree Realty
207-650-5383

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Here you will find useful information on the home buying process in Maine geared towards the Southern & Coastal regions of the state including Portland, Bath and Brunswick.

All this information is available via an electronic PDF document as well as hard copy. We would be more than happy to send it along additional housing analysis and statistics via our Buyers Packet.


Relocating to Maine

First Time Buyer

An Overview of the Maine Home Buying Process
View a nice graphical flow chart of the entire Maine home buying process. click here arrow

Assembling a Team
The 2 critical players are the real estate agent and your mortgage broker/banker...learn more here arrow

Financing Overview
There are all sort of loan programs and options currently available and rates are currently extremely low....learn more here arrow

Disclaimer:
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We welcome comments and feedback anytime. Please feel free to contact us directly via live chat, email or phone.


Maine Area Specific Overviews

I encourage you to take a look at the various: Portland, Coastal and southern Maine community pages that I have created as I believe they provide a good overview of the regions and thier corresponding housing markets:

Buyer Assistant
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Recent Testimonials

“Dedication and professionalism
are two hallmarks of a quality real estate agent.  With John, we got
not only a dedicated professional, but a person of exceptional character with a genuine interest
in finding us the right home.
.....
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The Real Estate Agent - Back to Top

The real estate agent often gets a bad rap, primarily because there are a lot of less then professional and helpful agents out there. Of utmost importance is to find an agent whom is knowledgable, professional and whom you can trust. The agent helps in numerous ways from initially simply providing real estate listings to look and then setting up the showings. The real value is through their counselling on all aspects of the process, knowing if something is priced accurately and understanding how the system works to ensure you get the best value and price.

There are 2 ways you can purchase a home in Maine:
1) Through the listing agent
2) With the help of a Buyers Agent

Do you have to work with a Buyers Agent?
No, but it can make your life a whole lot easier. Having somebody working for YOU and whom you can trust ensures you will get the best deal Affiliating with an agent knowledgeable about the area and whom you feel comfortable with is critical. The best part about working with an agent is that it is Free! A buyers agent makes their money from the selling agents commission. Simply contact me, shoot me an email john@greentreemaine.com or call 207-650-5383 anytime and I would be more than happy to answer any questions, discuss the process, etc...

More info on Maine Buyers Agency

The Mortgage Broker - Back to Top

Equally important is finding a person you feel comfortable with to talk to about your finances and to provide you with quality information on what sort of loan programs are available and what would work best for your situation.

Generally most banks and mortgage brokers offer similar programs and rates so it thus becomes a question of who you like and who you feel will simply do a better, more professional job.

Financing Overview - Back to top

There are 3 primary loan types:

  • Full Documentation - FULLY DOCUMENTED disclosure of last 2 years income, assets and liabilities, (tax returns and W2's.) Borrowable amt primarily determined by your debt/income ratios.
  • Stated Income - UN-DOCUMENT disclosure of income, assets and liabilities. Borrowable amt. determined by a combination of debt/income ratios and credit score.
  • No Doc - No disclosure of anything. Borrowable amount determined entirely by credit score and the person applying for the loan

In today’s market pretty much full documentation is all that is left as an option to finance a home.

How much can I borrow?
Determined by 3 primary factors: Your income, your credit, your debt/income ration.

What is Debt/Income ratio?
When you take all your monthly debt obligations (ie car payment, student loans) and add in your potential housing payment (including property taxes and insurance)...all summed together can’t be greater than 33% to 45% of your gross income (before income tax number).

How much money do I need to put down?
A conventional loan consist of putting 20% of the purchase price down, but given many first time homebuyers do not have this type of cash, the government has 2 great programs currently out there.
FHA—3% down payment
Rural Development— No down payment, basically 100% financing. Note: an area must be designated rural to qualify for this loan. Most of Maine other than Portland and South Portland qualify though.

Back to top

Thanks for reading about buying a home in Maine.

I do hope you reach out and have a great day!

John Herrigel
Maine Buyers Agent
Green Tree Realty

My Areas of Knowledge

 

Some Overview Articles

Most Maine real estate markets can be divided into water influenced/waterfrontage and non-waterfront property resulting in a wide variety of pricing.

 


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522 Washington Avenue, Portland, ME 04103
207-772-4242

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