I’m not selling but buying somewhat nearby in Farmington. I was out bid this month on a house because they paid 25% over asking price and all in cash. Listing to close in less than 3 weeks. An actual realtor could help more but if your house is very nice and is desirable it will sell very very quickly still.

That helps a lot! We are actually considering buying in the Farmington / New Portland area. Good to keep that in mind, thank you for the warning!

I wish people could all agree not to sell homes to these fucking corporations.

I know it's hard to turn down a full-cash, above-asking-price offer but sooner or later we're ALL going to be renting at insane prices because corporations are buying up all of the housing.

Agree 100%! It's crazy.

Market is still hot, houses are staying on the market for longer (more than a week) but prices are still up, going quickly (historically speaking) and buyers continue to compete with one another to make attractive bids (waiving inspections, significant cash down, short review periods).

What’s your plan after you sell your house? Rentals are super limited and super expensive these days. You most likely would end up spending more on it than what your mortgage is currently.

We are planning on going contingent for a place further north, somewhere between Farmington and Kingfield. Definitely don't want to rent.

What does "going contingent" mean, if you don't mind taking the time to explain it to me?

The sale of their house is contingent of them finding another house in x many days.

Basically it's shorthand for "I'll buy your house, but only if I manage to sell mine at the same time". Very common for those of us who can't manage to swing two mortgages at once. It's risky though, because someone can swoop in, pay cash and steal it out from under you. Legally.

Interesting. I didn't know that was an option. And if they don't find a house they want to buy, the sale falls through completely? That would be frustrating if you were the buyer I bet.

Interesting. Thank you

Yup, just part of the game. Typically having a contingency like that would make the house less appealing to buyers, but in today’s market who knows.

You also see contingencies when people who own a house and are looking to buy a new house, they will make the offer on the new house contingent on selling their old house.

Thanks for taking the time to explain it

Contingent offers have been very rare the last couple years because of how competitive the market has been. As a seller, there’s no reason to accept a contingent offer if you have multiple offers with no such clause.

Since the market is slowing down a bit (due to sky high interest rates) contingent offers may become more common.

Are you aware of how interest rates have risen? We are looking at 7.5-8% at the moment and not going down anytime soon. Unless you plan to pay for your new house mostly in cash, I would be very hesitant to sell at this point in time.

Sounds like the home was priced low. % over asking doesn’t tell the whole story.

I could have a house worth $500K and list it for $400K and then go WOW I can’t bELieVe I got an offer for $100K oVeR asKing!

That's our exact fear. We were quoted at around 6.5% during pre-approval (which isn't much better). Meanwhile, we're paying 3.7% right now, so it has to be something we absolutely love for it to be worth it in our minds.

You won’t be getting 6.5% right now. Rates have risen like crazy the last 3 months.

Just be prepared for your mortgage payment to increase significantly if you try and buy/sell right now. Unless you’re selling a house for $400K and buying a new one for $200K or something.

The buy and sell combo worked pretty well during 2020/2021. Prices were high but interest rates were at historic lows so you could “upgrade” and come out even for the most part. But 2022 is a completely different ball game.

I think you're going to have a very tough time buying right now. The seller of your potential new home may not even consider a contingency offer with how hot the market is. Anyone selling a decent home in Maine right now can find a buyer with either cash, or fully financed and not contingent on their home being sold.

Advice to anyone selling a home anywhere:

1. Your real estate agent wants to close the deal and move on. They don't care about getting you the best price, they care about getting their commission and moving on.
2. When a realtor sells their OWN home, they are on the market for 90 days longer than when they sell someone else's home (traditionally anyway, hot markets can obviously change things). Think about that. They know the right buyer will eventually come along and don't compromise.
3. Realtors live in a rent-seeking industry that extracts far more value than they provide. Use disruptors like RedFin or list on your own to save at least a couple percent.

And if you do use a realtor, take their proposed list price and add 10%.

Exactly. We recently sold our place in the woods, realtor said top dollar would be 275k, we told him to list at 299k. Sold for 299k.

Hubbard clause no ?

I'd like to add, if you do use a realtor, don't use the same one the buyers are using (if they have one). It's impossible to work for both parties' best interests simultaneously.

If your house is on the market for 3 weeks and you don't have any offers, it's priced too high.

Jumbo loans with 35%+ down are 5.83% right now. Not great but certainly not 8%.

So rich people? 😂

Not many “Mainers” are putting down 35% on a jumbo.

I sold my house in Brunswick last year to a young, Maine couple. I probably could have waited a bit and gotten more money, but it made me really happy knowing they were local and would really appreciate the home like I had.

Hell yes, that's awesome. I'm currently in the first home I've ever owned, but if/when we ever move I'm hoping to do the same thing – sell it to a young couple like we were who are looking for their first home. Like you say, I'd want to know I'm selling it to someone who's going to live in it and appreciate it, not to some corporate bureaucrat who's going to turn around and try to rent it for triple what a mortgage payment on it would be.

Hi there. If you private message me I can put you in contact with my fiance who will send you a complete market report for your neighborhood. Showing days on market, what it listed for vs what it sold for, etc. She can also just chat with you about time lines for listing as the market is currently changing.

this is true but the place was definitely sold over it’s fair market value, in cash, with waived contingencies. 25% is not the norm for the area.

With 20% down it’s 5.96%. That’s about $130K down for the cheapest jumbo loan, and many people selling their current house today will have that in equity.

Look into an adjustable rate mortgage. Depending on your credit score and down payment, you could be looking at a much lower initial rate for the first few years and then when fixed rates settle down again, you can refinance into a low fixed rate.

Have you looked into getting a bridge loan?

We have not. Don't know much about them tbh. Will have to do some research.

anyones whos selling right now could feasibly do this, obviously no new home buyers can

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Psychopaths are still out there trying to sell their $450k home for $850k, but there are far less buyers out there because interest rates are through the roof. I don't think they got the message that they may have missed the boat because more buyers are sitting on the sidelines because of interest rates.

I've started seeing more prices drops, and far fewer homes listed for sale over the past month.

Unless you have a ton of cash available for a huge down payment or you can afford to buy a new house outright, I can't imaging buying a house right now even if you can get more for the one you are selling. Can't imagine taking out a mortgage @ anything above like 4%, never mind the 6% or so its at now.

I recommend Maura Gammons the Masiello Group. The greater Augusta area is still strong and competitive for buyers. (Still a sellers market).

The more rural areas of Maine have definitely slowed down, but anything along the lines of Augusta, Bangor, Waterville are still strong.

Sell while you can, you'll probably still get over asking. Most homes in this area are.

First, I'm not supporting these corporations in any way. Do they use shell companies or hired people to buy the property where it goes back to them on the paperwork so people are not aware they are selling to a Blackrock or other corporation?

That might help you in putting offers down. It’s basically a short term loan to help you cover the temporary period of carrying two mortgages while your previous home is listed.

My wife and I are in the mist of purchasing our first home in Augusta. Late 20s former military and love the town. I can tell you from a buyers perspective. 3b 2b 1750 sq ft sold at asking of 230k. According to our realtor and the amount of homes we looked at. We almost always went in at asking price and negotiated closing cost and major repairs. For us the buyers took on a full roof replacement of $7500 and covered 5k in closing. Only X factor would be the appraisal - many times we seen a home , went in at asking and appraisal comes back 50k lower it’s not happening.

We used the VA loan so maybe that makes a difference vs other buys but hope this helps. Buyers we engaged with were more willing to fix what was needed to sell to us rather then as is / or were willing to go a little below asking id say 5-15k

Interesting, it kinda makes me think the market is slowing down a bit, so sellers sitting on their listing longer than they were hoping for are willing to make consessions to help the sale go through. Which is good news since we're buying, but on the other hand we might not get as much for our current place. Thanks for the comment!

If you have a Redfin agent in your area I can’t recommend them enough. They charge 1% and are salaried employees, they only hire experienced realtors, not to piss off and get the realtor mob on my back but I loved everything about Redfins selling and it saved us a substantial amount of money.

I will look into that. Thanks for the recommendation!

It's possible, but I would guess not. They usually pay cash and above asking price; if someone offers that you should pretty much know it's either a corporation or some Chinese or Russian billionaire or something

I was talking to a realtor friend the other day in my busy tourist town, and he says it's mostly investors, and everyone knows. So it's not like the seller has no idea, most people just care about the $$.