How Can You Avoid Buying a Problem Home in Southern Maine

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

You’ve probably heard of CarFax reports, but have you heard HouseFax? HouseFax reports are a new value-added service that we are providing our clients. We will give you a report on a property to let you know whether there has ever been a fire, any building permits are missing, it’s in a flood zone, or there are any general dangers you should be aware of. Essentially, it is a way of finding out everything you need to know about the home before you spend a bunch of money on it.

A HouseFax report is beneficial to sellers as well. If you originally bought the home from someone else, there might be prior insurance claims on the home. When a buyer comes along and starts looking at insurance claims themselves, and they see something you may not have known about, it sends up red flags. We recommend pulling a HouseFax report ahead of time so you can see if there are any red flags you need to address ahead of time before selling.

If you are interested in the value-added service, whether you’re buying, selling, or investing in real estate, please reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you with all of your real estate needs!

How Is Southern Maine Real Estate Performing?

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Today we are going to talk about what’s been happening in the Southern Maine real estate market lately and what it means for you as a buyer and/or seller.

In many areas around Southern Maine, we have very low inventory. This is a great thing for sellers, because there are still plenty of buyers out there. Homes that haven’t been selling are selling now and some homes are going on the market and going under contract within a week!

Right now, we’ve got 54 days left until spring. If you’ve been thinking about selling at all, it may be a good idea for you to get your home on the market now before the competition has a chance to. Inventory will significantly increase in spring. By listing now, you will likely net more money than you would if you came on the market in the spring.

On the buyer side, rates did go up a bit in December. However, they are still incredibly low and some of the best we’ve seen in years. The only thing that isn’t so ideal for buyers has been the low inventory. A lot of buyers are having to wait for homes, and aren’t able to negotiate as much with the sellers because they are in control. We don’t know when interest rates will go up, but we do know they are extremely low right now and when they do go up, you will lose a lot of purchasing power.

If you’re thinking of buying, selling, or investing in Southern Maine real estate, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking with you!