The wife and husband with their lawyers blessings elected to list, to sell their Houlton Maine home. Things were not rosey between the pair but they were still talking. Not raising their voices in front of the kids at this stage. It had not gotten to any rock throwing, back biting during the intial phase of the real estate marketing process. But then a "buyer happened" and the true colors of the divorce derailment process started to shine thru brightly. As a real estate broker who represents both sellers, you tip toe thru a mine field and chose your words carefully. Trying not to take a side as you negotiate to and fro. Not just with a buyer...but between sellers too. Like a mediator running back and forth between court house conference rooms to plank by plank build a divorce settlement package. The final proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was not a real estate buyer generated wrinkle. But an old push, dust covered unused lawnmower that had over night become platinum plated. Some how very valuable and the ransom bargaining chip to get the sale to a closing, settle the divorce.

Sent several emails, faxes to the wife's divorce lawyer. Made a final phone call with news our buyer was walking without his help in getting the sale off dead center. Could he put the issue on the top of his yellow legal pad list to discuss with the wife in his next teleconference or court pre trial hearing. Ditto dog and pony plea for the husband's lawyer. Wife's lawyer indicated he had made his chunk of change in this divorce and sounded fed up with his client. His words "if you want to mediate and finish up this divorce, be my guest". Have at it.

So back and forth, like a CSI television investigator I started with a disect of the old Wizard brand lawnmower that came with the home when we sold it to the couple years before. It had been left in the corner of the garage. Probably did not work, was not used in the lawn clipping process at this property anyway.

So establishing and getting both parties holding up the sale over the final ownership of this lawnmower to agree that on the open market, this grass muncher represented maybe a twenty dollar bill value tops.

But its what the lawnmower represented as the divorce started over a year before begins to come to a conclusion that became apparent to me.

Fighting over stuff..as much as either side could get in the divorce.

It had come to the point where both parties hated each other. Were throwing rocks. Using both hands. Bitter, hurt, angry, emotional. Had nothing good to say about the other if you let them guide the conversation in that direction. The divorce that started out that regardless of whether it was concluded by the closing date of the home, the sale could happen now held the buyers as hostage. Funds from the sale that were to be held in escrow for the two divorce lawyers to write poison pen letters back and forth to keep the process going, which lined their pockets. Now the home sale as being used as leverage to tip the divorce scales to settlement. The lawnmower in the garage represents the final letting go, jumping off the cliff for each in to the next chapter of mom and dad's life that lay at the bottom. I had to sit with each, administering tissues to the wife in one session in the home's kitchen. Then hear the husband cursing how much this woman had cost him during our "mediation" back at the real estate office.

The buyers in the sale wanted the mower too, for the principle of it they said. Feeling they were paying top dollar and being very patient during the divorce dance that they were not supposed to attend. That both attorneys promised they would avoid, be kept clear of. The buyer now beginning to wonder if the sale was going to happen or not. Should they look around for another home. As I assured them this sale would happen, the Dr Phil in me trying to spare personal seller divorce details but pointing out it was just a $20 dollar lawnmower if everyone could just step back and cool down. Finally the husband conceded. The wive then decided she did not want the mower but the buyer could have it, anyone but the husband. As long as that no good worthless...Darth Vader she was married to did not park it in his new garage.

Bolting on the US RT 1 real estate sale SOLD panel was happy and sad at the same time. Long, time consuming, emotional and mental draining sale. But it helped me buy groceries and the buyers/sellers get on with their lives. But the seller's two young boys and visitation from the Dad's part never was the concern. He figured that would come later on after the dividing the spoils. That was sad. And I remember during a showing to a different buyer, those two boys with a switch and fishing pole, each beating a wire frame seamstress dress holder with mom's wedding dress on it in the garage next to that mower. They were hollering, hooping, laughing and it all seemed very bizarre. The kids caught in the cross fire of a Maine divorce.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

If you needed heart surgery, would you go to a part time cardiologist? It's the same way with listing real estate.

     The stakes are large. You need a full time broker at the helm, guiding the entire process. Not just the listing interview and front end paperwork.

     Real estate without a safety net...full time effort and trust in your skills to get the property on the market, noticed, sold. And all the other in between steps along the way to avoid the seller getting sued. To smooth the wrinkles out of the myriad of issues that can crop up. Problems, delays, derailments with the buyer, bank, attorneys leading up to the closing. It's nice to say you are a real estate agent, broker and passed the test. But that is only the ticket to the show you have not entered yet.

     But you can argue, the new agent needs to make his monthly over head at home. He needs those three other part time jobs to survive. True. But do you want an agent who is AWOL, a secret agent that vanishes...is just not in the loop? Especially in smaller rural markets where there is not a big machine to load the listing in one end, to come out pre-packaged at the other of the property conveyor belt. Especially when a buyer calls and really really wants to talk to the listing agent who had not been in the office or checked in for three weeks. Or is retired, kinda sorta for the third time, and off in the sunny south for the winter. He snagged the listing, never really intending to be on board to actually show and sell it.

Someone else can do it..but the seller thought you the agent, broker were the lead reindeer, the Rudolph always attached out front of the property sleigh.

The listing agent that knows the seller's plans, the configuration of the home inside and out. The only guy that has actually been to the property and wrote copy pertaining to the property, not a generic office gal created version that fits any property. Knows the lay of the land, waterfront acreage, hobby or working farm, corner grocery store, etc that made the phone ring in the first place. That started this whole production. And he is always available..not punching the time clock on this job and then on to another one...both that are not real estate related. No calls back in a few days if at all.

You don't want to wait in line if you are the buyer, the seller right? You don't have to when the full time agent, broker is working full out, 24/7 on your property sale or purchase.  Real estate is a jealous master. And like love, it wants all of you. And should be an olympic sport for the gold, silver, bronze..not a pick up game for fun. No one wants to take a number, have a seat and be put off. We live in America, land of drive thru everything and needed it not now, right now last time I checked.Maine, it's one big place and we're here to guide the process of getting real estate here, owning property here.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

Back in the fall when the federal tax credit for homebuyers was extended and expanded, the April 30th deadline seemed so far away.

If you look at your calendar today, you willl notice that April 30th, the last date for a signed purchase and sales agreement to be in place, is only 82 days away!

I will admit that Spring has started early this year with buyers taking advantage of the homebuyer tax credits. But, there a lot of buyers that are still procrastinating. In the real estate world 82 days is not a long time.

Don't miss out on this excetional opportunity to buy a home! With low prices, low rates and up to $8,000.00 in tax credits (for first time homebuyers and the up to $6,500.00 for previous homeowners), this is an ideal time to buy a home!

Help spread the word! Tell everyone you know about this excetional opportunity!

Let the WinterKids Passport take you away!

Here in Maine, when the temperatures drop and the winds blow and snow blankets the earth, there is some temptation for all of us to hibernate and surf the net, play video games or blow an afternoon in front of the tube. What we really should do is grab our Passports and go!

There is really no excuse for families not to experience all sorts of outdoor winter fun in Maine! Did you know that all 5^th, 6^th and 7^th graders in Maine can apply for a passport? No, not a passport that gains them access to far off lands, but a WinterKids Passport that gains them access to an entire season of outdoor winter recreation at area sledding parks, ski areas and ice arenas. Benefits of this passport include free or discounted skiing (cross country and downhill), snowshoeing, snowboarding, tubing and ice skating as well as discounted equipment rentals and lessons. Family members of WinterKids Passport holders also enjoy benefits. We all know the cardio benefits of dragging a sled back up the hill after an amazing downhill run!

The WinterKids Passport program is a non-profit organization committed to helping kids develop healthy habits through fun, outdoor winter activity. It is hoped that what they learn in childhood will carry through to adult life. The program is made possible through the generosity of numerous sponsors including Healthy Maine Partnerships (Maine gets high points for how we spend our anti-Tobacco dollars), TD Bank, Time Warner Cable (interesting after what I just said about the tube) and Hannaford Supermarkets (which does a great job promoting healthy eating habits). The program also receives major grant funding from the New Balance Foundation.

I grew up in Wisconsin hating the cold of winter, mostly because I insisted on dressing for style rather than warmth. But now, here in Maine where I am older and wiser, I find winter to be the most beautiful season. I find it impossible to sit indoors. I strap on snowshoes or cross country skiis (I am not a downhiller) and get out in it. Maybe I am no longer a fashionista, but I am warm. I wish I would have had a WinterKids Passport program while I was growing up - - I would have discovered my winter wonderland much sooner – right in my own backyard!

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in the Mid-Coast Region of Maine, I am the Real Estate Professional in your backyard - Contact me Today.

Terry Driscoll, REALTOR - Mid-Coast Maine Residential Real Estate - 207/449-9696

Allen & Selig Realty . 15 Vine Street, Bath, ME 04530 . 207/443-2200

You get a call from a family out of state. There's been a death.

     The family needs some help, guidance from a local professional. What to do first, second and third in the process? 

    When a Maine real estate broker enters the old home on say the Jones Road or Alice Avenue,  you study the top to bottom of the place. And the walls, front of the refrigerator tell you a story. You "see" the person who lived here.

     As you measure and take images, shoot video you sense what the person was all about without actually meeting them in some cases. There is an mental "image" with the kids, grandkids, great grand kids that forms from the actual pictures taken over the years at this home.

You come in to an empty silent empty home. But suddenly begin to hear laughter, can picture the life events that happened here. It's like real estate CSI and the slide show of the family that owns the place begins to play thru a loop slowly. Actual images on the walls and refrigerator help guide you too. There is one from a Christmas in the late 1950's in black and white. Another from Thanksgiving in the 1960's. Or a family reunion behind the home on the open deck during a fourth of July with home made ice cream. Grammy's favorite like many older folks was grape nut. It was what they had to add to the plain  vanila ice cream churned and turned by hand on the open porch because they eat the grape nut each breakfast for cereal. This couple went thru the depression, a couple world wars or conflicts. Raised a family here.

      Family and the special place Grammy raised those kids in shines on, lives on, echos as you tour the place. Making sure to lock up and take it under your wing to worry about because no one else locally is here to take the job for family members.

As a Maine real estate broker, you help the family figure out who is buying the old car only used on Sunday drives to church. Lots of details to address. And no family here to do the job so the broker takes on the extra duties to help with the many small details the family is too far away to deal with.

     As you tour the Maine home, or lake cottage you make notes to use in marketing the place. And for suggestions to the family. There is some deferred maintenance that was not tended to. Or maybe forgotten about during long illnesses, or sickness with the husband before he passed away a few years back. Or money was not there to tend to the areas needing attention. You advise the family on what is worth doing for repairs. What is diminishing returns in a small rural Maine real estate market. No stager called in to redecorate. The place is priced at $34,500. Humble, simple, and affordable. It may be filled with a new young family or bought as a Maine vacation place. You can do that with a second home purchase when the price tags hanging on the property is this low cost and reasonable.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers