Houlton, ME

You have followed your sports team thru the grueling season..with one player in the line up with a torn ligament, another needing surgery during the off season. The pace of day to day grind takes it toll.

A realtor who has been thru the ups and downs of the real estate season has the grit, stamina and recollection of lessons learned during the last challenging market dips.

     In the 1980's, I remember 16% interest rates and comparing the real estate market today to the 1980's is apples and oranges logic. Currently mortgage rates are incredible. Four and five percent loans...yippee! If you saved some money over the years, there are some incredible sale prices, super selection  and the financing to go with it. These are the best of times if you prepared for them. 

     If you used to for enjoyment and happiness, hop in the car and spend the day charging this, buying that and dragging it all home, maybe these days are not so much fun.  If you are saddled with a giant mortgage, and a second mortgage on top of that and have no savings, and your job is tittering, then your life is in chaos.  Learning to get by day to day with what you need, but not everything you want, or think you want is the most valuable lesson to come out of an economic correction during lean times.  My dad had a commencement speaker at college who said to the new graduates "I hope you all have adversity early in life, hard times so you can  benefit from them the rest of your life". Set backs early in life you can make up for.  It's sounds negative or like he wished for failure but his point was this is the key to success and it gets your attention teaching you something you will never forget. 

  It's the older person out on the limb way over extended helping their kids buy this or that, that is sad. They were raised better than that and should have avoided the financial quick sand and just said no, I am not going into debt to help you live a lifestyle so out of whack with the one that they we taught and enjoyed. Do you have fear of debt now and did you a year ago? 

      How do you deal with your life when the going gets tough? Did you prepare for it or think this happens to other people, not me? The country is exploring their spending habits, their saving routine, and looking at what every aspect of their day to day costs. Taking better care of the car you own because you can not afford to trade, studying the cost of food, thinking about wasted trips and being careful when you open your wallet. Isn't that a good thing in the long run when before spending it as fast, or faster than it came in was the helter skelter survival method?

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Simple Living, Friendly Hardworking People, 4 Season Beauty ...That's What We Are Selling.

You know how you hear an old song and it takes you back to when you were younger and reminds you of being a kid?

As you remember the fun you had growing up, do your kids have the same environment of living in a great place to spend their childhood? As a parent, you make sure the family traditions of holidays, church, chores around the home and routines are built into the raising of your family. You teach your kids values, common sense and to think about the bigger picture of what the road ahead holds in store.  You basically prepare the child to be a productive, contributing adult that has the same skills to raise his/her family or your grandchildren in this case. Houlton Maine is a small town in Aroostook County and I feel lucky to have grown up here. But you also realize the area you live, the people in it help shape your kids. It's like the expression the village raises your family too.  The little league coach has a hand in fair play, learning how to win and lose.  The farmer in Houlton taught the child how to be responsible, to pick those potatoes clean and not leave any behind, etc.  And the outdoor recreation of Maine provided the clean fresh air, the fun in all four seasons on the many lakes, rivers, trails and great outdoors.  I remember swimming at my Uncle Frank's camp at Nickerson Lake in New Limerick and driving home after stopping at the local ice cream "dairy bar" and getting butter crunch or some other new flavor and thinking life was good.  Simple, with family, at the lake during sunset, grilling food outside, laughter, cousins, fun.

 I remember summer haying and being able to drive the truck before I had my license which was a big deal. I had a horse. I mowed lawns in town that I rode my bike to and had to work around the weather to keep Mrs Black happy. I had spending money, and the area was (is) safe, the people friendly, the population less crowded. People were happy growing up around me and I did not feel like a kid. In this small town, kids were treated like people. Respected for their opinions and the joy they could bring because kids just want to have fun and are ready on a moment notice to play kick the can, hide and seek, or to join up with mini bikes, snowsleds to explore.  We had freedom growing up and were were not told we could not leave the dooryard. A buyer from Arizona said he never lost sight of his kids there near the border, and they never left the yard. He only hung out with other border patrol agents.   In Maine, he said he had to get used to his two boys walking to the local movies, or left for the afternoon at the park during the 4th of July celebration and not having to worry about anything happening to them.

      If you live in an area where it takes two hours to go eight miles from your work to your home, is that congestion helping create the time needed, the back drop required for a simple, childhood if you are not there for the nightly meals, or the ball games, etc.  If you routinely get home around 8:30 and the little ones are already in bed and you missed the stories of the day, the nightly prayers and tucking the little ones in, is that a good thing? You may have material possessions, work hard, make a good living but if you are not available, don't both you and the kids miss out? Do you ever worry about this generation getting what it needs to be well rounded and have a chance for happiness later in life from a good wholesome upbringing?  It's a lot easier to teach your kids what you were taught without having to think about the right way if you had that kind of home life growing up.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Small Town Rural Maine Living For Sale

I grew up on a farm, and I remember our own family garden.

  Peat moss pots with seedlings started early on the glass sun porches to get a jump on the season were part of growing up.  Dad also built a greenhouse too and as a little boy I remember how hot it was stepping in but how remarkably fast the plants on the trays shot shoots skyward.  Tomato varieties called "beef steak", green peppers all potted to start early for transplanting into the orange brown rich rusting soil of Maine that is so productive. 

 Dad had an eight foot sign made painted dark green with a local artist carefully painting in from stratch a giant ear of corn...complete with the yellow and white kernels shining thru but the husk and tassle still on and pulled back just enough to show the corn hiding inside. The vegetables we grew and sold at a road side stand also generate needed money during the slower summers when most of your financial resources are in the potato field, invested with the hope that the weather and market cooperated to cause a productive, profitable fall.  Do you plant a garden? The seed company Vesey's Seeds in Prince Edward Island Canada used to use the Houlton Maine post office as their shipping center due to faster service and cheaper rates and I was amazed at the activity.  Back in the 1800's, 96% of us were farmers.  And with cut backs on farm subsidies and retinkering with the bread basket, food could become very precious, very high priced and gardening for nutrition and to help with the grocery budget could become more in vogue for survival.  I still own the family farm and think some day the four kids could be needing the space to grow their food, and wood to heat their own homes with. For folks thinking we don't need to continue the nation's cheap food policy, don't talk with your mouth full.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Houlton Maine Real Estate And Small Town Living For Sale

Here is the latest newletter from Rotary International our Houlton Maine club just circulated for all to see. Are you a member of Rotary which is world wide, serving others above self? The Houlton Maine Rotary club meets mondays at noon at the Episcopal Church on Main Street. If you are ever in the area, call me and let me take you to a Rotary meeting. The food is super, the fellowship immense and we always learn something plus have fun along the way.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Maine Real Estate For Sale And Area Information

  Air force brats just get used to an area, make friends and then its time to move to another base.

As a kid my dad was a Maine potato farmer and had eight trucks that hauled those spuds to market in the cities of Boston, Hartfort and New York. So I learned the world was not flat by going on truck trips at the age of 10 and seeing the markets of these cities. My parents took my three older brothers to Winter Carnival in Quebec and we rented many places on the Maine coast for a family vacation. They also took lots of picnics and hiking trips to the many parks in Maine. So we grew up knowing there was life beyond our little town. I think traveling is key to know other areas and to settle where you are supposed to be in an area that fits. I have taken my own kids on many Carribean cruises, Florida trips to see Mickey, to Hawaii and around this country.  As a Maine real estate broker, I deal with lots of buyers who are considering a move because they are not happy in an over populated area, where crime, pollution is a problem.  Are you in your place in the sun? Are you where you want to be now? Maine, the way life should be.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Maine Real Estate And Area Information