Bacon Remediation Will Be The Next Big Thing

Recently a panel of the World Health Organization concluded that eating processed meats, such as bacon, increases the risk of developing colon cancer. This is the same organization that concluded in its 2009 study that indoor radon causes lung cancer and anyone who has sold (or tried to sell a home) on the Rocky coast of Maine that has a radon level above 4.0 p/CiL will tell you, there is a lot money to be made (or spent) in radon remediation. Which got me thinking. How long will it take for detecting and then remediating high concentrations of bacon in a home to become part of the home selling process? In my own home there is usually at least half a pound of bacon present at any time. By my estimation as least 50% of my immediate circle of friends have large concentrations of bacon in their homes, sometimes as much as a pound or more, which I am pretty sure is significantly more than 4 P/CiL. So if bacon is harmful (2 slices of bacon reportedly increases your risk of colon cancer by 18% and is in Group 1, the same category as cigarettes) it won't be long before an industry will grow up to protect us from this threat.

So that is where my new company, Maine Coast Bacon Remediation (still working on that) will come in. After we detect bacon in a home as part of the home inspection process ($200 for homes with single door refrigerators and $400 for double doors) we will develop a safe an effective way to remove the bacon from the home in an all natural way. Our  dedicated staff are all well trained (maybe motivated is a better word) and relentless when it comes to discovering and disposing of bacon. Most of them would do it as volunteers if necessary. Bacon removal is not just a job for them it is best described as a mission.

Once a week, or more if you want to pay the extra charge, our staff will come to your home and remove any of that evil bacon from your home. In fact they will even remove sausage or other meat products at no extra charge. So don't let a dangerous and potentially fatal build up of bacon in your home or your future home threaten your health. Call now.


Tom Field

Summer is Coming (to Maine) : Maine Coast Real Estate Blog: Waterfront Homes in MidCoast Maine

Summer is Coming (to Maine) : Maine Coast Real Estate Blog: Waterfront Homes in MidCoast Maine

Summer Visitors Leaving Pemaquid Point for Wicked Long Trip South

I was down the peninsula at Pemaquid Point this morning showing a couple of homes, putting an "Under Contract" sign up, dropping off some liquid refreshment in the fridge for a client who is getting in late, checking on a door at another listing when I saw hundreds of Monarch butterflies while at  40 Seawood Park, a listing I share with Anne Bourne. It was spectacular with this one bush covered with all sorts of brightly colored insects flitting from one flower to another. This picture doesn't begin to do the scene justice because despite what the guy at the Apple store will tell you IPhones are not every bit as good at taking pictures as my Canon G11. Besides that it is nearly impossible to focus on one of the little buggers because they are flying all over the place sucking up nectar so that they can FLY TO MEXICO. Strange but true. To step into my Cliff Claven shoes for a minute the Monarch butterfly will travel 2,500 miles making it the longest migration of any insect. From what I understand from a friend from New Harbor every year about this time the Monarch Butterflies congregate around Pemaquid Point before they launch themselves on their trip south. For those folks heading back to their dreary non-Maine existences that have a ground migration of several hours you should suck it up because a Monarch Butterfly takes more than two months to go from Pemaquid Point to whatever beach front resort they hole up in until their summer rental is ready for them again.

It really is amazing and if you have a chance you should head down to the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse area and see if the Monarchs are still gathering.

And on another note, just so no one gets the idea that my day is all about butterflies, beer deliveries and putting up "Under Contract" signs, I walked into this monster when I walked through a door as wasn't looking where I was going. I never knew spiders could make such a high pitched squeal when you walk into them but then again maybe it was me. I like spiders but only when they are in a documentary sucking the life out of some poor grasshopper. I don't think this guy is migrating anywhere because I could have sworn he or she was following me out to the car. But I was running and shrieking so who knows?

Our Newest Listing is a Movie Star (or Forget "Message in a Bottle" How About "The Seventh Day"?)

Maine has been the backdrop for a number of Hollywood movies. Who can forget such classics as "Casper the Friendly Ghost", "Graveyard Shift" and that near Oscar winner "The 12 Dogs of Christmas"? But long before Forrest Gump ran to the Marshall Point Lighthouse or Kevin Costner was moping around Shaw's Wharf with his "Message in a Bottle" there was "The Seventh Day". Not to be confused with "The Seventh Seal" (who knew a movie about a chess game could be so boring?) or even the "The Seventh Sign" (Please Demi, put a top on) but a 1922 silent movie starring Richard Barthelmess and directed by Henry King who came back to Maine 34 years later to film "Carousel" in Boothbay Harbor with Mrs. Partridge).

The Seventh Day is interesting only if you have a fondness for old wooden boats, New Harbor and John's Bay. Or if you like stories involving local folks getting mixed up in the shenanigans of rich people from away who have questionable morals and a fondness for captain's hats. But what I found really interesting about the movie was local scenery, including the fort,  the lighthouse and particularly the house in the movie at about 7:45 in.

This is the same house that Becky Brown and I have just listed in New Harbor at 8 Monument Lane. There have been some changes to the house since the 1922 movie but it is easily recognized as the same home. From the trim details above the windows to the stained glass window pattern in the double front door and the decorative moldings on the porch, much of the exterior has stayed the same. I have to admit that I have not watched all 6 of the 12 minute clips of the movie but I am working on it. The house also appears in the third clip a couple of times and because it is such a nice backdrop I am certain in the last 3 reels as well.

Feel free to contact me for more info.

Click here if you would like to see more pictures of 8 Monument Lane.

Selling Homes Instead of Houses

I was picking up a Newcastle Square Realty (Midcoast Maine’s Favorite Real Estate Agency) sign a few weeks ago from a listing that I had just sold when my cell phone rang. Coincidentally it was the former owner of the property returning my call to work out some final details. We talked a bit about the sale, the people who bought the house, how happy we were with the price and then she said something that really touched me. She had printed off the lengthy ad copy I had written about her parent's home the previous night when she got a little teary about selling the home that she had grown up in. She explained that she was relieved that she was selling the house but that the sale marked an end of a chapter in her family's narrative and the beginning of a new one, not only for her family, but for the people who were moving into the house. My ad copy gave her a written reminder of what it was like growing up in that house, on that street and in that town in a way that pictures couldn't. Her parents had been gone for some time now but while she and her siblings still owned the house they still had a connection to what had made them a family.

I was very surprised that she was keeping the ad copy I had written. It isn’t often that a client will mention liking either the photographs or advertising copy and this was the first time that someone said that they were keeping anything that I had written aside from my mother (who can take my 6th grade report about the moon colony I predicted would exist by now off the refrigerator). It also reminded me that selling a property can sometimes be more like an adoption instead of a business transaction. I see this all the time when I am taking pictures. Every house tells some sort of story of the owners but some homes are a book while others are a short magazine article.

There are tell tale signs of life in almost every house. Scuff marks on the ceiling of a bedroom from a lacrosse stick, a tennis racket or hockey stick. Dents from a ball against the back of the house or the side of the garage and crudely constructed tree houses with rusted nails and now rotten 2x4s.The graduated marks in a doorway that are almost always near the kitchen or basement steps with dates and initials spanning several years, starting near a couple of feet from the floor and ending close to the top of the door. Sometimes you can just almost hear what was said with the last height mark. “Ah mom, really?”

I don’t think those details sell houses. Most buyers are looking for a place that does not need to be painted or have holes that need filing. They are looking for a blank page to start their own narrative but I have worked with other clients who feel that they are not buying a house so much as applying for a care taking position. Some will even go so far as to write a letter introducing themselves to the sellers and promising to look after their home as part of their offer. Some sellers really appreciate knowing that the person who wants to buy their home can see that their house is more than just a three bedroom, two bath Greek Revival that sits on a couple of acres. That there is a history that goes along with the place.

So the next time you are out house hunting remember that you may not just be looking at someone's house you may be looking at a part of their family as well.

Enjoying the Sights of Midcoast Maine From the Air

I have always said that you can not really appreciate all the beauty of Maine if you only see it from the land. Part of the reason I say that is that it is the best argument I have when trying to convince my wife that we really need a boat. I still believe that (I am going to wear you down eventually honey) but now I have something to add to it. Seeing Maine from the air. Last Sunday a friend took me with him for a quick "flight around the block" from the Wiscasset Airport. Sunday was a beautiful day. Lots of visibility, very few clouds, little or no turbulence and warm.

So taking off from Wiscasset we flew down the Sheepscot, over Southport Island and Dogfish Head (such a cool place they named a beer after it), over Pemaquid Harbor, across the peninsula to Muscongus, over Round Pond, past Moxie Cove to Broad Cove and Hockomock Channel then up the Medomak to Dutch Neck and then straight over to Damariscotta Mills, the Lake and then over downtown Damariscotta, the harbor and straight back to the airport.

 If you haven't seen the Midcoast from Wiscasset to Waldoboro and many of the locations in between from the air here is your chance to do so without fear of airsickness. If you can spot your own house let me know in the comment section because I would love to hear it. Enjoy the view! Just a few hints of things to look for. Some of my listings are in these shots as well as other Newcastle Square Realty listings. Can you pick any of them out? There are also a couple of shots of a house that will be featured on a cable network that is devoted to real estate and helping people with do it your self projects. I worked with their producer to purchase the house this spring and it will be on their network next year.

                

If you can't see the slideshow above click HERE to see the album.

And if you want a Google Earth Link to a little video of the tour send me an email and I will forward it to you.

Tom 

The Housing Equivalent of the Island Of Misfit Toys (or What is the HUD Section 203(K) Program?)

There have been a lot of changes in the real estate world over the last couple of years but the one that stands out in my mind the most is the death of the "Fixer-upper" or "Handy(wo)man) special". When I was looking for my first home and didn't have a lot of money to work with (actually I think this is true of all my home purchases) there were lots of homes that were in my price range that needed work. Not a huge amount of work but enough work to make it difficult to say that the home was in "move-in" condition. For example, I bought a home on Damariscotta Lake in Jefferson that had a toilet installed off of the kitchen in the space that was sort of the dining room. There was no door or even a wall to separate it from the rest of the living space. So if you were sitting in the living room and looking toward the kitchen, there was the toilet. When people came by and asked what was a toilet doing in the middle of the room we would just say it was the entertainment center. When we began our renovation of the interior one of the first things we did was to wall off and enclose the "entertainment center", put in a washer dryer hookup, add a door and voila! A half bath with first floor laundry. It wasn't a difficult or expensive renovation but it added value (a lot of value as it turned out but that is a different story).

These days it is very difficult to sell a home that needs work. I hear the same refrain over and over from people looking at homes, "It needs a new roof which is more work that we want to do" or "I hate carpeting, I want a house with wood floors on the second floor". Neither of those two things are impossible or very expensive to do and yet people turn up their noses at a house listed at $200,000 that needs $20,000 of work to be exactly what they are looking for and will spend $250,000 or more for a home that doesn't need the a new roof or has wood floors on the second floor too. And why do they do this? Because they can. There is enough inventory on the market that a buyer can find what they are looking for even if it means spending more money than they really need to. That is great and I am glad that they are buying any house right now. But what about those homes that just need a little love like the elephant from the Island of Misfit Toys? They will eventually sell to someone who is getting a great deal because they have a little imagination and either know how to do the work themselves or have enough expertise to write a check. I've seen waterfront that a few years ago the land that they sit on would sell for $500,000 that are being offered for less than $300,000.Why is that? Because it is more work than people want to take on, even if it means spending a couple hundred thousand more somewhere else.

Which brings me to the point of this entire diatribe. There is a U.S. Housing and Urban Development loan insurance project called the Section 203 (k) program. What the program does is to give home buyers the ability to purchase a home (or up to a 4 unity apartment building) that needs some work (new heating system, energy conservation, etc.) or to turn a single living unit building into more living units. This means that people who are not cash rich real estate investors can get in on buying distressed properties and returning them to livable homes. Not only does this benefit the buyer (who is probably getting more house than they could otherwise afford) but it benefits local contractors, the seller and the neighborhood that no longer has to look at the eyesore on the corner that brings down the value of all of their homes as well. This program isn't for everybody and being a government program there are lots of forms and steps to undertake but if you are interested owning a home and the only homes in your price range need work it may be worth checking out. And if you are looking for someone to help you find that bargain home feel free to contact me.