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?

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.