When you live in a little rural Mayberry type town, that is what you are selling…small town values. Friendly people and a community that cares.
Trusting, no locked doors, willing to help. Northern Maine prices are so much lower than the rest of the world as the jobs are rewarding but giant pay to sport a couple Hummers in the yard is not the reason to move here. You won’t make as much money…but you won’t need to. Homes for $39,900…what’s the catch? Ahhh..let’s get out the map (unfolding sound of paper map) You are here (pointing) and way way up here on the Canadian border..Yes..that’s Houlton Maine. Aroostook County is the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island…and only 11 people per square mile. No road rage…no long delay getting across town. When you are a rural broker, property with land….farm type
listings are asked for alot. Selling single family homes in town is part of the gig, but acreage..getting the Jeep out back on the rear 40 acres is what many that want the path less traveled are interested in.
Since 911, folks in the populated areas have not felt safe…and their life is like a gerbil on a treadmill…frantic. They decide to cash in their real estate chips there…have some money left over after buying the farm or farmette or victorian in Northern Maine. Before they have a stroke and have to retire in the city, they opt out for rural america. Baked beans Saturday night. Church on Sunday, and maybe even Wednesday night. 4th of July parades with homemade floats, little leaguers marching, high school bands, yesteryear autos…and plenty of horses, fire trucks and armed forces units! Community involved on local boards, sponsorship of everything group going because you make your money here and want to give back…that’s life where the sky is bluer…the stars are brighter…and the people are spaced with lots of elbow room. Slow down…explore life in rural Maine. Grab a granola bar…turn on the Crosby Stills and Nash…reach for the Mother Earth News and start walking, sitting on porches watching sunsets and living…not just mad dash work work work!
School goes in three weeks early the end of summer..and then youngsters get out for three weeks of harvest when the potatoes are ready to pick! For pickers, 60 cents a barrel which is four baskets full and weights 165 pounds. For potato house and harvester workers the big minimum wage…which seems like a fortune to local 16 year olds that want an ipod or new stylish winter coat. The kids take better care of what they buy…and they choose carefully not wasting any of their own money. They equate if something is worth say six barrels of potatoes if sixty cents a barrel is the pay per barrel. They learn how hard money is to make, and what it buys or does not buy depending on how much time you put into getting the best trade. Better impulse control happens too when it comes to spending habits with their own money.