All Forum Posts by: Katie Magoun

Hi @Emily Martin. Welcome to the Maine market! Whereabouts are you from? 

We invest in rental property in the Portland area, but our vacation home is on Mount Desert Island (MDI). The two have some overlapping characteristics, but are ultimately two very different markets. 

Briefly, Portland is more expensive but more accessible. Be aware that the Portland market is HOT. Prices are high, and many properties sell with multiple offers/bidding wars. Also note that the cities of Portland and South Portland (and other surrounding towns) are taking a hard look at short term rentals, and additional fees/regulations seem likely. That said, I've heard from STR investors that business is steaming along. Portland's reputation as a food/drink destination is making for strong year-round STR business (Maine is typically known for seasonality in this regard).

MDI is wonderful. We don't rent our house up there because we use it quite a bit. That said, if we chose to rent it, even for the season (which now comfortably extends from the end of May through the middle of October), we could make a killing. In fact, many year round residents are known to rent their homes in the summer and move to a camp on the lake to take advantage of the demand for STRs on the island. But... the locals basically roll up the sidewalks and shutter the storefronts right about this time of year. It is so, so quiet in the winter (I love that about it, but as far as rental income goes...). Some try to do 6-month rentals for the winter, but to mixed success. 

Let me know if you have any specific questions about either area. I watch the real estate markets closely in both places. Good luck! I don't blame you for picking Maine! 

We use -- and are happy with -- Knight Property Services located in Westbrook, Maine. They do snow and yard maintenance for all of our properties. I'm not sure if they're taking on new accounts, though. Certainly worth a try as they do above average work for a great price. 

That said, we've been nailed the past few winters with horrible weather, so I'm not entirely surprised at that quote. Good snow services are either booked up or crazy expensive. Good luck! 

We have a property that we set up with propane boilers. In that case, we wanted to switch to natural gas, but had to wait on that option for a variety of reasons. We knew it would be an easy switch to NG later on (and in fact, we just made the switch, 4 years later). We did once have a tenant "forget" to fill the tank, resulting in a panicked phone call when the heat didn't work. To be fair, the tenant wasn't the sharpest crayon overall, so clearly not the propane's fault. But it can and does happen. 

I'd go with propane or oil. Many Mainers still don't know or trust heat pumps, and it might dissuade renters. Just another perspective to consider. 

Make sure you run it by a Real Estate attorney first. If it's not an ironclad legal ROW, you are taking a significant risk. 

We once had a property under contract with a ROW. Turns out it was a "handshake agreement" and the other parties weren't interested in making it legal. We walked away from that one. No thanks. 

Portland is gearing up to crack down on STRs, so I wouldn't bet on that plan for the long term. See recent article in Portland Press Herald: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/08/20/short-term-...

Safer route is to continue to rent. Unless you'd be open to considering communities outside of Portland/South Portland. 

Sounds like a great "problem" to have @Kenneth LaVoie! I grew up in Winslow, so I am familiar with your market in central Maine. 

We spend a few weeks a year on Sanibel and we love it. I wouldn't stay anywhere else in Florida. We don't own property down there, but we do know people who have vacation properties on the island that they've owned since the early '80s. Anecdotally, it sounds like a mixed bag. Good news is that the high season clientele (Jan - Apr) are great... mostly retirees and families. The summer season (May - Aug) is a bit rougher crowd. You get party groups escaping the inland/Miami heat and hardcore fisherman who decide to clean their catch in your bathrooms. Our connections no longer rent in the summer season because it's just not worth it. On the upside, it's not uncommon to get more mid-term renters who want the place for the season (snowbirds), which drastically reduces your costs to manage.

Fort Myers and surrounding coastal towns are pretty nice in spots, but you do get more "party" types on the mainland. And I don't like Southwest Florida International at all. It's a bear to travel through there in the high season. I think if you're looking for a "jumping off point" for international travel, a larger airport like Tampa is a better bet. I've visited and enjoyed the Sarasota/Bradenton area and that is relatively close to Tampa, but also has a mid-sized airport locally (Elite Airways flies direct from PWM to Sarasota, as far as I know). 

Personally, I'm hesitant to buy beachfront or beach adjacent property in Florida. Climate change is coming for Florida in a big way and between beach erosion, sea level rise, and rising temperatures, I think more people will be looking to vacation north of Florida in the future. It may not be a concern if your long term strategy is 20 years or less. 

Welcome to landlording in Maine. It's a bummer that it's started off this way for you, but none of us manage to avoid these issues in our exceptionally tenant-friendly state. 

You're unlikely to get back any of the money you're owed. Like @Ryan Murdock mentioned, your best bet is to keep them paying you anything at all. We've had a non-paying tenant in one of our units before, and by the time we were able to evict her (for legit non-payment), we were out thousands of dollars (she also happened to be a client of the illustrious Pine Tree Legal... they will cost you money, no matter how perfectly you try to adhere to the rules). Take Ryan's advice re: legal assistance to start the eviction process. The notice of rent increase does not serve as a notice to terminate the prior lease (unless your lease has specific language otherwise), so you need to put that in writing (after getting legal advice and support) before you can start the eviction process for non-payment. 

As for complaints about leaving without notice... ha. We once had a tenant leave without even notifying us. We found out when the electric company called to put service back in our name. They just left. Landlords have almost no recourse in this instance other than to put the tenants into the collections process (we've never received a dime from anyone we've put in collections). 

Long story short... these issues are one of the major reasons we have a good, professional management company for our properties. They know the ins and outs of all of this stuff, and they are on top of it with all the necessary legal steps accounted for. 

I wish you the best of luck in this scenario. It's not fun, but you will learn a great deal. 

Portland investor here. My thoughts: We won't know the top until we're past it. I don't think we're there, personally. 

I will say that it's hard to forecast the market here in Portland as the activity we've seen lately doesn't fit into historical models. Buyers simply aren't behaving as rationally as they have in the past. This is due to combination of factors, but essentially boils down to demand FAR outstrips supply, so some (many?!) buyers are willing to do whatever it takes, even if they're buying well above market. The deals we've done this year, we were always one of many offers and our offer was never the highest (not by a long shot!). People are just acting irrationally; there's no other way to explain it. I also think we've seen a sharp uptick in the number of cash buyers (often investors from away hoping to "park" their money in what they estimate to be a reasonable bet, appreciation-wise). Those buyers often care less about the specifics of that property, as long as the property doesn't lose money (an easy bar to clear with a cash purchase). 

Speaking of appreciation, I'm not a fan of factoring that into the purchase equation because it's ultimately all speculation. I subscribe to the notion that, over the long term, prices will go up... eventually. Since we're buy and hold investors, I don't care much about what the property is worth in 5 years. I plan to hold it far longer than that. So as long as the property cash flows in the short term, we are still trying to buy. 

Welcome (early) to Maine! I'm from Maine originally but we lived in the DC area for about 10 years prior to moving back to Maine, and it was a great decision. I love springtime in northern Virginia, but prefer just about everything else about Maine!

Whereabouts in Maine are you considering? Maine is a big state and the regions can vary quite significantly... not the least of which with regards to the real estate market. I saw you mention a bank in Camden; the midcoast is a great place to live. We're in the Portland area (with ties to central Maine and Mount Desert Island/Acadia region). 

RE: looking to rent. As a landlord, I'm more put off by your short term lease than the dogs (we allow them, excluding bully breeds). Turnover is a landlord's greatest expense, and I'm wary of someone who is only planning to stay for a few months. And our insurance really doesn't like short term/tenant-at-will leases. I'd consider a year long lease. The market in Maine is C-R-A-Z-Y, and it may take you that long to find and actually get to purchase the house you want. In fact, we have tenants in one of our single families right now that are renting because they sold their house and they know it'll take a while to buy a new one. 

Just something to consider!

I don't know rents as well in Windham, but I can tell you that our 1 bedrooms on the peninsula in Portland that include heat are between $950 - $1100/month. 

Your projection seems a bit high for a 1 bedroom in rural Windham.