Q. Are there any upgrades I can make that are especially desirable to today's buyers?

 

One of the things that comes up now–that wasn’t an issue 10 years ago–is connectivity.

 

More and more of our home life is wireless: appliances, thermostats, cameras and more are connected to the internet. Landline phones are going the way of the [...]

 

WRAPPING UP THE YEAR

 

2022, like 2021, saw a year started with our real estate market on fire. Low housing inventory was the fuel, and artificially low interest rates threw gas on the fire.

 

In January 2022, 30-year fixed rates hovered around 3.25%, and the 15-year fixed rate was approximately 2.5%. Plenty of people could afford to buy at those [...]

 

Q. My wife and I want to buy our first home, but rising interest rates are making that monthly payment pretty near unaffordable for us. Any advice?

 

The best advice I can give you is to stay flexible, and talk to the experts.

 

People often don’t think about how much property taxes add to their monthly housing payment. If you stay [...]

 

Q. Cold weather is coming, and the price of everything seems to be going up. Any tips on home energy efficiency?

 

Glad you asked, because we’re thinking about the same thing! A protracted war in Ukraine is making for an unstable oil supply, and that instability affects prices. And regardless of any foreign wars, a fuel-efficient home or [...]

 

Q. What is an ADU?

 

An ADU is an accessory dwelling unit. Each town’s definitions are different, but in York an ADU is defined as “a small apartment which is part of an existing single family owner-occupied home, in the same building as the principal dwelling unit or in a building , to the principal dwelling unit, and which is clearly [...]

 

Q. I've been hearing about a new property tax break for Maine seniors. What is it?

 

Home values in Maine rocketed upwards in the past few years. While that’s been a boon to sellers, higher home values also can mean higher property taxes.

 

In an effort to help protect Maine’s older residents from the financial burden of climbing property [...]

 

Q. Interest rates are rising now, and I'm concerned. What's going to happen to my home value now?

 

At Williams Realty Partners, we’ve been anticipating this market shift for quite awhile, and preparing our clients for it. A correction is absolutely necessary, and will help to stabilize runaway home values. But a long-range perspective is [...]

 

Q. I feel like there’ll never be a better time to sell my house, but I have nowhere to go and I don’t want to have to buy in a seller’s market. Any advice?

 

The classic Catch-22 in a seller’s market is when you want to sell before the market shifts, but you have nowhere to go. Then you end up as a buyer in a seller’s market, fighting the [...]

 

Q. What are interest rates going to do this year, and what’s that going to mean for selling my house?

 

It is widely expected that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in 2022, if they haven’t already done so by the time you’re reading this.

 

For some historical perspective, we’ve been in such an abnormally low interest rate [...]

 

Q. It’s tax season. What’s a Homestead Exemption and should I get one?

 

We all look for ways to save when we can, don’t we? Personally, I like saving money wherever I can.

 

But there’s a surprising number of people who haven’t yet taken advantage of a simple Homestead Exemption. In the town of York, a Homestead Exemption lowers the [...]