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 [...]

 

Q. I’m thinking of buying a home with a colonial-era cemetery on the property. Do I have any legal obligations regarding the cemetery?

 

There are over 300 private family cemeteries in the town of York alone, so you’re not alone. Many people in our area have bodies buried somewhere on their property.

 

When there's a family cemetery on [...]