Real Estate Information Archive

As a smart consumer, I used the internet to associate myself with the Portland area real estate market in anticipation of my transfer from Northern Virginia to Maine. During that road of research, I stumbled on to a website with a catchy phrase: “Call Maine Home with Barouch & Company. It entered the site and after reviewing the information decided this site would better assist me with analyzing the housing market in Maine, especially since the information was more up to date than such sites as Realtor.com. Two days later I received a phone call from a real estate professional named Deb Barouch who inquired if she could assist me with any real estate needs. What followed was not pressure sales pitch but rather a dialogue regarding my family, our diverse backgrounds, and my previous experiences in Maine as a child. As I explained my research of the current (limited) pool of homes in the greater Portland area, she offered me access to a whole new tool which wasn‘t available on the web, a bi-weekly market analysis of homes in those locations where I wanted to purchase a home for my family. That tool alone gave me the ability to plan my strategy for future home negotiating with real-time information at my fingertips, especially with the downward trend in home values. In preparation for my house hunting trip, Deb and I consolidated a list of homes that fit my families needs and then we hit the ground running. Well that information paid off….24 hours later I had a home under contract in Scarborough that I was very excited about, a place where my wife and three children could grow up and enjoy all the benefits of Maine. With the assistance of Deb’s associate Ryan Deveaux, they helped guide me through every aspect the inspection process to a very satisfying settlement. The guidance provided by Barouch & Company Realtors was invaluable and without reservation, I would recommend that any future home buyers contact Deb Barouch and Ryan Deveaux for any real estate assistance so that they to can “Call Maine Home”.

Do you want to know what homes are selling for in your neighborhood? We will send you a free report once every two weeks? It is a cool new tool called "market snapshot"

Do you want to know what homes are selling for in your neighborhood? We will send you a free report once every two weeks? It is a cool new tool called "market snapshot"

I have recently had conversations with several past clients who are struggling with the decision of whether or not to place their homes on the market this year.

They all know that they wish to sell, but it is a matter of either waiting to sell until next year or selling this year.

On the surface, a reasonable response might be, of course, to wait until next year, because of so may uncertainties. Surely, the market will be better next year. But will the market be better next year? or will it be worse?

Since I have been in real estate since 1985, I  lived through the last downturn in the late 80's and early 90's. In the last downturn, it took a year or so, after the Boston marketplace started to fall, for our marketplace to follow suit.

Essentially, I believe, we mirror to a large degree the Boston marketplace. If folks in Boston[or Mass. in general] can cash out of their homes, and buy a retirement or vacation, or a primary home in Maine, for much less, and pocket the difference; then we will get their business up here in Maine. But if they can't sell [in large numbers] then we will be impacted by a shrinking marketplace.

So will a seller get less for our home next year, if he/she chooses to wait? Perhaps he/she will get less, if the pattern initiated in the last downturn in greater Portland repeats itself.

I have recently had conversations with several past clients who are struggling with the decision of whether or not to place their homes on the market this year.

They all know that they wish to sell, but it is a matter of either waiting to sell until next year or selling this year.

On the surface, a reasonable response might be, of course, to wait until next year, because of so may uncertainties. Surely, the market will be better next year. But will the market be better next year? or will it be worse?

Since I have been in real estate since 1985, I  lived through the last downturn in the late 80's and early 90's. In the last downturn, it took a year or so, after the Boston marketplace started to fall, for our marketplace to follow suit.

Essentially, I believe, we mirror to a large degree the Boston marketplace. If folks in Boston[or Mass. in general] can cash out of their homes, and buy a retirement or vacation, or a primary home in Maine, for much less, and pocket the difference; then we will get their business up here in Maine. But if they can't sell [in large numbers] then we will be impacted by a shrinking marketplace.

So will a seller get less for our home next year, if he/she chooses to wait? Perhaps he/she will get less, if the pattern initiated in the last downturn in greater Portland repeats itself.