Why is Maine a good place to move to? (Portland: apartment, renter)

[pc-not]

Concerning percentage of cloudy days, I know SAD does affect some people. My sister was one that had serious problems with it. I'm one that has the opposite issue. Too many days with intense sunlight can really get to me. Kind of like a movie with Al Pacino. He was a detective looking for a murderer during the Alaska summer. Constant sunlight drove him crazy!

What I need is a good mixture of overcast and sunny days. When I lived in Maine I never gave the sunny/cloudy mixture a thought. It suited me fine.

[maineguy8888]

The Fairpoint we have in Caribou works well.

[diablogun]

I've been waiting for a long time to get Fairpoint's faster service, but they keep telling me they don't know when it is going in (in South Portland).
Time Warner in the meantime which is kind of expensive...

[retiredtinbender]

Originally Posted by corgis

We have Fairpoint and it seems to load more slowly than what we have been used to - we're in Eastport so maybe our region is slower than other places.

You calling us stupid???

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by retiredtinbender

You calling us stupid???

I think she just said slow, not necessarily stupid...

[redgoast]

Jobs can be hard to find in more rural regions of Maine (and in general). I don't know what you do for work, but you may need to be flexible or willing to commute into one of the larger population centers to find certain types of work.

The beauty of it is that you can live like 20-30 minutes outside of Bangor or Portland and depending on the direction be out in the middle of nowhere. That's not often the case with most metro-areas and states.

Your online business sounds like a good plan, if were to need help with it you might be able to employe students at the University of Maine or University of Southern Maine to help you with it. I know from experience there isn't much of professional e-commerce industry in Maine so you may need to rely on students to get technical support or help. Should your business become a success you may even be able to provide jobs and keep kids who want to stay in the state (I was one of those kids) which would be great for the local economy.

Winters are harsh and it is a live and let live sort of culture. Your neighbors will pretty much leave you alone even in the cities. I miss Maine, maybe one day I'll get back there. Best of luck in your search.

[WhereDoIBelong]

Originally Posted by redgoast

Jobs can be hard to find in more rural regions of Maine (and in general). I don't know what you do for work, but you may need to be flexible or willing to commute into one of the larger population centers to find certain types of work.

The beauty of it is that you can live like 20-30 minutes outside of Bangor or Portland and depending on the direction be out in the middle of nowhere. That's not often the case with most metro-areas and states.

Your online business sounds like a good plan, if were to need help with it you might be able to employe students at the University of Maine or University of Southern Maine to help you with it. I know from experience there isn't much of professional e-commerce industry in Maine so you may need to rely on students to get technical support or help. Should your business become a success you may even be able to provide jobs and keep kids who want to stay in the state (I was one of those kids) which would be great for the local economy.

Winters are harsh and it is a live and let live sort of culture. Your neighbors will pretty much leave you alone even in the cities. I miss Maine, maybe one day I'll get back there. Best of luck in your search.

Thank you.
I note that LL Bean is located in Freeport and is a well known and highly regarded company. So perhaps I can work there and learn from them what makes them so great.

[WhereDoIBelong]

Reading about available rental homes in some of the smaller towns in Maine, I see that several offer to include heat, hot water or both in the rent.

Is there any consensus as to the reason(s) why such places would offer this, when these costs aren't cheap?
It could be because the homes are of lesser quality, or are poorly located geographically as well as being in low quality of neighborhood (hence a lack of demand) or one of the most common reasons, just to be competitive with others in a not very high demand area (from what I can see)?

Any other thoughts as to why would be welcomed.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by WhereDoIBelong

Reading about available rental homes in some of the smaller towns in Maine, I see that several offer to include heat, hot water or both in the rent.

Is there any consensus as to the reason(s) why such places would offer this, when these costs aren't cheap? It could be because the homes are of lesser quality, or are poorly located geographically as well as being in low quality of neighborhood (hence a lack of demand) or one of the most common reasons, just to be competitive with others in a not very high demand area (from what I can see)?

Any other thoughts as to why would be welcomed.

When we first moved to Maine, we rented an apartment. 2bdrm, with heat and hot-water included and they allowed pets for $650. At the time, all apartments I called about offered the same [though most did not allow pets].

For a couple years we were actively shopping to purchase an apartment building in Bangor, Brewer, Old Town or Orono. The major of properties we looked at all offered heat and hot-water included in the rent.

It seemed to be customary.

[redgoast]

Originally Posted by WhereDoIBelong

Thank you.
I note that LL Bean is located in Freeport and is a well known and highly regarded company. So perhaps I can work there and learn from them what makes them so great.

their call center is located in Bangor. The flagship store in freeport, I do not know where their factories are located... though i'd venture to guess they'd be out of place in the quaint village of freeport.

Bangor has quite a few big call centers actually. Verizon & LL Bean come to mind.