Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
A multi-generational family in southern Maine is taking a unique approach to finding enough land to create a dream sheep farm homestead.
Emma Scott, 27, is looking for between 10 and 25 acres just north of Portland to live, launch a sheep farm and allow her parents to retire. After scouring the real estate market since last fall and finding nothing, their real estate agent decided to try something different.
Tom Landry, owner of Portland-based Benchmark Real Estate, sent out letters about the family and their desires in the buyers’ target area. The hope is to catch the attention of a large property owner who has considered selling but hasn’t yet put their home on the market.
While Landry occasionally sends out letters such as these on behalf of buyers who aren’t having much luck, this family’s dream goes beyond a typical single-family suburban home. The tactic of pursuing off-market homes has become more common in recent years given the tight real estate market, particularly for larger plots in southern Maine.
“We hope the letter lands with the right people who can identify with what we’re trying to do, who care about their property and want to make sure that it’s not going to be subdivided,” Peter Scott, Emma’s father, said.
Emma Scott has been “chasing that dream of having a farm of my own” since growing up next to one in Standish. As an adult, she has worked on farms around the state. She hopes to start with a flock of sheep and harvest wool for yarn. Animals could provide milk or meat in the future. Later, the family may add goats and dairy cows and grow crops on the land.
“The long-term dream is for my parents and I to buy property together and have this intergenerational family farmstead and hopefully make a business out of it,” Emma Scott said. “The idea would be that we’re all living on the land and taking care of it together.”
The Scotts want unforested land free of contaminants like PFAS, with enough space for a thriving farm. The family would also like to be roughly 30 minutes north of Portland in the area of Pownal, New Gloucester or Freeport.
“We’ve lived in the Greater Portland area for the last 30 years and we don’t want to leave all our friends and family,” Peter Scott said. “We’re trying to stay in an area that we’re familiar with, but many things have already been subdivided and it’s hard to find property that has that acreage attached to it.”
When it comes to what, if any, homes are on a property, Peter Scott said the family is flexible and may customize it to meet their needs. For example, they could add an apartment over the garage or an accessory dwelling unit elsewhere on the land.
The family’s budget is also flexible and depends heavily on what properties they find. For example, they’re willing to spend more on a site with a turnkey house with a barn. Their budget for land alone is tighter because they need to reserve money to build what they need. They also could be competing with developers who might need land for their next project.
Homeowners might be reluctant to sell for a variety of reasons, Landry said. For example, a homeowner might want to update their property before putting it on the market, but haven’t gotten the work done yet. Others may be self-conscious about showing their home on short notice, or aren’t able to leave quickly.
Some neighborhoods in southern Maine won’t have any homes for sale, but it doesn’t necessarily mean people aren’t thinking about selling, Landry noted. The letters help frustrated buyers overcome inventory shortages or specific needs and signal to would-be sellers that moving their home can be straightforward.
“You don’t have to have your house ready and we can close quickly — maybe with no inspections,” Landry said. “You’re also going to have all your money from the sale to then be a great buyer for that next seller.”
