Buyer Beware: House Hunting In Maine? Double-Check That The Taxes Are Updated

Buying a house can be intimidating, especially when you find things out "after the fact" that would have been good to know before you signed on the dotted line.

Doing your homework ahead of time can save you both time and money in the long run, even if you're dealing with a pro!

I have a couple of friends who were recently in the market to buy homes. They were looking to purchase homes in the Bangor area.

They each experienced something that surprised me, so I thought I'd pass along a bit of helpful information. My hope is that if you're also trying to buy a home, This gives you one more tool at your disposal to make sure you have all the facts.

For each couple, the process began, as it often does, by gathering listings. One couple did some browsing online, on their own. The other couple worked with some real estate professionals.

Each pair came across listings that matched all their criteria, based on the stats provided in the rundown of stats from square footage, to method of heat, age of appliances to details about the neighborhood.

So each one decided to take the next step and have an inspection done and put to in a bid. It was during that part of the process that they learned something that would ultimately inspire both couples to pass on the properties they had picked.

Interestingly enough, what they learned had nothing to do with any information they gathered during the home inspection.

What they discovered was an inconsistency in the property tax figures for each home vs. the actual tax figures.

One of the couples discovered this on their own, by double-checking figures on the City of Bangor's website, which anyone can do.

The other couple had a family member who worked in real estate law, so he knew the importance of verifying that the numbers in a listing were accurate and up-to-date.

In both cases, the listings they were working with had outdated tax info. And the difference between the figures was in the thousands of dollars.

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I decided to check this out for myself.

As I drove through Bangor today, I noticed a "For Sale "sign on one of the houses I passed. When I got home, I looked the property up on a real estate website.

According to the website, the listing has been up for one day.

It lists the Annual Tax Amount for the property as $2,093.90 and lists the tax year they got that information from as 2023.

I wanted to compare that figure to the figure listed on the City of Bangor's website.

First I went to the City's Online Parcel Viewer. I knew the address, so I clicked on the parcel box and got the current homeowner's name.

With the name of the property owner, I then went to the City's Tax Assessment Information. The most recent commitment book they have available is for the 2025 Fiscal Year, which would have been the tax value as of April 1st, 2024.

When found the current tax information for this particular property, I was astonished to find a difference of almost $4,000!

The annual taxes on this property are actually $5,986.09. That's $3893.09 more than the figure on the listing from the website, something that I'm guessing every prospective homeowner would be interested in knowing.

So, there you have it. This is why doing your due diligence and double-checking that those numbers are accurate and up to date can give you crucial information when it comes to what you choose and how you negotiate.