The David Marshall Team

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The David Marshall Team

Digital Marketing Master and Certified Negotiation Expert with dedication to service, integrity, and client success, David A Marshall is a trusted advisor.

His career spans over 24 years in real estate investing and 9 years of real estate brokerage. * 20+ Years of Real Estate Investor Experience
* Historic Home Expert: 20+ Years of Experience
* Former Portland City Council Member: 9 Years of Experience
* Local Neighborhood Expert: 20+ Years of Experience

10/29/2026

Fresh paint does not decide a Brunswick sale. Test results do.

WATER
On a private well, buyers order a water panel. It looks for bacteria, nitrates and arsenic. Arsenic is natural in Maine bedrock. You will never taste it or see it. Test early, and a problem becomes a fixed system with a receipt.

AIR
Radon is tested in the air on public water homes too. Older in-town houses near Maine Street and Bowdoin College often have stone or rubble foundations. That gives radon plenty of ways in. A mitigation system is a simple mechanical fix.

HEAT
This is the one most sellers get wrong. The age of your heating system is the age of the boiler or furnace. It is not the age of the burner. The burner bolts on the front and can be swapped out. A new burner is a repair. If you lost the paperwork, a technician can often read the build year off the data plate.

SEPTIC AND SHORELAND
Out toward Mere Point, Pennellville, Maquoit Bay and Middle Bay, add two more layers. A septic inspection checks the tank, the box and the leach field. Shoreland rules control setbacks, clearing and how much you can add on. Pull your permits from the town before a buyer asks.

Buyers price unknowns low. They price documented facts fairly. That gap is the whole reason to test ahead of a listing.

What would you test first before listing? As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/29/2026

Sellers love to say the burner is brand new.

Inspectors, buyers and appraisers hear something very different.

There is one word that decides how old your heating system really is, and most Brunswick sellers use the wrong one.

Watch for the full video posting on my page. As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/28/2026

Two little words that sellers lean on harder than they should: as-is.

In Brunswick, it covers less than most owners assume, and the gap between what people think it covers and what it actually covers is exactly where closings unravel at inspection.

There is a clean line here. I am drawing it in the full video.

Watch for the full video posting on my page.

As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/28/2026

The assumption that you have to choose between selling fast and selling for full value is the most expensive one a Brunswick owner can make.

Here is why it's wrong.

The delay that costs you money isn't the wait for an offer. It's the pause after a contract is signed. An inspection surfaces something nobody anticipated, the lender hits the brakes, a renegotiation opens, and the closing date slides. Every one of those pauses hands the buyer leverage to ask for a credit, which is exactly the price erosion you were trying to avoid.

Brunswick's building stock runs older than the national average, especially on the in-town streets near Maine Street and around Bowdoin. Older houses carry predictable items: knob-and-tube wiring that complicates an insurance binder, a heating system at the end of its service life, and an oil tank nobody has a date for. A corroded tank can make a house hard to insure, and a lender will not close a loan on a house a buyer cannot insure.

Out on the coastal necks toward Mere Point and Pennellville, private well and septic are ordinary. A septic inspection covers tank, distribution and leach field, and a failed result becomes a financing problem. Well testing covers bacteria, nitrates and arsenic, and arsenic is a known feature of Maine bedrock groundwater.

Title is the quiet one. An old lien never discharged, a right of way across a neck lot, a boundary that doesn't match the ground. Ordering a review early turns a three-week problem into a one-week problem.

Front-load the work. That is the whole strategy.

Which would you tackle first in Brunswick: the oil tank or the septic? As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/27/2026

Speed or price. Most Brunswick owners believe they have to surrender one to get the other.

They don't, and the reason has almost nothing to do with buyer demand. The delay that actually costs sellers money shows up in a place most people never think to look before they list.

Watch for the full video posting on my page.

As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/26/2026

Spring is not automatically the best time to sell in Brunswick. That advice assumes the town moves as one market, and it does not.

There are three Brunswicks, and they sell differently:

The in-town streets near Bowdoin, Maine Street, and the Federal Street and Lincoln Street historic districts. Older housing stock, heating system and wiring questions, and an academic calendar that puts real deadlines in front of relocating buyers.

The newer subdivisions toward the outskirts and past Cook's Corner. More standardized, which means more direct competition when listing volume peaks.

The coastal property on the necks toward Mere Point, Pennellville, Maquoit Bay and Middle Bay. Shoreland zoning, permit history and survey questions take time to assemble, and water access reads strongest in the warm months.

A common in-town colonial competes head to head with every similar house, so a crowded spring can cut both ways. Waterfront acreage on the necks competes with very little, which widens the window considerably.

The bigger lever is readiness. Frozen ground complicates septic evaluation. Exterior paint, roofing, grading and drainage all have a working season. A house with a documented heating system age, an oil tank assessed for condition, clean well and radon results and clear title performs across a far wider range of months than one that arrives with open questions.

The calendar amplifies preparation. It does not replace it.

Which Brunswick is your house in?

As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/26/2026

Owners in Brunswick almost always want one month named as the right time to list.

That is the wrong question here, and the reason has nothing to do with the season. It has to do with the fact that Brunswick does not move as a single market.

Three of them, actually.

Watch for the full video posting on my page.
As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/25/2026

A sale price is not what you keep. In Brunswick, the gap between the contract price and the wire amount is almost entirely predictable if you look at it before the house hits the market.

The fixed side:
Maine's real estate transfer tax is split by statute, half to the grantor and half to the grantee, and it is calculated when the deed records at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds. Your mortgage payoff is principal plus interest through the payoff date, any escrow shortfall, and the discharge recording fee. A home equity line has to be formally closed, not just paid to zero, or the lien stays on record. Property taxes prorate against the Town of Brunswick's fiscal year, and if bills were paid ahead, that one can run in your favor.

Compensation is negotiable, set by individual agreement, and disclosed in writing in the listing agreement before marketing begins, so it belongs in your net sheet from day one.

The variable side is condition, and Brunswick's housing stock makes it local:
Older in-town houses near Maine Street and the Federal Street area can surface knob-and-tube wiring, which insurers and lenders care about. Oil tank condition matters, and the age of the heating system means the boiler or furnace, not a replaced burner. Radon testing in air and water is routine here. Out toward the necks, Mere Point and Pennellville, private well and septic add inspection, testing and arsenic screening, and frozen ground limits what can be excavated in winter.

None of that is a surprise if it is anticipated. All of it is a surprise if it shows up in an inspection report first.

Which closing line item caught you off guard? As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/24/2026

There is a reason some Brunswick sellers are calm at the closing table and others are doing math in their heads.

It is not luck, and it is not the sale price.

One of the largest items that comes out of a seller's proceeds is already determined before a price is ever set, and most sellers never look at it until the settlement statement is in front of them.

Breaking the whole list down, fixed items and condition items, in the full video.

Watch for the full video posting on my page.
As always, ask anything and follow for facts.

10/24/2026

Price dropped on this 4-bed, 2-bath, single family cape in Portland!! Come check it out at the Open House TODAY from 10am-12pm!! Can't make today work? Reach out for a private showing!

Address

41 Hutchins Drive Building 3
Portland, ME
04102

Website

http://DavidMarshallTeam.com/

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