I bought my dream farm on 70 gorgeous acres of Maine land for just $180k... then everything went terribly wrong
A single mother-of-two battled seemingly insurmountable obstacles to buy a dream Maine farmhouse for a bargain price... but heartbreak was afoot.
When Magan Reese purchased a quaint New England cottage on 70 acres of rolling hills for $180,000 three years ago, she felt like her decades-long struggle was over.
The 40-year-old had lived in 18 foster homes from the age of four, when her father died and her mother could no longer take care of her due to spiraling drug addiction.
On the day she turned 18, the state dropped her off at a homeless shelter, and she lived rough for six years while battling an alcohol addiction of her own.
But she managed to turn it all around in 2022, when she had finally saved enough money from working restaurant jobs to clinch her dream home in Exeter, a small town of less than 1,000 people around a 30-minute drive from Bangor.
The farmhouse was shabby but beautiful. Its walls were classic wood shingle, with its large white wooden windows offering 360-degree views of endless stretches of grass, trees and pastoral splendor.
As a fifth-generation Mainer and nature-lover, Reese was excited to embrace the bucolic life, and to create an idyllic childhood for her two teenage sons an ocean away from her own.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from her home, the single mom said she aimed to build a sprawling community farm on the ample land surrounding her property.
As a fifth-generation Mainer and nature-lover, Reese (pictured) was excited to embrace the bucolic life, and to create an idyllic childhood for her two teenage sons an ocean away from her own
Speaking to the Daily Mail from her home, the single mom said she aimed to build a sprawling community farm on the ample land surrounding her property
The farmhouse was shabby but beautiful. Its walls were classic wood shingle, with its large white wooden windows offering 360 degree views of endless stretches of grass, trees and pastoral splendor
'I was really hoping to create a homestead, and create a space for gardening,' she said. 'I started out by looking for community gardening partners to teach people about agriculture.'
'I spent three years learning how to grow corn - which is difficult without the large-scale farming methods.
'I met a lot of small, regenerative organic farmers.'
Reese said that living in the home, surrounded by rolling hills and hayfields, 'healed a lot of the wounds' from her past.
'I have fixed a lot of the broken pieces of me while I have been out here,' she said.
Reese paid that forward by making the home not just her personal escape but a safe 'sanctuary' for others, including a friend who had fallen victim to domestic violence.
But this summer, her dreams came crashing down.
She lost her job as a manager at a local restaurant after the establishment folded, and was fired from a second role at a supermarket for spending time on her phone at the deli counter.
'Being a tenacious person, I kept fighting and kept fighting and it finally got to a point that I couldn't do it,' she said
Reese received a devastating letter from the bank telling her she had to foreclose on her dream home after defaulting on too many mortgage payments.
'It was a solo journey that I was very unprepared for,' she admitted.
'This journey is kind of self-induced through addiction. I was an alcoholic for a long time, and that's part of the reason why I got to where I am in foreclosure.'
Instead of accepting her fate, Reese continued to fight and found a way to avoid the financial headache of losing her home.
Reese posted a TikTok that went viral promoting her home and told the Daily Mail that people from across the country started expressing interest
Reese had planned to use the property for homesteading. The house is located in the small Maine town of Exeter (pictured), which is about a half hour from Bangor
Reese bravely took to TikTok to share her story with strangers - a move that prompted the clip to go viral almost immediately.
She then reached out to someone who was previously interested in buying her home in hopes of negotiating a short sale, which occurs when a mortgage lender allows a homeowner to sell their house for less than they owe. Although short sales aren't the ideal way to sell a home, it's typically less damaging to a credit report than a foreclosure.
But the buyer's offer still would not have allowed her to continue to meet her financial obligations. According to Reese, it would have left $60,000 for her to pay off, so she was forced to go back to the drawing board.
She conferred with her bank and was told that she could avoid foreclosure if she could sell her home quickly. So, she reached out to one of her former foster moms, who works as a realtor, and they put the home on the market within a week.
The house went on sale for $220,000, which Reese said was below asking price because she was on a time crunch. And the same day her house hit the market, Reese posted another video that went viral on TikTok promoting it.
Her video racked up hundreds of thousands of views and the Zillow listing accumulated hundreds of saves.
'I had people from across the country reaching out to my real estate agent looking at this property,' she said.
The first offer on the house came within a few days, and Reese sold the home to a local couple who aim to preserve the history and the agriculture of the land before she was forced to foreclose.
'It's bittersweet, but this is just, right now, And in the future, I have learned so many valuable lessons through this experience,' Reese said.
Reese attempted to sell the home through a short sale, which eventually fell through. She listed it on the market and sold it for $220,000 before the bank foreclosed
Reese said that she hopes her story inspires others to advocate for themselves and know that they have options when they receive a foreclosure notice
Reese had no idea that she could put her home up for sale and avoid the credit damage that foreclosure would've caused.
'One huge takeaway is I'm in good standing with the bank. I've already spoken with them about what it looks like for me potentially getting another mortgage,' she said.
'And they've told me if I continue to have good standing with them for the next 12 months, then they would re-entertain having a mortgage loan with me again.'
She said that her bank was 'wonderful' throughout the process and advocated for working with smaller community institutions as opposed to larger banks.
Now, she's renting from a friend and putting the rest of the money away that she received from the sale to create passive income.
As she embarks on a new chapter, Reese said she was 'heartbroken' to give up the home, but hopes others can learn they can advocate for themselves.
'All I really want is people to understand, the learning lesson is that they have options,' she said.
'Maybe it's the survivor in me because surviving the [foster care] system as a child and I just I don't take things laying down.'
A single mother-of-two battled seemingly insurmountable obstacles to buy a dream Maine farmhouse for a bargain price... but heartbreak was afoot.
When Magan Reese purchased a quaint New England cottage on 70 acres of rolling hills for $180,000 three years ago, she felt like her decades-long struggle was over.
The 40-year-old had lived in 18 foster homes from the age of four, when her father died and her mother could no longer take care of her due to spiraling drug addiction.
On the day she turned 18, the state dropped her off at a homeless shelter, and she lived rough for six years while battling an alcohol addiction of her own.
But she managed to turn it all around in 2022, when she had finally saved enough money from working restaurant jobs to clinch her dream home in Exeter, a small town of less than 1,000 people around a 30-minute drive from Bangor.
The farmhouse was shabby but beautiful. Its walls were classic wood shingle, with its large white wooden windows offering 360-degree views of endless stretches of grass, trees and pastoral splendor.
As a fifth-generation Mainer and nature-lover, Reese was excited to embrace the bucolic life, and to create an idyllic childhood for her two teenage sons an ocean away from her own.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from her home, the single mom said she aimed to build a sprawling community farm on the ample land surrounding her property.
As a fifth-generation Mainer and nature-lover, Reese (pictured) was excited to embrace the bucolic life, and to create an idyllic childhood for her two teenage sons an ocean away from her own
Speaking to the Daily Mail from her home, the single mom said she aimed to build a sprawling community farm on the ample land surrounding her property
The farmhouse was shabby but beautiful. Its walls were classic wood shingle, with its large white wooden windows offering 360 degree views of endless stretches of grass, trees and pastoral splendor
'I was really hoping to create a homestead, and create a space for gardening,' she said. 'I started out by looking for community gardening partners to teach people about agriculture.'
'I spent three years learning how to grow corn - which is difficult without the large-scale farming methods.
'I met a lot of small, regenerative organic farmers.'
Reese said that living in the home, surrounded by rolling hills and hayfields, 'healed a lot of the wounds' from her past.
'I have fixed a lot of the broken pieces of me while I have been out here,' she said.
Reese paid that forward by making the home not just her personal escape but a safe 'sanctuary' for others, including a friend who had fallen victim to domestic violence.
But this summer, her dreams came crashing down.
She lost her job as a manager at a local restaurant after the establishment folded, and was fired from a second role at a supermarket for spending time on her phone at the deli counter.
'Being a tenacious person, I kept fighting and kept fighting and it finally got to a point that I couldn't do it,' she said
Reese received a devastating letter from the bank telling her she had to foreclose on her dream home after defaulting on too many mortgage payments.
'It was a solo journey that I was very unprepared for,' she admitted.
'This journey is kind of self-induced through addiction. I was an alcoholic for a long time, and that's part of the reason why I got to where I am in foreclosure.'
Instead of accepting her fate, Reese continued to fight and found a way to avoid the financial headache of losing her home.
Reese posted a TikTok that went viral promoting her home and told the Daily Mail that people from across the country started expressing interest
Reese had planned to use the property for homesteading. The house is located in the small Maine town of Exeter (pictured), which is about a half hour from Bangor
Reese bravely took to TikTok to share her story with strangers - a move that prompted the clip to go viral almost immediately.
She then reached out to someone who was previously interested in buying her home in hopes of negotiating a short sale, which occurs when a mortgage lender allows a homeowner to sell their house for less than they owe. Although short sales aren't the ideal way to sell a home, it's typically less damaging to a credit report than a foreclosure.
But the buyer's offer still would not have allowed her to continue to meet her financial obligations. According to Reese, it would have left $60,000 for her to pay off, so she was forced to go back to the drawing board.
She conferred with her bank and was told that she could avoid foreclosure if she could sell her home quickly. So, she reached out to one of her former foster moms, who works as a realtor, and they put the home on the market within a week.
The house went on sale for $220,000, which Reese said was below asking price because she was on a time crunch. And the same day her house hit the market, Reese posted another video that went viral on TikTok promoting it.
Her video racked up hundreds of thousands of views and the Zillow listing accumulated hundreds of saves.
'I had people from across the country reaching out to my real estate agent looking at this property,' she said.
The first offer on the house came within a few days, and Reese sold the home to a local couple who aim to preserve the history and the agriculture of the land before she was forced to foreclose.
'It's bittersweet, but this is just, right now, And in the future, I have learned so many valuable lessons through this experience,' Reese said.
Reese attempted to sell the home through a short sale, which eventually fell through. She listed it on the market and sold it for $220,000 before the bank foreclosed
Reese said that she hopes her story inspires others to advocate for themselves and know that they have options when they receive a foreclosure notice
Reese had no idea that she could put her home up for sale and avoid the credit damage that foreclosure would've caused.
'One huge takeaway is I'm in good standing with the bank. I've already spoken with them about what it looks like for me potentially getting another mortgage,' she said.
'And they've told me if I continue to have good standing with them for the next 12 months, then they would re-entertain having a mortgage loan with me again.'
She said that her bank was 'wonderful' throughout the process and advocated for working with smaller community institutions as opposed to larger banks.
Now, she's renting from a friend and putting the rest of the money away that she received from the sale to create passive income.
As she embarks on a new chapter, Reese said she was 'heartbroken' to give up the home, but hopes others can learn they can advocate for themselves.
'All I really want is people to understand, the learning lesson is that they have options,' she said.
'Maybe it's the survivor in me because surviving the [foster care] system as a child and I just I don't take things laying down.'
