Nick Mascetta and his partner started looking to buy a house soon after they moved back to Maine.

This spring, nearly two years later, they were still looking.

The options were grim: Gamble on a run-down fixer-upper they might be able to afford. Or overpay.

“We’ve made two offers on places, both over asking. We didn’t get either one,” said Mascetta, a tax professional who grew up in Cumberland but lived in San Diego for 20 years after college – exactly the type of Mainer the state wants to lure back to fight “brain drain.”

The first offer, Mascetta admits, was not aggressive. The second was $80,000 above list price, just four hours after the house hit the market. They didn’t even get a chance to negotiate.

“So, that was pretty wild,” Mascetta said. “I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”