Understanding Massachusetts Real Estate: What Makes This State Different

By Patrick & Alana Scanlon, REALTOR®s, eXp Realty · Scanlon Sells Team · Updated July 2026

Buying or selling a home in Massachusetts works differently from most of the country in several specific ways. Massachusetts is an attorney-centered closing state, using a two-step contract process — an initial offer followed by a separate Purchase and Sale Agreement. The state doesn’t require a broad seller disclosure form, follows its own rules around agency and broker compensation, and layers on Massachusetts-specific closing costs like the deed excise tax. Condominium purchases involve additional association-related considerations, listing information is first entered into regional multiple listing services before appearing on many public real estate websites, and homeowners have access to a state-specific Homestead Act protecting a portion of home equity. Patrick and Alana Scanlon of the Scanlon Sells Team, REALTORS® with eXp Realty in eastern Massachusetts, walk through each of these differences below — starting with the one that surprises most people first: the role of the attorney.

Key Takeaways

• In Massachusetts, an attorney typically handles the title work and conducts the closing — a different setup than the escrow-company model used in much of the country.
• Massachusetts real estate deals usually move through two contracts: a short initial offer, followed by a more detailed Purchase and Sale Agreement negotiated days later.
• Massachusetts doesn’t require sellers to fill out a standard disclosure form, which puts extra weight on the buyer’s own inspection and due diligence.
• Closing costs in Massachusetts include state-specific charges, like a deed excise tax on the sale, layered on top of the usual lender and title fees buyers and sellers expect elsewhere.
• Buying or selling a condo here adds another layer — a condominium association, monthly fees, and extra paperwork that don’t come up in a typical single-family transaction.
• Massachusetts also uses regional multiple listing services that provide listing information to many public real estate websites, along with a Homestead Act that can protect a portion of a homeowner’s equity in certain situations.

Why Attorneys Play a Central Role in Massachusetts Real Estate Closings

If you’ve bought or sold property outside Massachusetts, here’s something that’ll likely be new to you: attorneys play a central role in how real estate closes here. In most of the country, escrow companies handle the closing process, and a lawyer only gets involved if something goes wrong. In Massachusetts, attorney involvement is standard and central in most residential transactions — especially financed purchases — though the exact legal requirement and who represents whom can vary depending on how the deal is structured.

In many Massachusetts residential transactions, particularly financed purchases, an attorney oversees the title work, prepares or reviews the closing documents, and conducts or supervises the closing itself. That’s a meaningfully different system than the escrow-company model much of the country runs on, and it’s worth knowing before you’re in the middle of a deal.

One important thing to understand: the attorney handling your closing isn’t automatically representing you the way the phrase “your attorney” might suggest. Depending on how the transaction is set up, that attorney may represent the lender, the buyer, or another party in a clearly defined role. Buyers and sellers should ask early on exactly who the closing attorney represents, and whether it makes sense to bring in their own separate legal counsel for the transaction.

Because of this, don’t assume a no-lawyer closing like you might remember from another state — and don’t assume the closing attorney is working exclusively for you. Knowing who represents whom, and understanding your own contract before you sign it, are two of the more useful habits to build early in a Massachusetts transaction.

One thing worth saying plainly: this is what we see, as your REALTORS®, guiding Massachusetts transactions through closing year after year. For the legal specifics of your own situation — including who should represent you — an attorney is the one to ask.

Many Massachusetts transactions begin this way: an accepted Offer to Purchase establishes the framework of the deal, and a more detailed Purchase and Sale Agreement, negotiated shortly afterward, expands on those terms. That two-step process is worth understanding on its own — and it’s exactly where we’re headed next.

Why Massachusetts Uses a Two-Step Contract Process

Massachusetts commonly handles real estate transactions in two stages. First, an accepted Offer to Purchase establishes the framework of the deal — price, target closing date, deposit amount, and the key terms both sides are agreeing to. From there, a more detailed Purchase and Sale Agreement, negotiated shortly afterward, expands on those terms with the level of detail and precision the transaction actually requires.

Here’s the difference in plain terms. The Offer to Purchase is short and sets the deal in motion — it gets the transaction moving and brings the attorneys into the picture. The Purchase and Sale Agreement is longer and more comprehensive, built to spell out the specifics — title, financing, exact contingency language, and everything else — that a short offer form isn’t designed to capture on its own. Between the two documents, many of the transaction’s detailed terms are still being worked out and finalized.

Why does Massachusetts do it this way? Mostly tradition and practice. Attorneys on both sides use the gap between offer and P&S to work out the details a quick offer form was never built to handle — title issues, financing specifics, exact contingency language, and anything else that surfaces once both attorneys are actually looking at the deal. It’s less about favoring one side over the other and more about giving everyone room to work through the details before the transaction moves forward.

What should you expect? After your offer is accepted, don’t be surprised when a second, longer contract shows up from the attorneys days later — that’s normal, not a red flag. Read it carefully (or better, let your attorney walk you through it) rather than assuming it just restates your offer. It usually doesn’t, and the differences matter.

One more thing worth knowing before you’re in the middle of it: once both contracts are settled, the next question most people ask is who’s actually representing them in all of this — and how that person gets paid. That’s next.

How Agency and Broker Compensation Work in Massachusetts

If you’ve been searching for homes long enough, you’ve probably heard terms like “buyer’s agent” or “dual agency” without a clear sense of what they actually mean for you. In Massachusetts, understanding who represents whom in a transaction is worth sorting out early, because it shapes whose interests your agent is actually working to protect.

At the most basic level, a buyer’s agent represents the buyer’s interests — helping them find a property, negotiate terms, and get through to closing on their behalf. A seller’s agent (often called a listing agent) represents the seller the same way, working toward the best terms and outcome for the person selling. Most transactions work this simply: one agent per side, each looking out for their own client.

Two other arrangements show up more often than buyers and sellers expect. Designated agency happens when two agents from the same brokerage each represent a different client in the same deal — one for the buyer, one for the seller. Each designated agent owes their duties to their own client, and the brokerage operates under Massachusetts’ designated agency rules to keep those roles separate. Dual agency is when a single agent represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction. It’s allowed in Massachusetts with informed consent from both parties, but the agent can’t advocate for one side over the other the way a buyer’s or seller’s agent normally would.

Broker compensation in Massachusetts is negotiated, not set by law or fixed by custom, and how that conversation happens has changed. Since the 2024 National Association of REALTORS® settlement, buyer representation and compensation are typically discussed and put in writing earlier in the process than they used to be, rather than assumed as part of the listing. The mechanics of how that works are worth a closer look on their own — this is just the orientation.

See our full guide to working with a buyer's agent in Massachusetts for how that representation and compensation conversation typically unfolds.

These are exactly the kinds of questions we encourage buyers and sellers to ask early. Understanding who represents you and how representation works is an important part of making informed decisions throughout the transaction.

What matters most at this stage is simple: understand who represents you rather than assuming representation is automatic, and ask before you’re several showings into a search. Once that’s settled, the next natural question is what you’re actually entitled to know about a property before you buy it — which is where Massachusetts disclosure law comes in.

What Massachusetts Sellers Are (and Aren’t) Required to Disclose

If you’re used to a state where sellers fill out a detailed disclosure form listing every known issue with a property, Massachusetts works differently. There’s no general law requiring sellers here to complete a standardized disclosure statement about the condition of the home. Massachusetts generally follows what’s often called a “buyer beware” approach to residential sales — the burden falls more on the buyer to investigate than on the seller to volunteer.

That doesn’t mean sellers have no obligations at all, and it’s worth being precise about what “buyer beware” actually covers. It means Massachusetts doesn’t impose a broad, affirmative duty to disclose every known defect the way many other states do. It does not mean a seller can lie about the property or actively hide a known problem. A seller who knowingly misrepresents a material fact, or who takes steps to conceal a defect they know about, can still be held responsible for it. The absence of a disclosure form is not the same thing as a free pass.

On top of that general standard, a small number of disclosures are required by law regardless of the buyer-beware framework — lead paint being the most well-known example for homes built before a certain year. There are a handful of others that apply in specific situations. This isn’t the place to run through all of them; the point to understand here is that “no standardized form” doesn’t mean “no required disclosures at all.” Some things must be disclosed by law no matter what.

Because Massachusetts doesn’t lean on a seller disclosure form the way other states do, the inspection carries more weight here than many buyers expect. If you’re coming from a market where the disclosure statement does much of the early information-gathering, that safety net largely doesn’t exist in Massachusetts. A thorough home inspection becomes one of the buyer’s most important tools for understanding the property’s condition.

This is exactly the kind of thing we discuss early with our clients. What the law requires sellers to disclose, and what buyers are responsible for investigating, are two different things. Understanding that distinction helps set realistic expectations and avoid surprises during the transaction. For how a specific situation applies to you, an attorney is the right person to walk through the legal specifics.

Once you know what you are — and aren’t — entitled to learn about a property before you buy it, the next practical question is what it’s actually going to cost you to get to the closing table. That’s next.

Massachusetts Closing Costs: What Buyers and Sellers Should Expect

By the time you’re deep into a Massachusetts transaction, you’ve probably already got a number in your head — the purchase price if you’re buying, the mortgage payoff if you’re selling. That number isn’t the whole picture on either side. Closing costs come on top of it, and both buyers and sellers should expect them as a normal part of getting to the closing table, not as a surprise near the end.

On the buyer’s side, these costs commonly include lender-related fees tied to originating the mortgage, title-related costs to confirm the property’s ownership is clear, prepaid items like insurance or tax escrow set up at closing, recording and settlement expenses, and other costs associated with completing the purchase. Buyers should also budget separately for expenses such as the home inspection, which typically occurs before closing.

On the seller’s side, the costs look different but are just as real. Sellers commonly account for a real estate commission where one applies, attorney fees for handling their side of the transaction, the state’s deed excise tax on the sale, payoff-related expenses tied to satisfying their existing mortgage, and other smaller closing costs that come with getting a deal to the finish line.

What those costs actually add up to varies quite a bit from one transaction to the next. The property itself, how it’s being financed, what’s been negotiated between the parties, and the specific details of the deal all shape the final number. There isn’t one standard figure that applies evenly to every Massachusetts closing, which is exactly why generic, one-size-fits-all cost estimates rarely hold up.

Because of that variation, we always encourage buyers and sellers to review their estimated closing statement carefully, well before the closing date itself — not for the first time at the closing table. That gives you time to ask questions about anything that looks unfamiliar or unexpected, while there’s still room to sort it out.

This is meant as an orientation, not a full accounting of what you’ll pay — for the actual numbers, and how they apply to your specific purchase or sale, that’s exactly what a dedicated closing costs guide is for. Once you have a general sense of what to expect financially, the next situational detail worth understanding is what changes if you’re buying or selling a condo — Massachusetts has its own rulebook for that too.

Buying or Selling a Condominium in Massachusetts

Buying or selling a condominium in Massachusetts isn’t just a smaller-scale version of a single-family transaction. It comes with its own layer of considerations that single-family buyers and sellers never have to think about, because a condo purchase involves more than just the unit itself.

When you buy a condo, you’re also buying into a condominium association — the organization made up of all the unit owners that governs the shared parts of the property and makes collective decisions on behalf of the community. That association is a real, ongoing part of owning the unit, not a one-time detail at closing.

Most condos come with a monthly condo fee, which typically covers things like building maintenance, insurance, and shared amenities. Every association also operates under its own governing documents — rules that spell out what owners can and can’t do, along with a reserve fund set aside for larger, less frequent repairs down the road. How well-funded that reserve is, and how the association is run day to day, says a lot about what it’s actually like to own there.

On the seller’s side, closing a condo sale typically involves additional documentation beyond what a single-family transaction requires. Much of that paperwork comes from the condominium association itself and helps confirm the status of the unit and the association for the buyer. Sellers should expect these additional steps as a normal part of the process, not an unusual delay.

Here’s the thing to hold onto through all of it: no two condominium associations are alike. Fees, rules, reserve health, and restrictions vary building to building, even within the same town. Buyers should take the time to actually review an association’s documents rather than assuming one condo works the same as the next.

Once you understand what makes a condo purchase its own kind of transaction, the next piece worth knowing is more practical: how homes actually get listed and shared with the public in Massachusetts in the first place — and why what you see online doesn’t always tell the full story.

How Homes Are Listed and Shared in Massachusetts

If you’ve spent any time scrolling Zillow, Realtor.com, or a similar site, you’ve probably run into something that didn’t quite add up — a status that seemed outdated, a listing that seemed to be missing information, or a price that didn’t match what you heard elsewhere. That’s a common experience, and it’s not random. It usually comes down to where the listing data actually originates and how it travels from there.

In Massachusetts, most residential listings start their life in a regional multiple listing service — a shared system real estate professionals use to enter and manage listing information for the properties they represent. In much of eastern Massachusetts, that system is MLS Property Information Network, commonly known as MLS PIN. Think of it as the working database agents use directly, rather than a consumer website.

MLS data is the primary working source for participating real estate professionals — it’s where new listings get entered, where price changes get updated, and where a property’s current status (active, under agreement, sold, and so on) is recorded first. Agents rely on it because it’s built for exactly that purpose: accurate, current listing information for people actively working transactions.

Public portals like Zillow and Realtor.com receive listing information separately and process it in their own way, on their own timelines. Because of that, it’s normal for public sites to occasionally lag behind, show a detail slightly differently, or leave something out that the underlying listing record actually includes. That doesn’t mean those sites are always wrong, or that agents always see every listing before the public does — it just means the two sources aren’t always perfectly in sync, and it’s worth knowing that before you treat a portal listing as the final word.

It’s also worth knowing that MLS PIN is the regional system common across much of eastern Massachusetts, not the only listing service used everywhere in the state — other areas and situations can involve different systems. The bigger point isn’t which system’s name to remember, but that a working listing record exists behind the scenes, separate from whatever you happen to be looking at online.

Once you understand where listing information actually comes from, there’s one more Massachusetts-specific protection worth knowing about — one that has nothing to do with buying or selling a particular home, but with protecting the equity in the one you already own. That’s next.

The Massachusetts Homestead Act: A Protection Homeowners Should Know About

There’s one more Massachusetts difference worth knowing about, and it’s not really about buying or selling a specific home — it’s about protecting the one you already own. Massachusetts has its own homestead law, and it’s the kind of thing that surprises people not because it’s complicated, but because almost nobody explains it to them.

At a high level, the Massachusetts Homestead Act can protect a portion of a homeowner’s equity in their primary residence from being reached by certain creditor claims. Think of it as a layer of protection tied to the home itself, separate from anything related to the purchase or sale process. It’s a state-specific consumer protection that a lot of homeowners never hear about unless someone happens to mention it.

It helps to understand there are really two levels here. Massachusetts law provides a degree of homestead protection automatically for many homeowners, without any paperwork required. A homeowner can also record a formal Declaration of Homestead, which generally provides a higher level of protection than the automatic homestead. The details of eligibility, how the protections differ, and whether a declaration is appropriate for your circumstances are worth discussing with an attorney rather than trying to piece together here — the point at this stage is simply knowing that both forms exist and that they aren’t the same thing.

It’s just as important to understand what this protection isn’t. It’s not unlimited, and it doesn’t apply to every debt or every kind of claim a homeowner might face. Treating it as a blanket shield against anything and everything would be a mistake — it’s a meaningful protection with real boundaries, not a guarantee.

Most homeowners run into this topic for the first time during a purchase or a refinance, often when their closing attorney brings it up as part of the paperwork. That’s normal, and it’s usually the moment worth paying attention rather than skimming past.

This is exactly the kind of thing we like to flag for our clients as their REALTORS® — not because we’re the ones to explain the legal mechanics, but because it’s a genuinely useful protection that deserves more than a passing mention. If you want to understand exactly how the homestead law applies to your property and your specific situation, a Massachusetts attorney is the right person to walk you through it.

That covers the eight things about Massachusetts real estate that tend to surprise people the most — from the role of attorneys at closing, through agency, disclosure, costs, condos, how listings actually work, and now this. None of it is meant to replace the professionals you’ll work with along the way; it’s meant to make sure you walk into a Massachusetts transaction already knowing the right questions to ask, and who to ask them to. That’s the kind of preparation that makes the rest of the process go smoothly — and it’s exactly how we like to work with our clients, from the very first conversation.

If you want to see exactly where each of these pieces fits into a real Massachusetts transaction, in order — from getting ready to buy through closing day — walk through The Massachusetts Home Buying Process, Step by Step next.