Of all the paperwork that goes with a normal Real Estate transaction, the most overlooked form could prove to be the most costly. Fortunately, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a very consumer friendly State and makes it fairly easy to stay out of lead paint trouble.

Our office recently had this scenario occur. Our agent was listing a home that the Seller said she was unaware if it contained lead paint or not. This is very common because, unless you have had a lead paint inspection, or the prior owner has told you that they had knowledge of lead paint, you have no way of knowing. Here is where a few minutes of work can save a huge legal mess not to mention save someone from being poisoned by lead paint.

A quick check of the archives in the MLS showed that indeed the property was purchased with the lead declaration being "Unknown". The current owner had no inspections done. A check of the property in the Massachusetts Lead Safe Home Database showed that the prior owner had not been as forthcoming with thier agent as they should have been. There was an inspection done during the prior ownership period that was positive for lead paint and no action was taken.

The current Seller must now disclose that there is lead paint present and should try to get a copy of the inspection to determine how much and where the lead paint was found. Had this not been caught at this point, and someone ended up getting poisoned, you would hope that the original owner that had the inspection and failed to disclose it would be held liable. As we all know, in these situations it is usually a case of; sue everyone and see who is left standing.

If you have not already used the link above to check your current home address or a home that you may be thinking about purchasing, you will be shocked as to how easy it is. This site should be bookmarked on every Realtor's computer and used in every transaction.

***TIP*** Be careful with Streets that have odd spellings. I ran a home on Greene St that showed up under Green St. Be careful with words like Olde, and Towne. more times than not they will drop the odd vowel.

As a Realtor that understands today's technology I encourgage all of the "Big Sites" that empower buyers and sellers with Real Estate knowledge. None, however; have found a great way to keep their listings up to date or to give you relevant information in order to determine a selling price for your home.

I love being part of Trulia Voices and have met and helped many people that have posted questions about Real Estate. The problem is that for every one question about a specific real estate problem there are five asking "Is this property still available?". More times than not the answer is "No".

The majority of these sites pull the listing information from other third party listing sites or rely on the listing agent to post the property information themselves. This is great, except most agents never go back after the initial posting to update the status (UAG, SOLD). Craigslist does about the best job by having agents/owner have to post their listings every seven days or they expire. Unfortunately, it has become a contact source for scam artists of all kinds.

When Zillow first came out with the Zestimate Tool, allowing a potential Seller to type in their address and get an estimate of what their home would be worth, it was a big hit with the public. It took a while for Sammy and Sally Seller to understand that the information was based heavily on public records and Sales data that is six months old or more. Even Zillow has more disclosures than you can imagine explaining the accuracy of their Zestimate.

How does one go about getting the most up to date information on homes in the areas that they desire? I know some hate to hear it but, if you contact a local Realtor, they can get it to you and simplify the process. For example if you are in Massachusetts and would like to Search the MLS Inventory you can click and use the direct search tool from my website.

If you are tired of logging on everyday to search for properties and would like them to come to you for a change you can try my FREE Listing Update Service . Simply create a property profile, choose a desired price range and pick the Cities/Towns that interest you. Within 24 hours you will have a complete list of Active properties that match your requested criteria. You will then receive one e-mail a day alerting you to any new listings or status changes to ones that you have already received. This is a great way to keep your eye on the market and stay ahead of the competition.

The only way to get a reasonable idea of what your property may be worth in your local market, is to first find out what is and isn't selling within your local market. For this, I invite you to get your FREE Pinpoint Market Watch Report . As a potential seller, you can type in your address and get a full report of the Active and Sold properties in your neighborhood over the last 3 months. As a Buyer, you can view the activity in a specific area of town that you might have interest in. You will be sent an updated report every 4 weeks until you decide to unsubscribe from the service with a click of a button.

The search and pricing of homes should not be the toughest part of the transaction. I hope these free tools will help anyone in Massachusetts that may want to ease the burden. Not from Mass? Find a local Realtor that has invested in these tools in order to provide a valuable service to his/her clients or contact me and I will find one for you!

Make Sure You Research Your Future Landlord!

I want to alert you all to a couple of situations that have occured lately on the North Shore. Both cases were a direct result of Craigslist advertising. As a Realtor, I find Craigslist to be a very good way to advertise my clients properties. It is unfortunate that it has become a breeding ground for scam artist of all levels.

The first case has been very well exposed by the local media. A man that was evicted from an apartment in Beverly decided to advertise the unit himself on craigslist and used his spare key to show prospective buyers the property. He took first, last and security deposit from multiple applicants and has yet to be found. RENTER BEWARE!

Next we have a more sophisticated scam where the predator takes a home that is listed "for sale" and puts them up as "for rent". As you may imagine the monthly fee is at a "too good to be true" price. They go as far as to set up an e-mail account that matches the names on the deed (public record) to respond to. One claimed that they were the owners and were called overseas for an extended amount of time. They welcome people to view the property from the outside but, they were not using the sales agent as a rental agent and they could not be there to show the inside. Of course this is sent with a rental application attached, "just in case".

Make sure that you are dealing with the owner of record before handing over any money or finacial information.

Whether or not you are planning on buying or selling a home in the near future, this is a cool way to keep your eye on a specific neighborhood's home sales activity. This is a Free Service and you can view a sample report prior to signing up. Give it a try!

You have to try hard to over-pay in today's market.With the bank's underwriting departments scrutinizing every little detail and the new laws put in place as to how the appraisals are being done in Massachusetts, it is virtually impossible to pay above market value. Even if you get an offer in on an overpriced listing, you will need the buyer to have a large enough down payment to get financed if the appraisal comes in low. Most first time home buyers are working with programs that only require a 3.5-5% down payment.
The condo market is being particularly effected by the stringent FHA guidelines that have been put in place to protect their financial interest as lenders. Many condo owners are finding out that their units are not eligible for the popular FHA loans being used by today's first time home buyers. Without these programs a buyer would need 20% down payment or all cash to get financing. Prices need to be lowered in order to make this a realistic possibility.

When purchasing or selling a home you really need an experienced agent that works full time in today's market. Knowing the guidelines and understanding the appraisal process will eliminate the last minute chaos that seems to be happening on a more frequent basis.