Massachusetts doesn't buy real estate the way most of the country does. If you learned the process from a national podcast or an out-of-state friend, the sequence here will surprise you at least three times — usually at the worst possible moment. Here's the actual path from accepted offer to keys, the way it runs on every deal we broker.
Surprise one: there are two contracts
In most states, you sign one purchase agreement and head for closing. Massachusetts splits it in two. First comes the Offer to Purchase — a short, standard-form document, often just a page or two, with a modest deposit. It's binding once signed, but it's meant to be fast, not complete.
Then, about five to ten days later, the attorneys negotiate the real contract: the Purchase and Sale Agreement, or P&S. This is the document that actually governs your deal — contingencies, timelines, what happens if something goes wrong — and a second, larger deposit (often around 5% of the price) is typically due when you sign it.
The contingency window: due diligence on a clock
Between the P&S and closing, your escape hatches have expiration dates. The inspection contingency is often only a week or two out — book the inspector the day your offer is accepted. The financing contingency gives your lender roughly a month to turn your pre-approval into a full loan commitment; answer every document request the day it arrives, because blowing this deadline can put your deposit at risk.
Three things to start early, because they're the quiet bottlenecks that delay closings — not the big dramatic problems:
- The smoke and CO detector certificate. Most Massachusetts residential sales require a local fire-department inspection confirming detectors meet current code before the deed can be recorded. It's a scheduling problem more than a compliance problem — book it two weeks out, minimum.
- Insurance. You need a binder in place at the closing table. If it's an investment property, that's a landlord (dwelling-fire) policy, not a homeowner's policy — tell your agent up front.
- Lead paint, if the building predates 1978. Massachusetts has strict disclosure and deleading rules, especially where young children will live. Most of Boston's housing stock qualifies. Loop in your attorney during the contingency window, not at the closing table.
Surprise two: a lawyer runs the closing
Unlike the escrow-company closings most of the country uses, Massachusetts closings are traditionally conducted by attorneys — usually the lender's closing attorney, with your own attorney representing you. You'll sign the loan documents, the deed gets recorded at the registry, and keys typically change hands right at the table once funds are confirmed.
One warning that earns its repetition: wire fraud targets real estate closings constantly. Never wire funds on emailed instructions alone. Call your attorney's office — at a number you already have, not one from the email — and verbally confirm before you send anything.
Surprise three: getting the keys isn't the finish line
If you bought with tenants in place, Massachusetts law requires the seller to transfer their security deposits to you, with accrued interest — confirm it happened in writing, because you're now legally responsible for holding those deposits correctly, and the rules are strict. Change the locks, transfer utilities, send tenants written notice of the new ownership, and check whether your city requires rental registration (Boston does, for most non-owner-occupied small buildings).
Why this matters
None of this is hard once you've seen it. All of it is expensive to learn mid-deal. The buyers who close smoothly in Massachusetts are the ones who had the attorney, the inspector, and the insurance conversation lined up before they wrote the offer — and who treated every deadline in the P&S as real, because it is.