Electronic Closings (E-Closings): The Future Of Real Estate Closings - 09/25/09 10:41 PM
Electronic Closings (E-Closings): The Future Of Real Estate Closings originally posted on The Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog

An excited young couple about to close on their first home walks into into the closing attorney’s office. The day before they had received via secure email all of the loan documents to review and approve with their personal attorney. The closing attorney arrives without any paper, armed only with a laptop attached to a digital signature pad. The sellers are not present as they have already signed the deed and other documents electronically the day before over the secure electronic closing … (0 comments)

Residential Landlord’s Implied Warranty Of Habitability Extended To Guests Of Tenants - 09/23/09 01:36 PM

Originally posted in my blog at www.massrealestatelawblog.com.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled last week that a landlord was liable for breaching the implied warranty of habitability when a tenant’s guest seriously injured himself falling from a defective porch. The case is Scott v. Garfield, and can be found here.
What’s the Implied Warranty of Habitability?
The implied warranty of habitability is a multi-faceted legal concept that encompasses contract and tort principles, as well as the State building and sanitary codes. It imposes a legal duty on a residential landlord, in the form of an implied agreement, to ensure that … (3 comments)

The Massachusetts Offer To Purchase Real Estate: Not A Mere Formality - 09/08/09 05:00 PM
Originally posted in the Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog.
 
The first step in purchasing or selling Massachusetts residential real estate is the acceptance of an Offer To Purchase. Most often, the buyers’ real estate broker prepares the offer to purchase on a pre-printed standard form and presents it to the seller for review and acceptance. Attorneys are not typically involved in the offer stage but given the amount of recent litigation over offers to purchase, it’s never a bad idea to consult an attorney even at the earliest stages of the home buying process.
Many buyers and sellers (and their … (3 comments)