RECENT BLOG POSTS
This is day 2 of 2011. Many of us have sat down and, systematically, started to develop goals and objectives for this year. This is a time-honored tradition, and most of us go through the exercise, either on a formal basis by writing things down, or by at least thinking about things that we MUST ...
01/01/2011
A client of mine recently contacted me with respect to a Notice from the Internal Revenue Service. In early 2009, my client's condominium investment unit, in a poorly run building in a far from safe part of Boston, was foreclosed upon. My client had stopped paying on his mortgage, and at the time...
12/31/2010
2
Comments
Having practiced real estate law in Massachusetts for more than 40 years, I have had a chance to observe, and critique, the style and practices of many real estate sales people, in many situations. By and large, I have been impressed by the integrity and work ethic of people in the profession. Bu...
12/26/2010
Like everyone else's business, my business as a Massachusetts real estate lawyer runs in spurts. Lately, I have been involved in three situations concerning Easements. In one situation, a client of mine is buying a guest house while the Seller is retaining the major home. All the systems, however...
12/24/2010
The lead story in yesterday's Sunday Business Section of the New York TIMES focused on Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America ("Batting Cleanup at Bank of America", written by Nelson D. Schwartz). The article presents a fair picture of the problems Mr. Moynihan is facing and commends his sinc...
12/12/2010
It ie starting to look like there will be a Federal Estate Tax in 2011. In my mind, having an entire year pass without collecting one dollar of Federal Estate tax revenue, at whatever rate and with whatever exemption, is a sin. In any event, since there will again be an Estate Tax, and the tax ra...
12/12/2010
It is becoming clear that Baryy Frank;s vision of home ownership for everyone was, at best, a flawed concept. In the past five years, too many people "shoehorned" themselves into homes without a real awareness of the responsibilities of owning a home. Many of the short-sales and foreclosures we s...
12/11/2010
In Massachusetts, real estate transactions which close after July first and before December thirty-first present interesting issues and opportunities. The important thing to bear in mind is that tax bills due on August first and November first are merely estimates for the fiscal year whi...
12/07/2010
I need to get one thing straight. I am not a person who is on Facebook, even a few hours a day. I miss many days, and when I am visiting the site, it is mainly directed to keeping up with what my children, and their children, are doing in New York City and Washington, DC. So you can imagine my su...
12/05/2010
It is no secret that access to what is available is no longer exclusively in the hands of the real estate professional. The Internet has changed that, and there is probably no "going back" from this position. People "find out" about real estate they may wish to purchase in a much shorter ti...
12/03/2010