MassRealEstate | Real Estate Investing Blog

Howdee Everyone,

As we said last week, we will likely need strong advocacy on HB60 for another 1 to 2 weeks.

See Major Bills Summary. We need immediate strong advocacy right now! See 1 Minute Advocate.

Click this button each week if you want to quickly dive right in & handle the urgent communications in minutes.

1 Minute Advocate

Next House Session
Thursday, June 5 at 10:00 am
Next Senate Session
Call of the Chair (Planned for 6/5/25)

Update Summary
Note: some links have changed. Always use latest links in latest update.
Also note that we often keep previous update info on items still active because there are often new members signing up and receiving the updates. So we want them to have the info. Please have your housing provider partners and friends join us. The more members the stronger we will be.

Major Bills Summary (follow action items in Action Map above):

HB60, Regarding Lease Expiration
Last week we reported that the Senate Commerce committee made an extreme surprise amendment, 2025-2153s, that has changed this into a pro-tenant bill.

We have been working very active on saving this situation.

We were successful in removing HB60 2025-2153s from Consent Calendar and moving it to 6/5/25 Regular Calendar. Also, we authored an amendment to save HB60 in a workable condition. See 1 Minute Advocate.

We nee ... Read More…

Nursery that cried "Wolf" .1" snow & 40F? - Weather:-0 from NE Nursery. FinCEN. CIA Lease clause. Home Depot sign-up

By Jane Garvey, CIA - Saturday, December 28, 2024

Weather:-0 from NE Nursery. FinCEN. CIA Lease clause. Home Depot sign-up

1. (Usually accurate warning, from our friends at NE Nursery):

“Northeast Nursery will open early tomorrow morning, Saturday 12/28, at 4AM, due to winter weather 🌨??? 🧊”

2. Nick Norman just sent this FinCEN update:

"Howdee Everyone,

This is a short legislative update so we can get something out to you right away on the new federal business entity registration.

If you haven’t heard, the federal government now requires all business, like LLCs and corporations, to file a Beneficial Ownership Information registration.

There was a court case challenging the requirement and delaying registration. Just recently, 12/23/24, there was yet another legal decision reversing that delay.

The fines for not filing are very steep. Just get it done (3) .
Read more on the Corporate Transparency Act, FinCEN registration here (4) .

Regarding Legislation.
We had wins across the board last legislative season. Good job everyone!
The Anti-Squatter amendment did pass.
We are monitoring the new LSR titles every week. The bill text is slower than normal to be released. It is looking like some very big bills again this year.

We will be providing more updates on the following soon:
the final outcome of the remaining 2024 bills
analysis of the new Anti-Squatter law
a short analysis of the change in NH legislature from the last election
a sneek peek at upcoming bill titles
v ... Read More…

Evictions - SEALED: An Act promoting Housing Opportunity and Mobility through Eviction Sealing (HOMES) Act

By Massachusetts State Senator, Lydia Edwards - Saturday, November 23, 2024

Description - Fellow Massachusetts Landlords, This seems important:

When I first heard about Evictions - SEALED, I tried to figure out WHO would this benefit? Then WHO would NOT benefit? Mike. Thanks to Rep Charles Tassell (charlestassell1@gmail.com) for S956 and it's Details.

Whether you'd like to Thank or Question the Bills Author, Senator Lydia Edwards, you may reach her at - (Lydia.Edwards@masenate.gov) Phone:(617) 722-1634
Other supporting Senators are listed in the Content below.

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1592 FILED ON: 1/19/2023

SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No.956

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

                                      _________________

PRESENTED BY:

Lydia Edwards

                                      _________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill: An Act promoting housing opportunity and mobility through eviction sealing (HOMES).

NAME:

Lydia Edwards Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr. Sal N. DiDomenico Jacob R. Oliveira Lindsay N. Sabadosa Rebecca L. Rausch Kay Khan
Vanna Howard Joanne M. Comerford Patrick M. O'Connor Jason M. Lewis
Jack Patrick Lewis Michael O. Moore Mike Connolly
James B. Eldridge Julian Cyr
Paul R. Feeney Patricia D. Jehlen

_______________

PETITION OF:

DISTRICT/ADDRESS:

Third Suffolk
12th Hampden ... Read More…

==Legislative Update, 2024 #20== Another win on Anti-squatter amendment; HB261 is now law. 5/18/24

By Nick Norman - Monday, May 13, 2024

See Action Map & Update Summary for more on the above.

Next House Session
Thursday, May 23rd, 9:00 a.m.
Thursday, May 30th
Thursday, June 13th

Next Senate Session
Wednesday, May 22 at 11:00 am
Thursday, May 23 at 10:00 am

Update Summary
Note: some links have changed. Always use latest liks in latest update.
Also note that we often keep previous update info on items still active because there are often new members signing up and receiving the updates. So we want them to have the info. Please have your housing provider partners and friends join us. The more members the stronger we will be.

Major bills (follow action items in Action Map above):
Anti-Squatter Amendment
The 1st non-germane amendment was completely scrapped.
The 2nd amendment 2024-1647h appears to have also been scrapped.
In Senate Commerce committee, our amendment was adopted as 2024-1962s, attached to HB1400, OTPA Vote 5-0, & placed on Consent Calendar for 05/22/2024.

On a separate track, in the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety, we had a meeting with the committee chairman and several stake holders resulting in a clarification needed to ensure that these new provisions will not interfere with existing criminal trespass law. We secured agreement on a change to accomplish that and are waiting for approval from the committee chair on the simple language change.

We are attempting to secure agreement from ... Read More…

SPOA on Rent Control & TOPA

By SPOA Vice President, Amir Shahsavari, - Thursday, November 16, 2023

Dear SPOA Members and Supporters:

It appears that rent control will not make the 2024 ballot after supporters announced they had collected only 10,000 of the 74,000 signatures needed to qualify. Although there are 10 days left and anything can happen, the ballot question's chief architect, Rep. Mike Connolly, announced he has suspended efforts to reach the signature quota. However, Connolly and activists will now try to push their dangerous agenda through the Massachusetts legislature.

The Joint Committee on Housing will hold a hearing about rent control (H1304, H3777) and tenant opportunity to purchase (TOPA) on Tuesday, November 14, beginning at 11 AM. This hearing will address a rouges' gallery of 30 housing bills in total, which you can find listed HERE. We strongly encourage property owners, brokers, other members of the business community, and all who care about property rights and the health of our neighborhoods to testify against these measures.

You may testify at the state house in person, or do so virtually. There are also instructions below detailing how one can submit written testimony as well.

In order to sign up to testify, please register with the Committee no later than 12 pm (noon) on Monday, November 13. You can do so using this form.

We hope that you ... Read More…

Revised Testimony against Rent Control/"Stabilization"

By Skip Schloming, PhD - Thursday, November 16, 2023

Hello Everyone,

This version of our testimony on rent control and rent stabilization is improved. And I include the email addresses of the Housing Committee members at the bottom. You can copy and paste the email addresses into the “TO” line of your email. A pdf version is also attached. We are open to suggestions. Thanks for your help.

Small Landlord Letter No. 27 November 12, 2023

By Skip Schloming, Ph.D. & Lenore Monello Schloming, M.A., 50 years as small landlords, 23 years as leaders of the Small

Property Owners Association (1996-2021). 617-354-2358 contact@SmallLandlord.com

Rent Control Harms EVERYONE

Only landlords pay for rent control? Hell, no! Everyone pays.

Single-family owners, condo owners, ALL multifamily owners PAY

Devaluation pushes property taxes UP When a large sector of a city is devalued by rent control, it pushes property tax bills UP for all non-controlled owners. Everyone gets a higher tax rate to keep city funded.

Non-controlled owners get devalued, too

Condo owners risk having their condos turned into permanent rentals under rent control. Sound impossible? The Cambridge City Council, during rent-control days, enacted an ordinance that required all future sales of condos to be tenant-occupied only and rent-controlled! Yes, it’s true!

Two- an ... Read More…