Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: Helping people sell their homes

It's an interesting proposition. Given the limits of your question, I'll try and answer it as best I can.

Selling property without using a real estate broker has become fairly common, a number of popular internet sites bring buyers and sellers together, and there are still those who plant the old "For Sale" sign on the front lawn and wait for the phone to ring. To the extent that you assist these people with the marketing of their properties on the internet, or by producing an advertising flier or brochure (like the free ones you see in pizza places), then you're acting more as an advertiser than a real estate broker. Be careful about trying to structure your fee or charge in a way that approximates a real estate commission, or you're likely to get into trouble. And if you don't go about it in a way that's lawful and "on the level," you'll wind up in financial and/or legal disputes with these sellers. And if the Court feels that you've tried to sidestep the real estate broker licensing process they won't award you one red cent regardless of how much time and effort you've invested.

As for prequalifying buyers, acting as a loan officer, writing loans, selling them on the secondary market, it's inconceivable to me that you could do any of this without at least being affiliated with a mortgage company. And the lender requirements have become so burdensome that if you made even one little mistake along the way, the loan would never be funded at all and you'd wind up at the center of a lawsuit that it would cost you a fortune to litigate.

My advice to you - don't try and take too much on, the great thing about the real estate business is there's enough to go around, for the loan officers and the banks, the real estate agents, the lawyers, appraisers, home inspectors, etc. I've seen people motivated by greed try and co-opt other branches of this industry, sometimes with expensive and catastrophic results.

If you'd like more information feel free to send me an email at [email protected] or give me a call at the Law Offices of Gould & Gould, our telephone number is (603) 434-3437.

Regards and Good luck -

Len Foy

Re: Helping people sell their homes

From your limited description, there is only one way to get paid for helping people sell their homes without a real estate license and that is to charge for advertising or marketing and it should not resemble a brokerage commission.

As to the part with respect to mortgages, the way you described your service is tantamount to being a mortgage company or mortgage broker and it is doubtful that you could do what you want without a license.

You could affiliate with a licensed mortgage broker or mortgage company and assuming you are properly covered under their license you would not need a separate license to then do what you want provied it is permitted under Massachusetts and Federal Laws.

I would suggest you contact a lawyer to carefully review the details of your business plan so that you do not get into any serious trouble. Breach of the financial services laws can result in severe penalties.