"What Do You Actually Buy?"
Fire-damaged residential property inside the city of Boston. Single-family, two-family, triple-deckers, condominium units and larger buildings. Wood frame and masonry. Any condition from smoke to total loss. Claims open, settled, denied and uninsured. Owner-occupied, tenanted, vacant and inherited. Buildings with an Article 85 significance finding and buildings without.
Not general distressed housing, and not outside the city. Cambridge, Somerville, Quincy and Chelsea run their own departments with their own demolition rules, and we would be the wrong buyer.
"Why Only Fire?"
Because a fire file carries things a general cash buyer does not encounter. An insurance claim with its own law and its own leverage. A structural question a contractor cannot answer. A demolition review with a 90 day tail. And in Massachusetts, a fire department certificate that has to issue before the deed can pass, on a building that may have no ceilings to mount an alarm on.
A buyer who sees one of these a year prices the uncertainty rather than resolving it, and that discount comes out of the seller.
"What Is the Catch on the Certificate?"
That it stays yours. Under chapter 148 the smoke and carbon monoxide Certificates of Compliance are a seller obligation at closing. A contract can allocate who does the legwork and we will help where we can, but a cash sale does not make the obligation disappear.
We raise it early because it surfaces at the closing table otherwise, and a deal collapsing in week five is worse for us than an awkward first conversation.
Is a Buyer Who Does Not Mention the Certificate a Bad Sign?
"How Do You Arrive at a Number?"
Finished value of a building on that lot, less the cost of getting there, less carrying cost, less the deeds excise, less margin. On a multi-unit building the finished value is calculated on the units rather than against a comparable single house, because three restored dwellings are worth what they are worth.
Two lines are where Boston offers diverge. Whether the buyer understands that wood frame rarely leaves a usable shell, which is the commonest error made by buyers from masonry markets. And whether they have priced an Article 85 timeline on a building 50 years or older, which is most of the city.
"Whose Side Are You On?"
Ours. We are the buyer, not an adviser, and we benefit if you accept less and decide quickly. Anyone telling you otherwise about their own position is worth less trust rather than more.
What follows from that is how you should read this site: check it. Boston Fire Prevention for the certificate, the Landmarks Commission for Article 85, Inspectional Services for the permit file, the Suffolk County Registry for the deed. We name them so you can.
"What Are You Not?"
Not brokers — no commission, and we do not represent you. Not public adjusters — no part of your claim. Not contractors. Not contract assigners; the entity that signs takes title. And not lawyers, which matters here more than in most states, because the Massachusetts remedy against a stalling insurer runs through a statutory demand process that genuinely needs one.
"When Should I Sell to Someone Else?"
Three situations, and we say so in writing when we see them.
A multi-family investor, on a restorable triple-decker. Three units producing income over years are worth more to them than to us, and on those buildings they should win.
A rehabber, on a masonry building with a sound shell. Somebody who will build inside the shell values it more than a buyer pricing a clearance.
Nobody — restore it. Where the framing survived and the repair sits below finished value, restoring nets more. It also resolves the certificate obligation naturally, because a restored building passes an inspection. Selling as-is does not, and that second point tips more Boston files toward repair than the raw numbers alone would.
Why Would You Argue Against Your Own Sale?
"How Do I Get Started?"
Send an address through any form on this site. Before you deal with us, run the checks on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart, and read what stays your obligation on our page covering Massachusetts certificates, claims and excise.