Resources Index

All resources here are of interest state-wide.  For regional or city-level resources, click here.

Click here for the Landlord Cheat Sheet

Advice

Appliances

Asset Protection

Background Checks

Buildings

Business

Cambridge

Certified Massachusetts Landlord™

Climate Change and Mass. Real Estate

College and Student Rentals

Communication, Conflict Avoidance, and Negotiation

Constables and Sheriffs

Deleading

Discrimination

Energy Efficiency

Estate Planning

Events

Evictions

Community Mediation

Massachusetts now requires court mediation as a step in the court’s two-tier eviction process. The Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) uses state funding to train and supervise volunteer mediators in a different, out-of-court mediation process. Out-of-court mediation is free and may produce better results.

In FY2023, the Mass. Housing Mediation Program, part of the MOPC, oversaw 428 mediation cases:

  • 77% of mediated cases reached an agreement;
  • 88% of participants surveyed were satisfied with the outcome; and
  • 98% of participants surveyed felt the mediation process was fair to them.

There are no income eligibility requirements. LLCs, Incs, and other entities do not have to hire an attorney.

Learn more about community mediation.

Extermination

See pests.

Financing

Find a Good Landlord

Fire Safety

Firearms

Flooring

Fraud

Government

Gas

Heat

Hiring

Homelessness

Humor, Holiday and April Fools'

Inspections

Insurance

Interviews

  • Jane Gasek, former chemist and teacher, on how she became a landlord, how she screens tenants, and some of what makes landlording hilarious and sad (20 min video and transcript).
  • Peter Haroutian, former psychologist and HUD manager, on market run-ups, landlord tenant philosophy, and divorce with assets. We also get some insight into how a judge’s personality may be an important factor in court, and compare Massachusetts to other states in terms of landlord tenant laws.
  • Sandra Katz, former child welfare social worker and salesperson in New York, became a Massachusetts real estate agent, landlord and past president of the Worcester Property Owners Association. Her business, QPM Services, managed hundreds of residential rental units in and around Worcester, MA as of July 21, 2016, when the interview was recorded. She has been in rental real estate for 20 years.
  • Russ Haims, has been managing properties for the past 31 years. He's our local expert on real estate investment and management. In this interview, Russ offered advanced insights on maximizing rental profits while simultaneously streamlining your rental business.Click here to watch Russ' interview at the WPOA meeting (May 2016)
  • Skip Schloming and Lenore Monello-Schloming, have been managing properties and landlording since the early years of their marriage. The couple sits on the board of the Small Property Owners Association, also known as SPOA, and recently resigned as President and Executive Director. They began helping Lenore's father manage properties in the mid-sixties when rent control emerged and have pretty much been in the business ever since. In this interview, they elaborate on the horrors of rent control and why it was ultimately stopped with a major effort on the part of SPOA.
  • Member Spotlight: An Interview with Rich Trifone, Landlord and Realtor
  • Judge William Abrashkin Shares Perspective on Public Service (March 2018)
  • Charlie Knight, current presiding officer of the Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association. (July 2018)
  • Patrick Sullivan, has been an avid landlord since 2007 primarily focusing on multi families in the greater Worcester area. Having worked in high level IT his whole life he looks at things from a different perspective which he applies to real estate. He became a Real Estate agent in 2015 and now primarily focuses on Sober living facilities for people recently out of drug and alcohol treatment centers.
  • Russell Sabadosa, founded Premier Choice Realty in 1993, which has grown from a property management company to a full-service real estate brokerage. Russell is president and oversees all aspects of the rental and sales on a daily basis. Russell is the owner of over 100 rental units across multiple LLCs with property sizes of 2 units to 28 units. Russell has brokered over 50 million in multi-family units across several multi-million-dollar and or multi-property transactions. Other positions held adding to Sabadosa's management and leadership skills were project engineer 1989-1995 for large corporate Raytheon aerospace, IT director for small private company Commonwealth Packaging 1995-2002, and public sector for the state of Connecticut Manchester Community College as full tenured professor 2002-2015. Since 2015 Sabadosa has been focusing solely on Premier Choice Realty growth and community service.

Investments

Landscaping, Gardening

Lawyer

Legal Matters

Light Pollution

Marijuana

Markets

Marketing and Advertising

Massachusetts

Miscellaneous

Mold

Past Newsletters

Pets

 

Pests

Police and Vice

Policy

Questions & Answers

Rent Collection

This section is biased towards RentHelper because it was spun out of MassLandlords. We have an agreement with RentHelper where MassLandlords members get a free trial for their first tenant, and we get a limited marketing commission for tenants beyond that.

Rental Agreements

Most of the nitty gritty on rental agreements can be found above on the "Forms" page.  The links here are for broader discussion and insight.

Repairs and Renovations

We urge landlords and property managers to follow safety protocol and/or call a professional for any repair that might be hazardous. Unfortunately, a great Revere landlord, who was only trying to help his tenants and family, was recently killed while trying to investigate a problem with a malfunctioning boiler in his owner-occupied rental property. DIY is fine when you truly know what you're doing, but it's better to be safe than sorry when dealing with dangerous repairs.

Safety

Scams

Security Deposits

Security Systems

Snow and Ice

Solar

Structures

Student Housing

Subsidized Housing

Taxes

Tenant Screening and Relations

Vacancies

Voting Methods

Worcester

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