What is inside the property report

The report is assembled for a single address from open government sources. Below is the full list of sections — not “over four hundred pages”, but a list of what the buyer actually receives.

Sections of the report

  1. In brief: what matters at this address
  2. Key facts about the property
  3. How to read this report: every abbreviation
  4. Parcel and building: the record data
  5. Aerial record: five surveys over twelve years
  6. Lot topography from laser scanning
  7. The sale, the registry and what we know about it
  8. Assessment and tax by year
  9. What can be built: zoning and its limits
  10. Flooding, soil and contamination
  11. Water, sewer and lead
  12. Surroundings: schools, health care, transit, greenery
  13. Area history and social context
  14. City ordinances: trash, cleaning, snow, parking
  15. For the occupant: utilities, internet, pets
  16. Move-in: what can lawfully be charged and what is prohibited
  17. Can it be rented short term (Airbnb)
  18. Full output of the live source survey
  19. Summary assessment of risks and opportunities
  20. What this report contains, what it does not, and why
  21. How many units the building has: four sources and how they differ
  22. Building footprint: how much land is covered, how much is open
  23. The tax bill taken apart: which exemptions were applied and which were not
  24. Assessment and tax over time: a chart for the whole available period
  25. Property against the area: what the city compares it with
  26. Area sales: what the assessment is actually built on
  27. Rental potential: what the property could bring in
  28. Building permits: for this property and for the block
  29. Property event timeline
  30. Support programs, grants, and incentives the property appears eligible for
  31. Additional observations on the property
  32. The composite risk taken apart: what it is made of
  33. The block in numbers: who lives here
  34. What can be built here: expansion scenarios
  35. Maintaining the property: areas and duties
  36. The bottom line in numbers: what the data itself says
  37. Short-term rental registry: the raw rows for this building
  38. Crime nearby: what it actually consists of
  39. What neighbors tried to build and what they were told
  40. Tenant complaints: what is reported in this building and nearby
  41. Building inspection: violations at the address
  42. Groundwater: long-term observation series
  43. Address points on the parcel: how many separate addresses
  44. Affordable housing and the right to override zoning (Boston)
  45. Schools nearby: test results by year and subject
  46. Municipality of Boston: population, area, density
  47. City of Boston against the metro area: expensive or not
  48. Boston market: a cut from state reporting
  49. Building density: is there room to expand
  50. Effective tax rate: what is actually charged
  51. Money put into the property and what it produced
  52. Groundwater: where the level is moving
  53. Crime: source conclusion check
  54. What is being built around it: money invested in the block
  55. How to lower the tax: grounds, deadlines and odds
  56. Multifamily zoning by right (Section 3A)
  57. Rail transit: stations and lines
  58. Census tract: 2010 versus 2020
  59. Federal Opportunity Zone
  60. Street lighting
  61. Grounds upkeep: inspection orders
  62. Occupant turnover: moving permits
  63. Large nearby buildings: emissions obligation (BERDO)
  64. What concerns residents on nearby streets
  65. The Appellate Tax Board: the record for this municipality
  66. Lead paint: the owner's obligation
  67. Renting, owning and vacancy per ACS data
  68. Neighbor incomes and nearby home values
  69. What the block is built with and how people get around from here
  70. Post-contamination land use restrictions
  71. Wetlands, dams, and the drinking water aquifer
  72. 3D diagram of the area
  73. Street view at the property
  74. Appendix: remaining source metrics

74 sections in the full volume

Open the full sample

Open the full sample

The sample is a real property: 71 Liverpool St, East Boston. Nothing has been removed.

What this document is not

Not an appraisal. This document is not a real estate appraisal and was not prepared under USPAP. It was not produced by a licensed appraiser, does not establish market value, and is not intended for mortgage lending, insurance, tax disputes, or litigation. Value figures are the city assessment database and the registry of deeds exactly as published by government agencies.

Not an engineering opinion. This document was not prepared by a licensed engineer. Information on structures, roofing, elevations, and terrain comes from government datasets and remote sensing, not from an inspection or on-site measurement. It does not replace a professional inspection.

Not legal advice. The description of laws and programs is informational. Statutes, filing deadlines, and program terms change; before acting, check the current version at the source linked beside each item.

Not a consumer report. This document is not a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and may not be used for any decision about an individual’s eligibility: tenant selection, creditworthiness, employment, insurance, or government benefits. We are not a consumer reporting agency and we do not verify information about individuals for such decisions.

Sources and dates

Every figure carries its source and the date that source publishes it for. Government datasets refresh at different speeds: the registry of deeds reflects a transfer within days, the city assessment database as of the nearest assessment date, the state parcel layer with a lag of up to several years. The document reflects the state of its sources on the build date printed on the cover.

Attributions

Data sources: MassGIS (Bureau of Geographic Information, Commonwealth of Massachusetts); the county Registry of Deeds; Analyze Boston (City of Boston); Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Street-level imagery — Mapillary, CC-BY-SA, with author attribution.

Refunds

Full refund before download, no reason required. After download — on the merits of a claim about the content (an error in the data, a mismatch with the stated contents); reviewed by a person.

Service area

Coverage differs by municipality, and the difference is large. The full set of sections is available for Boston: the city publishes an assessment card and a dozen datasets of its own. The other cities in the metro area publish none of that, so some sections are not produced. Below is how many sections actually come out. This is stated here, before payment, rather than discovered after.

CitySections in the full volume
Boston71–75
Everett56–57
Framingham57
Malden57
Watertown60