Buying, Selling, and Owning Real Estate in Your State

Thinking of buying a home? Perhaps you already know that real estate practices—concerning matters like purchase offers, disclosure requirements, and bidding norms—across the United States vary widely. They tend to represent a mix of law and local tradition.

For example, in a few states, such as Massachusetts, a lawyer's help is required to close the real estate purchase, while in most others the real estate agent and title company can handle most everything. Also, in some states (such as California) the purchase offer that a prospective buyer presents to the seller is a complete contract, which needs only the seller’s signature to go into effect, while in other states (like New York) the initial offer is quite brief, and the property seller prepares the actual contract.