Do not walk into a model home alone.
Many builders will only pay a buyer agent who was registered, or present, at your first visit. There is rarely a way to fix it afterwards.
The registration rule,
and why it is the whole page.
Builders publish their broker policies openly and they differ in the details. Some require your agent to accompany you on your first visit to a community. Others require the agent to register you at the moment of that first contact, with the registration protecting you for a fixed number of days after.
What they have in common is the timing. The obligation lands at first contact, not at the offer. Tour a community on a Sunday out of curiosity, give your name at the desk, and on that community you may have no represented position for the rest of the purchase.
The script is one sentence, said before anything else: I am working with Artemis Realty + Design, and they will be registering me. Say it before you say what you can afford or when you need to move.
Name the community before the first visit.
Name the community or send the link. If you have already visited one on your own, say when, and you will get a straight answer rather than an optimistic one.
Four things a model home will not raise
It is a different transaction from buying a house that already exists, and it is not documented on the way in.
The contract is not the standard form
A resale in Massachusetts usually runs on a standard purchase and sale agreement that both sides recognize. A builder substitutes its own contract and rider. Expect provisions on how change orders work, what happens if the schedule slips, what counts as substantially complete, and where a dispute would be heard. Some builders describe their contract as non-negotiable. That is a negotiating position, not a fact. Have a lawyer read it.
What Massachusetts law does and does not give you
It gives you an implied warranty of habitability on a newly built home bought from the builder, recognized by the Supreme Judicial Court in 2002, and that warranty cannot be waived or disclaimed. It also gives you Chapter 93A for unfair or deceptive practices.
What it does not give you is a statutory new home warranty, and the home improvement contractor law, with its guaranty fund and arbitration, does not cover a new house. Whatever dispute process you get, you get from the contract. Time also runs: a three year limitation period and a six year period of repose from substantial completion or first occupancy, whichever comes first.
Included, and everything else
Treat the model home as fully upgraded until proven otherwise. Before the design center appointment, ask for two documents in writing: the specification sheet for the base house, and the option price list. Reading them at a kitchen table is a different experience from choosing under fluorescent light with a consultant beside you.
The energy code, which depends on the town
This one is genuinely local and it changes the design. Needham and Wellesley have adopted the specialized opt-in energy code. Under it a new house that burns fossil fuel must be pre-wired for electrification and carry solar, and above four thousand square feet it must offset its own energy use on site or be built all-electric.
Dover, Medfield and Walpole are on the stretch code and have not adopted the specialized version. The same house, on the same budget, is a different building depending on which side of a town line it sits.
Three checks you can run yourself, for nothing
The supervisor license. Construction supervisor licenses are held by a named person, not by the company selling you the house. The state runs a public license lookup. Check that the license is current and see whose name is on it.
The building department file. Permits, inspection sign-offs, open permits and the certificate of occupancy are public at the town. Ask to see the file for the address, or the file for the builder’s last project in that town.
The registry of deeds. Look at what the developer has built before, and at what entity is selling you the house. A single purpose company that dissolves after the last unit sells is a different counterparty from a builder who will still exist in year four.
Energy code status from each town and the state Department of Energy Resources, read September 2026. Warranty and limitation periods from Massachusetts case law and general laws. Nothing here is legal advice.
Framing seen from inside, while every connection is still visible.
Moments worth getting right
Before the drywall goes up
Framing, wiring, plumbing and ductwork are visible exactly once. After that they are behind a wall for the life of the house. A pre-drywall inspection is the only chance to look.
At the final walkthrough
Getting a builder back for punch list items after closing is slow. The answer is not a better relationship, it is a written list and a sum held back until the list is done.
If you are building rather than buying
Once a contractor proposal is on the table, someone has to read it on your side. That is owner representation.
Questions about new construction
I already visited a community on my own. Is it too late?
Sometimes, for that builder and that community. Policies differ and some allow a registration shortly after a first visit. Say what happened and when, and you will get a straight answer rather than an optimistic one.
Does bringing my own agent cost me anything?
The builder’s published policy governs how a cooperating broker is paid, and the arrangement between you and Artemis is agreed in writing before anything begins. Do not assume going unrepresented lowers the price. The builder sets it.
Is a new house still worth inspecting?
Yes, and twice. Once before the drywall closes the walls, once at the end.
Talk before the first builder visit
Name the community or send the link, before the first visit rather than after.
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