Mortgage Note Investing in Massachusetts

Massachusetts foreclosures move through a power-of-sale process (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 244 §14): a lender exercises the sale power in the mortgage without a full court action, and the realistic timeline runs around six months. There is no post-sale right of redemption on a power-of-sale foreclosure, so once the sale closes, title is clean. (The rarely used judicial entry route carries a three-year redemption right, but the power-of-sale path is the one investors use.) On timeline and finality, this is a relatively clean, moderately quick state.

The real risk in Massachusetts is the condominium super-lien, and it is sharper than most. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A §6, a condo association's unpaid assessments get a six-month priority that sits ahead of your first mortgage. The dangerous part is that this super-lien is "rolling": under Drummer Boy Homes Association v. Britton (2016), an association can bring successive six-month lien actions, stacking priority claims over time rather than being capped at a single six-month slice. On a condo file with a delinquent, aggressive association, that can erode — or in the worst case wipe — a note holder's position. Track association status on every Massachusetts condo note.

Deficiency judgments are available, so personal recovery beyond the collateral is possible upside. The tax system is a tax-deed regime with no redemption once the deed issues, so a delinquent tax position can extinguish a junior holder cleanly. And lending activity in Massachusetts requires a license.