For buyer’s agents
Your client asks during the second showing whether they could add an in-law apartment. The listing says nothing. The seller does not know. And you have ten days.
We answer that question in writing, for a specific address, inside the inspection window. $150, two business days, and it tells your client what the town actually allows before they commit.
Where it fits in a deal
| What happens | Who | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Offer accepted, inspection contingency starts | |
| Day 0 | You send us the address and what your client is imagining | You |
| Day 1–3 | Home inspection, as usual | |
| Day 2 | Written snapshot delivered — what the town allows, what it takes, what usually goes wrong there | MFPS |
| Day 3–8 | Your client decides with an actual answer instead of a hope | |
| Day 10 | Contingency expires |
The rules changed, and most listings have not caught up
Since February 2025 a “protected use” accessory dwelling unit is allowed by right in any district that permits single-family dwellings in Massachusetts, Boston excepted. The cap is 900 square feet or half the gross floor area of the principal dwelling, whichever is smaller — so on a modest house the real limit is well under 900, which is the detail most often left out. For a conforming unit the town may not require a special permit and may not require owner occupancy.
That has quietly changed what a lot of properties are worth to the right buyer. It has also created a great deal of confidence that is not warranted. The state law is permissive; the local bylaw, the septic capacity, the separation distance and the site plan review threshold are where projects still die.
A client who buys on the assumption that they can add a unit, and then cannot, remembers who told them it would be fine.
What your client gets
The address, the zoning district, and what state law allows for the thing they are imagining — with the citation. What the town layers on top, with the bylaw section and the date we checked it. The permitting sequence. A realistic timeline. Planning-level soft costs. And the three things that most often get this kind of project rejected in that particular town.
What it is not: a calculation of their buildable envelope, a site plan, or a professional opinion. Those are engineering, they are done by Lebra Engineering & Design, LLC, and they cost accordingly. We say so on every page, so nobody is confused about what they are holding. How the two companies fit together.
Your first one is free
Send one address and we will turn it around in two business days at no charge. If it is useful, the next one is $150 and you will know exactly what you are buying. If it is not, you have lost an email.
We work statewide. Turnaround is fastest in MetroWest, where we already know most of the building departments by name.