Since October 2025, a Massachusetts seller generally can't make your offer depend on giving up a home inspection, with limited exemptions. Salem is a few minutes north on I-93, and that Massachusetts regulation stops at the border. New Hampshire gives you a stack of disclosures, a new line about buried heating-oil tanks and a transfer tax you have probably never paid. Its disclosure statute says nothing about inspections, so your inspection terms are part of what you and the seller negotiate.
If you're used to how a Massachusetts purchase works, this changes how you put together an offer. Here's where it shows up.
The Inspection Rule Stays in Massachusetts
Massachusetts adopted 760 CMR 74.00 under the Affordable Homes Act. Mass.gov says the rule bars sellers and their agents from making a buyer's agreement to waive or limit an inspection a condition of accepting an offer, unless an exemption applies. It covers one- to four-unit homes, condos and co-ops. It also requires a separate written disclosure of the buyer's inspection rights, signed by both buyer and seller at or before the first purchase contract. The state also treats contract terms that make an inspection meaningless as violations, such as unreasonable scheduling limits or denying the buyer a way out after the results.
The New Hampshire paperwork a Salem buyer receives looks different. The state's seller-disclosure statute, RSA 477:4-d, lists facts a seller must provide. It says nothing about the buyer's right to inspect or about waiver terms. In an October 2025 NHPR guide for first-time buyers, a homeownership program manager at NeighborWorks Southern NH said an inspection is "not typically required" but is "highly recommended."
A Massachusetts buyer who expects the inspection to be protected by default is carrying the other state's rules into a Salem offer, where the inspection terms sit alongside price and timing as points to negotiate.
This Fall's Numbers Give You Room to Keep It
The good news for a buyer heading into Salem this fall is that the market has loosened slightly. The New Hampshire REALTORS® local market update for Rockingham County shows this for single-family homes in September 2026:
- Median days on market: 31, up from 24 in September 2025
- Homes for sale: 493, up 9.8% from a year earlier
- Months of supply: 2.1, unchanged from a year earlier
- Percent of original list price received: 99.2%
- Median sale price: $680,000, up 2.3% from $665,000
Seven more days on market and about 44 more homes for sale don't make this a buyer's market. Two months of supply is still tight. But when sellers are getting just under their original asking price and listings sit a week longer than they did a year ago, buyers have more room to keep an inspection contingency without falling to the bottom of the pile. These are county figures, and the report says its list-price measure doesn't account for seller concessions. Salem's own street-by-street numbers can run differently.
What a New Hampshire Seller Hands You Instead
New Hampshire puts its buyer protection into required paperwork. Before any purchase-and-sale contract for property with a building, RSA 477:4-a requires the seller or seller's agent to give you a written notice covering radon, arsenic, lead, PFAS and flood, and you sign a copy to acknowledge it. The PFAS paragraph applies directly to Salem. It says these compounds have been found above federal or state advisories in wells across the state "but are more frequently detected at elevated levels in southern New Hampshire."
The same section says the notice doesn't create liability for a seller or agent who fails to provide it. The notice tells you which tests exist.
For one- to four-family homes, RSA 477:4-d adds written disclosure about private water and sewage systems, insulation, flood-hazard-zone status and, as of this year, residential heating-oil underground storage tanks. A companion section, RSA 477:4-c, requires facts about private wells and septic, including system type and location, known problems, water-test information, and septic size, age and service history. Anything the seller doesn't know has to be marked as unknown. An "unknown" on that form is something you have to follow up on.
The Newest Line on the Form Is About Buried Oil Tanks
The oil-tank line is new as of August. HB 1620, signed into law as Chapter 122, was approved June 5, 2026 and took effect August 4, 2026. It added "information relative to the presence of a residential heating oil underground storage tank" to the seller disclosures in RSA 477:4-d.
The law also does more than ask about tanks. A residential heating-oil tank buried underground now has to be removed under the state fire code once a heating-system change takes it out of use or the owner doesn't plan to use it again. If removal would undermine a structure built above it, the tank can be permanently closed in place. Any oil discharge found during removal or closure falls under the state's existing oil-discharge provisions.
For a buyer, this matters most when a house has switched heating fuels at some point. A disclosure that says a tank exists, or doesn't know, now connects to a removal requirement. That question belongs in your offer timeline, not after closing.
Salem's Well Advice Is About the Sale Itself
Many Salem buyers will come across private wells, and the Town's own guidance points at the moment you buy. The Town of Salem's FAQ recommends testing a well soon after it's installed, then every three to five years, "whenever there is a change in property ownership," and whenever the water's taste, odor or color changes.
The Town's mandatory testing is narrower than that. Under Salem's Chapter 253 on disposal systems and wells, a state-certified lab must test new construction before a certificate of occupancy is issued, and every replacement well. The test list covers bacteria, hardness, chloride, fluoride, sodium, nitrate/nitrite, iron, lead, manganese, arsenic, pH and a volatile organic compound screen. Results have to meet EPA maximum contaminant levels, and anything over the limit has to be treated with filtration.
On a resale of an existing home with an existing well, that list isn't required. The Town still recommends testing at a change of ownership, and the state's PFAS notice is part of the same paperwork. Whether and when a water test happens on a resale is up to the buyer and seller, not a town requirement. On septic, NH DES says revised septic rules and forms took effect February 1, 2026. That covers approval of new and changed systems, not a check at the point of sale.
The Tax You Have Never Paid Before
In a Massachusetts sale, the seller usually pays the deed excise and the buyer doesn't. Under M.G.L. c.64D, the tax falls on whoever makes or signs the deed, and the Department of Revenue puts the rate with surcharge at $4.56 per $1,000 outside Barnstable County.
New Hampshire taxes both sides. The NH Department of Revenue Administration says the real estate transfer tax applies to buyer and seller alike at $0.75 per $100 of the price. RSA 78-B:4 sets the same rate for each party. Here's what that looks like at the Rockingham County median, worked out from the published rates:
| At a $680,000 price | New Hampshire | Massachusetts |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer pays | $5,100 | $0 |
| Seller pays | $5,100 | $3,100.80 |
| Total to the state | $10,200 | $3,100.80 |
Say you're selling a Massachusetts home and buying in Salem at the same price. You'd pay the Massachusetts excise on your way out and New Hampshire's buyer share on your way in, about $8,200 together at that price. Budget for the $5,100 the way you would for a cost Massachusetts never charged you.
Different Paperwork, Different People at the Table
The contract steps look different too. The Commonwealth's homebuying guide describes an accepted offer followed by a separately signed purchase and sale agreement that sets the final price and terms. That two-step setup is also why the Massachusetts inspection disclosure is tied to "the first purchase contract."
Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court has held that an attorney must substantively take part in real estate closings to direct the transfer of title and money and to document the deal. In New Hampshire, closings are commonly handled by a title or closing company. Accurate Title NH describes these companies coordinating the transaction and notes that the buyer or lender often chooses the provider. That's how it usually works, not a rule against attorneys. If you want an attorney to review your contract, you can still hire one.
Questions From Across the Line
Do many Massachusetts buyers purchase in New Hampshire? Historically, yes. The NH Fiscal Policy Institute, summarizing state housing data, reports that Massachusetts residents bought roughly 15% to nearly 20% of New Hampshire properties from 2018 to 2022, with the peak in 2021. Those are statewide figures from deed records, not a 2026 Salem count.
Does the Massachusetts inspection disclosure form apply if I'm a Massachusetts resident? Mass.gov describes the form as part of a Massachusetts regulation covering Massachusetts residential sales. The seller notices on a Salem purchase are the ones New Hampshire's RSA 477 requires. Ask an attorney if you're unsure which rules apply to your deal.
Who decides which water tests to run on a Salem resale? On an existing home, the Town's required test list doesn't apply. The Town recommends testing at a change of ownership, so the scope and timing of any test are terms to settle in your contract.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm how these rules apply to your purchase with an attorney, tax professional or lender.
If you're coming to Salem from Massachusetts and want an offer that protects your inspection, budgets for the transfer tax and asks the right questions about wells and oil tanks, Phil Harasek and the team can walk through each term with you before you sign. Contact Us.
