A new construction condominium in Boston is the one purchase where the buyer is the least represented party in the room. The developer wrote the contract. The developer created the association. The developer selected the on-site agent who is very pleasant to you and works for the developer. And the building has no history, which means every reassurance you receive is a projection rather than a record.

None of that makes it a bad purchase. New construction in this city solves real problems — no deferred capital, modern systems, actual closets. But the buyer protections you would have on a resale are largely absent unless you build them in, and here is where they go missing.

The contract is theirs, and it is not the standard form

On a resale, you sign a Massachusetts Offer to Purchase and then a purchase and sale agreement that your attorney negotiates against the seller's attorney. It is an adversarial document and both sides expect it to move.

On new construction, you are handed the developer's form and told it is not negotiable. That is a negotiating position, not a fact, and it is frequently more flexible on a fifth unit than a first one. What is in that document that would not be in a normal purchase and sale:

Extended and extendable closing dates. The developer reserves the right to push the delivery date, sometimes repeatedly, sometimes with broad force majeure language. Your rate lock does not care about their construction schedule. Ask what happens to your deposit and your obligations if delivery slips six months, and get the answer in the document.

Large deposits held for a long time. New construction deposits are frequently ten percent or more, and they can sit for a year or more during construction. Ask where that money is held, whether it is in escrow with an attorney, and whether it is being used to fund construction. Those are very different situations.

Limited or waived inspection rights. You will often be offered a walkthrough rather than an inspection. Hire your own licensed inspector anyway, at your own cost, before closing. A new building is not a defect-free building — new construction defects are simply different defects, and they are much easier to get fixed before your money moves than after.

Warranty terms defined by the developer. Ask what is warranted, for how long, and by whom. A one-year builder warranty backed by an LLC that dissolves after the last unit sells is worth approximately what that structure suggests.

The association exists on paper and the developer controls it

This is the part that costs buyers real money in year two.

During the sell-out period, the developer typically controls the condominium board. That means the developer sets the initial budget, and the developer benefits from that budget looking as low as possible, because the monthly fee is a number in your marketing package.

The predictable result: initial fees that are set below what the building actually costs to run, and reserves funded at a level that is nominal. Then the sell-out completes, control transfers to the owners, an actual budget gets written, and the fee rises substantially. Sometimes an assessment follows.

Questions to ask before you sign:

• What is the initial budget, line by line, and who prepared it?
• What is the reserve contribution as a percentage of the budget?
• What happens to unsold units — does the developer pay full fees on them, or a reduced rate, or nothing?
• When does control of the board transfer to unit owners, and what triggers it?
• Is there a capital contribution at closing, and where does that money go?

That third question is the sleeper. If the developer pays reduced or no fees on unsold inventory, the owners who have closed are carrying the building's operating costs for units nobody lives in.

Conversions are a different animal than ground-up

Boston produces a great deal of converted product — triple-deckers and brownstones gut-renovated into condominiums. The finishes are new. The building is not.

The roof may be new or it may be five years from replacement. The foundation is the foundation. The plumbing stack may have been replaced or may have been left in place behind new walls. The masonry facade is as old as the building.

So for a conversion, ask what was actually replaced versus what was refinished. Get it in writing, item by item: roof, windows, heating systems, electrical service, plumbing stacks, facade work. A conversion that replaced systems is a genuinely different purchase than one that replaced surfaces, and they can look identical at a showing.

Financing has its own traps here

Lenders apply specific rules to new condominium projects. Owner-occupancy ratios, the percentage of units sold, how much commercial space is in the building, whether any single entity owns too many units, and whether the project is warrantable at all.

In an early-phase building, the project may not yet meet those thresholds, which means your loan options are narrower and your rate may be worse. Ask your lender to review the project specifically, not just you, and ask early. A buyer who discovers at day thirty that their lender will not finance a building with forty percent of units unsold is a buyer in trouble.

Also: an appraisal on new construction in a building with no closed resales has thin comparable data. Understand what happens if it comes in low, and whether the developer will renegotiate or hold you to the contract price. In most developer contracts, the answer is that they hold you.

The flood question, because of where this product is

Much of Boston's new construction sits in areas the city studies most closely for coastal flooding — the Seaport, Fort Point, East Boston, parts of South Boston and Charlestown. Boston's Coastal Flood Resilience Overlay District deliberately extends beyond FEMA's mapped high-risk areas.

In new buildings, the mechanicals, electrical, and parking are frequently at or below grade. A storm that never touches an upper-floor unit can still take out the elevators, the electrical service, and the garage, and that cost lands on owners as an assessment. Ask about the building's flood elevation, its ground-floor exposure, and what flood coverage the master policy carries and at what deductible.

The six D certificate and the punch list

Two closing-day items specific to this purchase.

The six D certificate certifies no unpaid common area fees on the unit. On new construction it is the developer's to produce and it is usually routine, but confirm it is in motion.

The punch list is not routine. Whatever is unfinished at your walkthrough gets a great deal harder to resolve after you close, because your leverage was the closing. Options: hold back a portion of funds in escrow until items are completed, or get a written completion agreement with dates. Verbal assurances from an on-site agent who will not work for that developer in six months are not a remedy.

What to do

1. Hire your own attorney, not the one the developer suggests. This is not optional here.
2. Hire your own inspector for a pre-closing inspection regardless of what you are offered.
3. Get the initial budget, the reserve plan, and the board-transfer terms in writing before you sign.
4. Ask your lender to review the project, not just your file, early.
5. For conversions, get a written list of what was replaced versus refinished.
6. Negotiate the punch list remedy before closing, not at it.

New construction is the right answer for a lot of buyers in this market, particularly people who want to own something without inheriting forty years of somebody else's deferred maintenance. Just do not confuse a pleasant sales office with representation.