Selling a home in Cambridge.

The costs that come off your proceeds.

The deed excise is a seller cost: $2.28 per $500 of the sale price or any fraction of it, rounding up at every $500 step. On a $1,100,000 sale it is $5,016.

An attorney is required to close in Massachusetts, commonly $750 to $1,250 for a straightforward sale. A smoke and carbon monoxide alarm certificate from the local fire department is also required, typically $50 to $100.

For a condominium, add the cost and — more importantly — the lead time of the 6(d) certificate and resale documents. In a small self-managed association these are produced by a fellow owner rather than a management company, which can be faster or considerably slower depending on who holds the role.

Commission is negotiated per transaction. No standard rate exists to quote, and buyer-agent compensation has been directly negotiable since August 2024.

Cambridge at a glance

Residential exemption

Offered to owner-occupants Apply by April 1. Confirm the current amount with the assessing department.

Transit

Red Line · Green Line Extension — Lechmere · MBTA bus MBTA

County

Middlesex County

Housing stock

Condominiums and converted multifamily houses, with limited single-family supply.

Figures come from the municipal and statutory sources linked above and are reproduced for orientation, not as advice. Confirm anything you plan to rely on with the assessing department and your attorney.

What the deed excise actually costs

Massachusetts charges the deed excise at $2.28 per $500 of the sale price or any fraction of it. That wording is the whole point: the charge is calculated in whole $500 brackets and rounds up, so a sale at $750,001 is taxed on 1,501 brackets rather than 1,500.

Most online calculators model it as a flat 0.456%, which is exact only when the price lands on a $500 boundary. Off a boundary it always understates — though by a small amount, typically under two dollars. The reason to get it right is precision rather than magnitude: a net sheet should tie out to the cent, and a figure that is nearly right is the kind of thing that costs an hour at the closing table. Across a range of realistic Cambridge prices:

Calculated from M.G.L. c. 64D §1. Barnstable County is charged at a higher rate. The excise is one line among several — an attorney is also required to close, commonly $750 to $1,250, and the smoke and carbon monoxide certificate typically runs $50 to $100.

Small associations need more preparation, not less.

Much of Cambridge's condominium stock sits in converted two-, three- and four-unit houses. There is often no management company, no professionally prepared budget, and sometimes no formal reserve study. Buyers' lenders still ask the same questions.

Before listing, assemble what a lender will want: the master deed and trust, recent financials, minutes, evidence of insurance, and a clear statement of what work has been done and what is planned. In a small association this is frequently scattered across owners' filing cabinets, and gathering it takes weeks rather than days.

The properties themselves are typically old. As elsewhere in the area, the productive preparation is knowing what an inspection will find, then deciding what to fix, what to price for and what to disclose — rather than discovering it alongside your buyer.

Timing: document readiness beats seasonality.

In a scarce market, the season matters less than usual. What consistently costs Cambridge sellers time is arriving at an accepted offer without the association paperwork ready, then spending three weeks assembling it while the buyer's lender waits.

Spring and early autumn still bring the most listings and the most buyers. If your property is genuinely scarce in its category, being outside that window is not the disadvantage it would be elsewhere.

Book the fire department inspection early. It is small, required, and a recurring cause of avoidable delay.

Questions sellers ask about Cambridge