Historic Property and an Unsuspecting New Investor

[Tinah Canda]

Hello BP community! My name is Tinah, a brand new real estate investor in Worcester County, MA and I ran into a few problems on my first transaction (details on a previous post). And, as if it that were not enough, a day before closing, I found out that the property in question is in the National Registry of Historic Places. This information was NOT provided by my realtor, this is news to me! I learned that there are restrictions in any updates to the front exterior of historic properties and this information would have been disclosed during the process.

I called the historic department and this is what I got. She said property owners do not have to disclose that their property is historic and they can perform any updates they want on the property unless they received a grant that would invoke the "preservation restriction."

I am a little confused - sellers do not have to disclose this information? Wouldn't this be relevant for buyers to know? It's kind of a big deal since these properties generally involve more work, planning and expense, it seems. For newbies like me especially, we can not ask what we do not know.

Additional questions would be:

How does a savvy investor catch this piece of information early on? 

Would you rely on your realtor to pick this up for you during due diligence? 

What would you do if your realtor misses it? 

And last but not least - How would you re/negotiate such properties so in the end it will cashflow despite the foreseen expenses?

All and every input will be greatly appreciated!