Otis & Ahearn has an advertisement in this week's Boston Homes:

"Our Holiday (sic) Gift To You - No property taxes for 3 years!"

Terms:

1) put property under agreement by 12/17/2006
2) the value of the taxes is equal to 2007 (estimated) tax
3) the amount will be paid to buyer at closing

I called agent-extraordinaire Richard Drinkwater to find out more.

The offer is only good on the properties listed in the Boston Homes ads. You can use your own buyer's agent, and you can negotiate the price, just like any other listing.

And, according to him, the sellers are paying the tax, not the agent(s).

This could be a good deal. A $500,000 home would cost you maybe $5,500 per year, in property taxes, so over three years, you're taking $16,000 or so.

Of course, the seller is going to keep the tax rebate payment in mind when negotiating the sales price; most likely, the final price you get is going to be the price the seller would accept, anyway, plus the tax rebate amount.

It's creative marketing, and brings attention to the properties.

You, as buyer, could obviously just ask the seller to lower his or her price by the same amount, because if you pay the total price and get the rebate, in effect you've just added $16,000 to your mortgage loan amount, and will be paying interest on it.

In addition, you will owe tax on any rebate you get at closing - although the chances of you doing so are nil since no one will be paying attention to that; you won't get a 1099 or anything.

A better way might be for you to tell the seller to pay your closing costs, to pay expenses or to pay points on your loan, which would give you a lower rate on your mortgage loan.

Of course, if money is tight and you're worried about bills over the coming year or years, having a big chunk of cash, post closing, might be good for you. And, you are in effect getting that $16,000 at a really low interest rate, 6% or so, which means it's better than buying new furniture or doing renovations, off your credit cards.