ArtifexAI×A coastal Massachusetts town
Why the state counted about 1,500 rentals and the town about 1,000
A daily check of listings against permits · one coastal Massachusetts town · a town subscription
A resident’s question at a public hearing, answered from the town’s own records that week; most of the gap turned out to be entries the state keeps after a home stops renting or changes hands.
The question
Two lists that disagreed at a hearing
A resident at a public hearing asked why the state’s list showed about 1,500 rentals in town while the town’s own permits showed about 1,000, and nobody in the room could answer, because the two lists had never been compared. Those two counts are the resident’s, as spoken at the hearing, and a local paper printed the state’s list and the town’s side by side that spring.
The state’s rental list on the left and the town’s permits on the right; each line joins one registration to the permit for the same home, and a registration with no line is one for the town’s inspector to check.
What the record showed
Most of the gap between the two lists was entries the state never removes
ArtifexAI matched each state registration to a home and set it beside the town’s permits that week. Most of the gap was entries the state keeps after a home stops renting or changes hands, since the registry is never cleared, and the Department of Revenue says as much in its own account of it. What remained was 78 homes with a listing and no permit, found across nine rental platforms, and each one went to the town’s inspector with the listing beside the assessor’s card for the town to confirm.
The opportunity
One set of records that every office in town can ask from
ArtifexAI built a check that runs every day, matching each new listing to a home and setting it beside the assessor’s card, the permit history and the deed chain, and staff confirm every match themselves before a letter goes out. One office asked one question in 2024, and now the Board of Health, the water and sewer department, the town manager and town committees ask from the same records. Any town that keeps its own rental permits has the same two lists to compare, and the check starts from that town’s own records.
Massachusetts Department of Revenue, “What do we know about seasonal homes and short-term rentals,” July 2024, on the state registry · a local paper’s report on the two lists, spring 2024
Ask this question for your town.
A founder reads it and replies, and the first answer comes from your town’s own records before any contract is signed.