Recently in Buying / Selling Real Estate in Boston:

Most people associate a fireplace with firewood and a big chimney useful for ventilation and for Santa. But technology and advances in fuel delivery have now allowed our homes to be outfitted with ventless gas fireplaces. No chimney necessary, and they can even be purchased online.

Why don't ventless fireplaces need a chimney? Well, Unlike wood burning fireplaces, a ventless fireplace uses natural gas or gel to produce heat. These types of fuels are deemed to have a lower emissions rate than wood.

Despite that, The Boston Globe considered the question of ventless fireplace safety and generally came out with the view they could be hazardous.

Former Red Sox closer, Jonathan Papelbon and his wife, Ashley, are selling their Beacon Street penthouse, reports the Boston Globe. The condo is nice, even if the nursery is pretty pink.

Papelbon's Beacon Street penthouse is four bed-room, three-bathroom, with hardwood floors, high ceilings, custom cabinets, a fireplace, and awesome appliances. There is also an outdoor deck and an elevator. In total, it comes out to 2,500 square feet.

An advisory committee within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that the threshold for diagnosing lead poisoning in children be lowered, reports the New York Times.

Lead exposure, which can lead to lead poisoning and can cause both learning and organic problems, affects approximately 250,000 children in the United States.

Preventing lead paint problems have been important to Bostonians, as evidenced by the wealth of resources that Lead Safe Boston offers.

Bank of America's alleged discrimination against blacks and Hispanics in the area of home loans will lead its Countrywide unit to pay a fine of $335 million, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Countrywide settlement with the Department of Justice is the largest settlement in history over residential fair lending, reports the AJC.

The settlement covers conduct between 2004 and 2008 and involves allegations of charging blacks and Hispanics higher interest rates and directing them towards more expensive mortgages, reports MSNBC. The alleged discrimination extended to around 200,000 people.

Tom Brady, the long-time Patriots quarterback, and his wife Gisele Bundchen, will likely be moving to California to live in a new house in the Brentwood area, reports the Boston Globe. The paper characterizes Tom Brady’s house as a mansion, and rightly so: the property is reported to cover 3.75 acres and the eight bedroom house will cost $11 million.

That includes the lagoon-shaped swimming pool.

Even though the housing market contracted sharply over the past few years and put a sizeable stake through reverse mortgage loans, some companies like MetLife are actively going into the area, reports the Boston Globe.

MetLife's reverse mortgage push is especially perplexing given that other lenders like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have left the market. In fact, Wells Fargo was the largest U.S. lender, but it left the scene due to the unpredictable nature of it all.

Buying or selling your home will probably be the biggest transaction you will ever make. And as real estate transactions are governed by a different set of laws than other purchases, you will probably want to hire the right real estate attorney to help you navigate the complex process.

So, you might be asking yourself, what does a real estate attorney do?

The pleasant part about shopping for a new home is visiting open houses and imagining you and your family in a new setting. But when it actually comes time to buy the home, you will likely need to borrow money, kicking off what may be the unpleasant process of mortgage shopping.

Comparing mortgages is vitally important, as mortgage interest, points, and fees are all costs that you may not think about when you see the sticker price for a home. So even if you buy a home for $500,000, you still may have to pay thousands of additional dollars throughout the course of your loan, simply for the privilege of borrowing the money.

So how to begin comparing mortgages?

You may be coaxed into attending a timeshare seminar with a free hotel stay, car rental, or even cash. And at the seminar, you may actually decide that a time share is right for you.

But before buying, you will want to answer three questions regarding whether buying a timeshare is right for you.

We previously wrote about the scary rental market in Boston. Want to live in Kendall Square? You’ll have to pay almost $2,800 a month.

Too expensive? As an alternative, you may just want to buy a place instead of throwing away all that money on rent. At least that $2,800 a month can go towards your principal.