Looking to purchase an abandoned home in my neighborhood. Swansea, Ma
What are the first steps to take? Contacted board of health. Property is not liveable

Someone has to own the land it is on. Have you tried your town hall records?

Agree, town hall. Start with the deed office. Then the tax collector. You can find out if taxes are being paid or not. If they are, you can get the address of the owner and ask them if they want to sell it. If they aren't, the town allows a certain amount of time to go by before they put the property up for tax lien sale. That will be public and you will be competing with other bidders.
If the health dept responds to a complaint and finds a property a health hazard, they can condemn it and board it up and put signs on it. So can the fire dept and building inspector. Be careful about all that because it can come back to bite you if you end up buying it, and have to satisfy all those depts with repairs within a certain period.

There is no such thing as a truly abandoned home. Someone has title to it. If that someone has abandoned it, then the county will auction for taxes.

So you either need to find the owner of record or their heirs or wait for the tax sale.

Thank you that is helpful. I have contacted the board of health in swansea, the house should be condemned and we are only interested in the land

Ok, the recorder of deeds and/or the property tax department will know who is the listed owner and who is paying the property tax.

They are the ones that own it.

You find them and try to buy it.