We Buy Houses for Cash in Maryland

In Maryland, closing taxes are a real number: state transfer tax, county or city transfer tax and recordation tax, with a default rule for splitting them. Maryland also gives sellers a choice between a disclosure statement and a disclaimer, has ground rents on many Baltimore-area rowhouses, and requires a Notice of Intent to Foreclose and offers court mediation before a home can be sold at auction. Swifty Home Buyers buys Maryland houses for cash, as-is, with no agent commissions and no repair requests, and you pick the closing date.

We buy houses in all 50 states. This guide covers the rules that matter in Maryland.

Maryland's state transfer tax is 0.5 percent of the consideration under Tax-Property Section 13-203. When improved residential property is sold to a first-time Maryland home buyer who will live in it as a principal residence, the state rate drops to 0.25 percent and is paid entirely by the seller. Counties and Baltimore City add their own transfer and recordation taxes, and rates vary widely: Cecil County, for example, charges recordation tax of $4.10 per $500, while Baltimore City charges a 1.5 percent transfer tax and $5.00 per $500 in recordation tax. Who pays? Real Property Section 14-104 presumes, unless the agreement says otherwise, that recordation tax and state and local transfer taxes are shared equally between seller and buyer. For a sale to a first-time Maryland home buyer who will occupy the home, the seller pays the entire state transfer tax, and also the entire recordation and local transfer tax unless the parties expressly agree otherwise. A company buying your house is not a first-time Maryland home buyer, so in a sale to Swifty the default equal split applies unless our contract says something different. Also plan for settlement fees, loan payoffs, prorated property taxes and, in a listing, negotiable agent commissions. Our cash sales have no commissions or repair credits.

Maryland foreclosures move through the circuit court and come with front-end protections. Under Real Property Section 7-105.1, an action to foreclose on residential property may not be filed until the later of 90 days after the default or 45 days after the Notice of Intent to Foreclose is sent, and that notice goes by both certified and first-class mail. If the home is your principal residence, you can request foreclosure mediation. The Department of Housing and Community Development explains that you have 25 days from receiving the form to file the request with the circuit court, with a non-refundable $50 fee, and the mediator is an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Hearings. The sale must be advertised at least once a week for three successive weeks, with the first ad at least 15 days before the sale. You can generally reinstate the loan by bringing it current up to one business day before the sale, and after the auction the court must ratify the sale; a borrower who wants to challenge it has a short deadline to file exceptions, so ask an attorney right away. A lender can ask the court for a deficiency judgment if the sale does not cover the debt. Maryland's Protection of Homeowners in Foreclosure Act also applies to purchases of homes that are at least 60 days in default: under Section 7-310 the homeowner can rescind a contract to sell the home within 5 days after signing it. For free counseling, call the Maryland HOPE hotline at 877-462-7555. Selling before the sale date keeps your equity out of the auction.

• Sell as-is
• Inherited house
• Foreclosure
• Tenants or rental property

Baltimore City transfer and recordation taxes

The City of Baltimore lists its Fiscal 2027 transfer tax at 1.5 percent of the cash consideration and its recordation tax at $5.00 per $500 of actual consideration, on top of Maryland's 0.5 percent state transfer tax. On a $200,000 rowhouse sale that is $3,000 in city transfer tax, $2,000 in recordation tax and $1,000 in state transfer tax, or $6,000 in all, which is split $3,000 each by default under Real Property 14-104 unless the contract says otherwise. Some transfers may be exempt or taxed differently, so check with your settlement company before you assume the full amount applies.