No matter how amazing you are at your job, sometimes the most difficult part is finding new business.
Whether you’re a real estate agent or a lender, you’re going to have plenty of competition out there. Buyers and sellers have options, and it’s an uphill battle to get their attention. Read more
The concept of ground rent in Baltimore and surrounding counties may be traced back to colonial times, when investors bought tracts of land from the newly sovereign colonial governments and allowed tenants who otherwise could not purchase land for themselves to make small, incremental rent payments as a less-expensive alternative to land ownership.
This practice may be out of date in today’s market yet most leases renew in perpetuity. Some ground rent holders are registered with the State Department of Assessment & Taxation, many leases holders are unknown.
In the past If the owner of the ground leases couldn’t be identified, we’d have to hold from the seller 3 years’ worth of estimated ground rent payments, plus attorney’s fees, in the event that the ground rent holder suddenly appeared and made a claim.
That typically meant that we’d collect an average of about $700 from the seller to hold in escrow for three years.
Now the state of Maryland has changed its statute and noted that if the ground rent owner has not registered the ground rent with the state, past due amounts may not be demanded.
That means we no longer have to hold estimated ground rent payments or attorney fees, and your sellers’ net proceeds just increased by $700!
Contact us for more information on identifying registered ground rents and how to extinguish an existing ground rent.
The Maryland “Non-Resident” Real Estate Withholding Tax is 8% for Individuals (8.25% for LLCs, Estates and Entities) on the PROCEEDS or GAINS from the sale of a property.
A Full Exemption is possible if a seller can certify any of the special situations listed below. Read more
If you want to close the sale, you have to have a clean title.
It’s not as easy as it might seem.
A clean title means there are no standing claims against the property and that the owner has the full legal right to sell the property. Our job as your title company is to do the digging to ensure that the title is clean and ready for a smooth transfer of ownership.
But often, it’s not smooth at all. Read more
If you are selling commercial property, it is likely that you have sold properties held in a corporation. Assurance Title has a strong commercial side and is capable of handling your commercial deals as well.
However, it is still possible to have a residential property be held in a corporation. So what do we need to know when the owner of record is a corporation?
Let us help. Read more
What do you do when you have a listing coming to the market but the owner is in an LLC? Does anything change? How does the sale work?
We can help. Read more
Have you ever sold a home where the owner of record is in a trust? What does that mean? How is that different? What does title do differently, and how do you know when a property is in a trust?
A trust refers to the fiduciary relationship created to appoint one party to manage assets on behalf of a third party. This relationship is established between the creator of the trust (the grantor) and the trustee, who holds and administers the property within the trust on behalf of the beneficiary designated to receive the property. The trustee is appointed to administer the trust while acting in the best interests of the grantor.
So how does this transaction differ from a traditional sale?
Well, the short answer is … it isn’t that different. There are a few things we (the title company) will need in order to begin the sale. We will need a copy of the Trust Agreement from the Seller. This will include names, permissions, and who is the signing agent of the trust.
The sale contract will have the seller’s name as the name of the Trust and the representative of the trust will sign as Trustee. For example: “Trustees name”, Trustee.
For settlement, we will need to verify the separate bank account that is open in the name of the trust.
Our Client Relations & Marketing Manager, Brian Harper-Lewis, will walk you through the process and ensure that your transaction is handled smoothly and efficiently.
What do you do when your next listing is in an estate? And what does that mean for title?
While selling a property held in an estate is slightly different from your traditional sale, it doesn’t have to be difficult! The best way to sell this kind of property is to be prepared.
When an owner of a home passes away, typically, that home goes into the individual’s estate. The first thing we do is verify the Personal Representative of the Estate by using the Maryland Registers website.
Once we know who the PR is, Assurance Title will request some documents, so it is important to let the Personal Representative listing the house know upfront that we are going to need the following items:
From there, everything proceeds as normal. When selling an estate property, you’ll want to have the seller on the contract of sale as “The Estate of *Name of Deceased.*” You’ll also want to make sure that the Personal Representative is signing as “*PR Name* as the Personal Representative.”
Happy selling!
If you’re an agent working toward your first settlement with Assurance Title … Welcome! Our goal is to make your experience as smooth and seamless as possible. It starts with three simple steps:
Reaching the closing table on the purchase of any piece of property is a complex transaction.
You’ll encounter moving parts at every turn, and surprises can pop up at the worst times. But no matter what the transaction throws your way, you can overcome it when you have three key pieces working together.
The buyer’s agent, the lender and the title company.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to have each of these three pillars on the same page from the very beginning. If any one of these entities is going rogue, the whole settlement is suddenly at risk.
But when all three are working together, like a well-oiled closing machine, then there is no obstacle that can’t be overcome. Read more