Cash home buyers in Baltimore County, Maryland: how to check one out

If you own a house in Dundalk, Essex, Parkville or Randallstown, you already get the postcards, the text messages and the handwritten-looking letters. Baltimore County draws more cash-buyer marketing than anywhere in Maryland outside the city itself, and most of it comes from wholesalers who never intend to own your house. Some of the buyers behind it are fine. Many are not. This page is how to tell the difference before you sign anything, written by a buyer who would rather you check us out than take our word for it.

Look the buyer up before you sign

Every legitimate buyer operates through a Maryland entity you can find on Maryland Business Express, the state’s free business search. The company on the contract should exist, be in good standing, and match the name on the proof of funds. Ask for that proof of funds: a bank letter or statement dated this month, in the entity’s name, for at least the offer amount. Then ask which Maryland title company will handle settlement and call that office. A buyer who wants to use “their own closing person” or cannot name the title company is telling you something.

Know the 2025 Maryland wholesale disclosure law

Since October 1, 2025, Maryland requires anyone who contracts to buy an owner-occupied house intending to assign that contract to another buyer to disclose it to you in writing before you sign. That is what a wholesaler does: they tie up your house at one price, shop the contract to an investor at a higher one and keep the spread, and if no investor bites they walk away and you have lost six weeks. The disclosure has to say so up front. If a Baltimore County buyer’s paperwork does not mention assignment at all, ask directly. We buy houses to hold or renovate ourselves and our contract says so. Our FAQ covers your rights under the law in plain language.

What a real Baltimore County offer accounts for

• Ground rent. Thousands of Dundalk, Essex and Catonsville rowhomes still sit on a ground lease. A real offer says whether the buyer will redeem it or take it subject to the rent, and the title company handles either. A buyer who has never heard of ground rent has not bought here.
• The rental license. Baltimore County licenses rentals for three years at a time. A lapsed license does not block a sale, and a real buyer knows that instead of using it to knock down the price.
• Recordation and transfer tax. 1.5% county transfer tax plus $5 per $1,000 recordation plus 0.5% to the state. A real offer names the split in the contract, and when you sell to us the title company collects it at closing.
• The late-summer tax sale. A buyer who knows the county schedules its lien sale in late summer, not spring, can set a closing that clears it.
• The math. After-repair value, the repair budget, closing and holding costs, and the buyer’s margin, on paper. One number with no reasoning is a negotiating position, not an offer.

Red flags we see in Baltimore County every week

• A sign on a utility pole with a phone number and no company name. That is a wholesaler’s lead funnel, and the person answering will not be the person buying.
• An offer before anyone has seen the house. The real number arrives after the “inspection,” and it is lower.
• An inspection contingency used as a second negotiation. Our number is the number; if we misjudged the roof, that is our loss.
• An option agreement or a memorandum recorded against your title. Some wholesalers file paperwork that clouds your title so you cannot sell to anyone else while they shop the deal.
• A 60 or 90 day closing with a $500 deposit. A cash buyer who needs three months is waiting for someone else’s money.

Where we buy in Baltimore County

Dundalk, Essex, Middle River, Parkville, Overlea, Rosedale, White Marsh, Perry Hall, Towson, Catonsville, Arbutus, Randallstown, Owings Mills, Reisterstown and Cockeysville, brick rowhome or split-level, ground rent or fee simple, tenant in place or empty. The full county page, with the three-year rental license, ground rent, the late-summer tax sale and the elected Orphans’ Court explained, is at we buy houses in Baltimore County.