Sell your house fast in Prince George’s County, Maryland

Fast in Prince George’s County is almost always about a clock someone else started: tax sale bidding that opens the first week of May, a foreclosure auction date, a code enforcement deadline from DPIE, or a rent-stabilized tenant whose lease makes retail buyers walk. A financed retail sale here runs 45 to 60 days when it goes well, and a large share of the county’s buyers use FHA or VA loans whose appraisers write repair conditions on older houses. A cash sale to us closes in two to three weeks from the first call, and none of those conditions exist.

Day one to day three: the written offer

You tell us the address and what is going on with the house. We look at it in person or on video, and within a day you have a written number with the math shown: after-repair value, the repair budget, our costs and our margin. The offer does not change after an inspection, and if a listing would net you more, the same document says so.

What slows a Prince George’s sale down, and why it does not slow ours

• FHA and VA appraisal conditions. Peeling paint on a 1950s Hyattsville or District Heights house, a missing handrail, a roof near the end of its life, and the appraiser writes a repair list the seller has to finish before closing. There is no appraisal in a cash sale.
• Open permits and unpermitted work. A finished basement or a rear addition that DPIE never signed off on stops a lender cold. We buy the house with the permit history as it stands and pull what we need afterward.
• Tenants under rent stabilization. Retail buyers who want to live in the house will not wait out a lease, and investor buyers using financing want it vacant. We buy with the tenant in place and the lease as written.
• Municipal liens and inspections. Many Prince George’s addresses sit inside a town with its own tax bill, and an unpaid municipal balance or an open citation has to clear before settlement. The title company pays it out of proceeds and we schedule around it.
• Vacant property and code enforcement. A vacant house collects citations and grass fines fast. We can close before the next hearing date.

Beating the May tax sale

Prince George’s County opens tax sale bidding the first week of May, earlier than most of the state. If you got the certified notice in the spring, a listing signed in April will not close in time, and once the lien sells you are paying the bidder interest to redeem it. A cash contract signed in March or early April closes before bidding opens, the county is paid out of your proceeds at settlement, and no lien is sold. Our Prince George’s County page covers the tax sale schedule, the DPIE rental license and the county’s other rules.

Week two or three: closing on your date

A licensed Maryland title company handles settlement: title search, mortgage payoff, any municipal or county lien cleared from proceeds, and the balance wired to you. Two to three weeks is the earliest, and if you need longer because the estate is still open in Upper Marlboro or you are timing a move, you set the date and we hold the number. We buy in Bowie, Laurel, Hyattsville, College Park, Greenbelt, Capitol Heights, District Heights, Clinton, Fort Washington, Upper Marlboro and Brandywine.