We buy houses in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Anne Arundel County runs from the 1950s ramblers of Glen Burnie and Brooklyn Park past Fort Meade and the newer colonials of Crofton and Odenton to the state capital and 500 miles of Chesapeake shoreline. It has the highest recordation tax in central Maryland, an Annapolis-only rental license that catches out-of-town landlords, a June tax sale, and a huge share of houses on well and septic inside the Critical Area. We buy Anne Arundel County houses for cash, as-is, waterfront or not, and we have closed inside all of it.

Rental licensing: none countywide, strict inside Annapolis

Anne Arundel County does not run a countywide license for long-term rentals the way Baltimore County and Prince George’s do; the county’s own program covers short-term rentals of 120 nights or less. The City of Annapolis is the exception. Every non-owner-occupied dwelling inside city limits needs a Rental Operating License, renewed every year at $100 per unit, with an annual city inspection of the interior and exterior, and leases have to offer at least a one-year term. A family that inherited a house in Eastport or the Murray Hill area and put a tenant in it without the license usually finds out when they try to evict.

We buy tenant-occupied houses anywhere in the county, licensed or not, and in Annapolis the licensing question becomes ours at closing.

Recordation tax of $7 per $1,000, plus 1% county transfer tax

Anne Arundel County charges $7 for every $1,000 of the price in recordation tax, the highest rate among the counties around Baltimore and Washington, plus a 1% county transfer tax on sales under $1 million (1.5% above that), and Maryland adds a 0.5% state transfer tax. On a $400,000 sale that is $2,800 in recordation tax, $4,000 in county transfer tax and $2,000 in state transfer tax, about $8,800 before the contract decides who pays what. A licensed Maryland title company works all of it out and pays it from closing funds when you sell to us.

Well and septic outside the sewer line, and the Critical Area

Outside the sewer service area, which means most of south county from Edgewater and Riva down through Shady Side, Deale and Lothian, plus large parts of Pasadena, Severna Park and Crownsville, houses run on private wells and septic systems. Maryland requires a septic inspection before settlement, and a system within 1,000 feet of tidal water sits inside the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, where a failed system usually has to be replaced with a nitrogen-removing unit that costs several times a conventional one. Add the county’s Critical Area limits on lot coverage and expansion, and flood-zone insurance on the waterfront, and a lot of shoreline houses are hard to finance. They are not hard for us to buy.

The tax sale is in early June

Anne Arundel County sells its tax liens at an online auction each spring; for 2026 registration opened May 1 and bids were awarded June 3. Once a lien on your house is sold, interest runs against you until it is redeemed, and after the statutory waiting period the certificate holder can go to court to foreclose your right of redemption. A cash sale that settles before the sale date pays the county out of the proceeds and leaves the rest of the equity with you.

Probate at Church Circle

Estates are opened with the Register of Wills at 8 Church Circle in Annapolis, and Anne Arundel has its own elected three-judge Orphans’ Court. A personal representative receives letters of administration from the Register, creditors get six months from the date of death to file claims, and an administration account is due within nine months of appointment. Maryland law lets the personal representative sell real property without a separate court order unless the will says otherwise, so an estate can accept a written cash offer without waiting for a hearing.

We buy Anne Arundel County houses still in probate, contents and all, and close on the estate’s schedule.

Annapolis historic district and the Fort Meade churn

Inside the Annapolis Historic District, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission has to approve exterior changes, which slows down any renovation-minded retail buyer and is why some downtown houses sit. On the other side of the county, Fort Meade and the agencies around it move thousands of families in and out every year, and an owner in Odenton, Severn, Crofton or Gambrills with orders and a house that will not appraise is one of the most common calls we get. Both are straightforward cash purchases.

Glen Burnie, Brooklyn Park and the BWI belt

The north end of the county is the densest and the oldest: 1940s and 1950s cape cods and ramblers in Brooklyn Park, Linthicum and Ferndale, the big postwar tracts of Glen Burnie off Ritchie Highway and Crain Highway, and the split-foyers of Severn and Millersville that followed in the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of it is on its second or third owner, with the original oil furnace, galvanized plumbing and a 100-amp panel still in place, and houses inside the BWI noise contours carry a disclosure that gives some buyers pause. The Route 2 corridor into Annapolis, through Pasadena, Severna Park and Arnold, is newer and more expensive, and its problem stock is the waterfront cottage that grew into a year-round house without permits. We buy all of it, permitted or not, and the county’s open-permit questions get resolved after closing rather than before.

What we actually buy in Anne Arundel County

The three sales we see most: a rambler or split-foyer in Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Severn or Brooklyn Park that a parent lived in since the 1960s and that needs everything, a waterfront cottage in Shady Side, Riva, Edgewater or Deale that a lender will not touch because of the septic and the flood zone, and a Crofton or Odenton colonial whose owner has orders and a date. We buy across ZIP codes 21061, 21060, 21122, 21146, 21012, 21401, 21403, 21409, 21037, 21114, 21113, 21144, 21108, 21090, 21225, 21140, 20751 and 21054, any condition, any situation.