We buy houses in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Prince George’s County is the biggest county we buy in, close to a million people from the Levitt colonials of Bowie to the inside-the-Beltway rowhomes of Hyattsville and Capitol Heights to the acreage around Brandywine and Accokeek. It also has the most rules for a seller of any county on this site: a two-year rental license from DPIE, a county transfer tax that even applies to the mortgage, a rent stabilization law that caps what a tenant-occupied house can earn, and a tax sale in early May. We buy Prince George’s County houses for cash, as-is, and we have closed inside every one of those rules.

DPIE’s two-year single-family rental license

The Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement licenses every single-family rental in the county outside a few municipalities that run their own programs. The license is good for two years, requires an inspection, and has to be in place before the house is rented. Cities like Bowie, Laurel, Greenbelt, Hyattsville and College Park layer their own rental rules and sometimes their own inspections on top of the county’s. A house rented without a license cannot lawfully collect rent, which is the usual reason an owner who inherited a rental in Clinton or Temple Hills ends up unable to evict a non-paying tenant.

We buy tenant-occupied houses in Prince George’s County whether or not the license exists, and the tenant, the lease and the licensing gap become our responsibility at closing.

Rent stabilization changed the math on tenant-occupied sales

Since October 2024, the county’s Permanent Rent Stabilization and Protection Act caps annual rent increases on covered units at a formula tied to the Washington-area consumer price index, never more than 6% a year, with DPIE publishing the allowable increase every May for the year that starts July 1. For a seller that means a house with a below-market tenant cannot simply be re-priced to market rent after closing, so investor buyers who finance their purchases discount hard or walk. We buy on the numbers as they are, tenant and lease included, and we tell you the offer in writing before you decide anything.

Transfer tax of 1.4%, recordation of $5.50 per $1,000, and a quirk on the loan

Prince George’s County charges a 1.4% county transfer tax and $5.50 per $1,000 in recordation tax, on top of Maryland’s 0.5% state transfer tax. On a $350,000 sale that works out to roughly $4,900 in county transfer tax, $1,925 in recordation tax and $1,750 in state transfer tax, about $8,575 before the contract decides who pays what. The county quirk: unlike most of Maryland, Prince George’s also applies its transfer tax to the buyer’s mortgage, which quietly raises the cost of a financed retail purchase and is one reason cash offers here close cleaner. When you sell to us, a licensed Maryland title company handles every tax line out of closing funds.

The tax sale comes early: bidding opens the first week of May

Prince George’s County sells its tax liens online, and it does it early in the year. For 2026, bidding opened May 4 and certificates were awarded May 11, with the registration window closing in late April. 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 file to foreclose your right to redeem. A cash sale that settles before the sale date pays the county out of proceeds and keeps the rest of your equity in your pocket.

Probate in Upper Marlboro

Estates are opened with the Register of Wills at the courthouse in Upper Marlboro, and Prince George’s is one of the three Maryland jurisdictions where the elected Orphans’ Court judges must be attorneys. 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’s Estates and Trusts Article gives the personal representative authority to sell real property without a separate court order unless the will limits it, so the estate does not need a hearing to accept a cash offer.

We buy Prince George’s County houses still in probate, with the contents left in place, and we close on the estate’s timeline rather than ours.

Municipal taxes and the inside-the-Beltway stock

Roughly two dozen incorporated cities and towns sit inside the county, and each one adds its own property tax line on top of the county’s: Bowie, Laurel, Greenbelt, Hyattsville, College Park, Mount Rainier, Riverdale Park, District Heights, Glenarden, Seat Pleasant and more. Inside the Beltway the housing is older, brick rowhomes and 1940s cape cods in Hyattsville, Capitol Heights and Suitland, and a lot of it has aluminum branch wiring, Federal Pacific panels and galvanized plumbing from the era. Bowie is a special case: thousands of 1960s Levitt colonials and ranchers built to the same plan, where the differences that matter are the roof, the electrical panel and whether the basement has ever taken water. We price all of it rather than back away from it.

Vacant houses, code enforcement, and the Blue Line corridor

DPIE also runs code enforcement, and a vacant house in the county draws citations fast: tall grass, an unsecured door, a car on the lawn, each one a separate fine that becomes a lien if it goes unpaid. Owners of inherited houses in Capitol Heights, Landover, Suitland and District Heights, the neighborhoods along the Blue and Silver Line stations, often discover a stack of them only when a title search turns them up. We buy houses with open citations and pay the liens out of proceeds at closing, and the county’s interest in the property ends the day the deed records. The same corridor, from Largo Town Center to Addison Road, is where the Metro-driven rebuilding is happening, which is why a rowhome that looks like a teardown to its owner is a purchase to us.

What we actually buy in Prince George’s County

The three sales we see most: an estate colonial in Bowie, Fort Washington or Clinton with a 1970s kitchen and a full house of contents, a rental in Hyattsville, Landover, District Heights or Temple Hills with a tenant the owner cannot legally remove, and a house in Laurel or Beltsville whose owner is relocating for a federal job and needs a date, not a listing. We buy across ZIP codes 20715, 20716, 20720, 20721, 20707, 20708, 20770, 20782, 20740, 20705, 20735, 20744, 20745, 20748, 20746, 20747, 20743, 20785, 20774, 20772 and 20613, any condition, any situation.