maryland: Activerain Summertime Meetup in MARYLAND
- 07/17/13 09:18 PM
There's nothing quite like an Activerain Meetup in summertime or any time. YOU'RE INVITED! My first opportunity to meet other Activerainers in person occurred about five years ago, when Brian Block invited a handful of people from DC, Maryland and Virginia to gather for lunch in Northern Virginia. I didn't know any of the other people in attendance, and hadn't ever met Brian in person, but some of us quickly became great friends - in person and online - and now we always look forward to seeing each other again. Since then, the experience has been repeated in many corners of … (22 comments)
maryland: Crofton, Gambrills, and Odenton - One Community or Three?
- 10/12/08 12:47 PM
"The Greater Crofton Area" is generally considered to include Crofton, Gambrills, and Odenton - three distinctly different communities located in the D.C.-Baltimore-Annapolis Triangle. (And, I might add, there are distinctly different neighborhoods within each community.) Some of the confusion probably comes from the nonsensical zipcode boundaries created by the U.S. Post Office for Crofton. Just picture a donut: Gambrills is like the donut itself, and Crofton is the hole in the center. Odenton is north and west of Crofton and Gambrills, but I couldn't tell you where one stops and the other starts. Adding to the confuson: Crofton Centre (retail shopping) is located in Gambrills. Crofton Farms and … (6 comments)
maryland: Relocating to Anne Arundel County?
- 01/16/08 12:59 PM
Included in Your Online Relocation Package for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Home of Fort George G. Meade, NSA, Northrop Grumman, BWI, and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay about a half hour from both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, is home to Maryland's capitol city of Annapolis, the United States Naval Academy, the National Security Agency and Fort George G. Meade. When you relocate to Anne Arundel County, you'll find fabulous shopping malls such as Westfield Shopping and Arundel Mills Mall and quaint one-of-a-kind shops on the historic streets of downtown Annapolis. … (11 comments)
Maryland home buyers, this is one of those lessons learned from The School of Hard Knocks: Find and set aside important paperwork and financial information BEFORE you start packing to move! I've seen firsthand the unnecessary pressure and tension some of my relocating clients experienced when they failed to do this. Yes, financing a home is so much easier today than it was a decade ago. In many cases, through an automated underwriting process, home buyers receive their "ok" within hours of making application. Sometimes, however, this loan approval requires follow-up … (9 comments)
How do you think it might impact your business if buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords are taxed on commissions or fees they pay to real estate professionals or property managers in the future? A 6% sales or service tax, for example, would turn each $1000 paid by consumers for commissions or fees into $1060.
Why should you care if this is an issue in Maryland? Very simple. If it passes here, YOUR Governor and Legislature will be emboldened to propose and pass it in YOUR state. On November 1, Maryland Realtors will rally at the state capitol in Annapolis to demonstrate opposition to a tax on real estate commissions and fees for … (27 comments)
Let's start by answering your question, "What is the Maryland Homestead Tax Credit?" The Homestead Credit helps homeowners deal with large assessment increases by limiting the increase in taxable assessments. You can check this Listing of Homestead Caps for Each Local Government, to find out the fixed amount where the property is located. The Homestead Credit is calculated on any property tax assessment increase exceeding 10% (or the lower cap enacted by local governments - 2% in Anne Arundel County, for example) from one year to the next. The credit is calculated based on the … (13 comments)
maryland: Crofton Maryland Flu Shot Locations
- 10/16/07 11:13 PM
A community announcement for Crofton, MD, posted to Localism.com and FocusOnCrofton.com. Flu shots seem to be widely available this year, and I have found three locations in Crofton where you can conveniently get yours: Giant, CVS, and Rite-Aid. Mark your calendar for November 3. That's the next time you will be able to get your annual flu shot at the Giant in Crofton. (For a complete listing of Giant grocery stores where you can get flu shots, click here.) Two local drugstores are offering flu shots, as well: The CVS website indicates that flu shots are available daily at the Crofton location, 2003 Davidsonville Road; RiteAid, at … (3 comments)
maryland: Crofton Maryland Real Estate Report - January-September 2007
- 10/13/07 12:48 PM
There was good news and bad news for Crofton in September, according to statistics released by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc., combined with my own quick review of homes listed, sold, and under contract during that time. Let's start with the GOOD news: Average sold prices were up for the third month in a row, and higher than September 2006, as well. The average sold price in Crofton was up 11.25% from last year to $398,371. The median price was the same as it was in September 2006, $330,000.
Now for the BAD news: The number of Crofton homes sold in September 2007 went down 40.38% … (4 comments)
Larry and I took our grandchildren, Megan and Matthew, to the Fall Festival at Homestead Gardens in Davisonville on a windy and chilly October day last year. With that memory fresh in mind, it almost caught me by surprise to see the big tent set up and this year's Fall Festival already in progress, when I stopped by to get some mums on a sunny 90 degree day in early October. If the Fall Festival is not on your calendar yet, believe me, you should make room for it! Homestead Gardens is the place to be … (13 comments)
maryland: Anne Arundel County Maryland - Five Secret Ingredients for Selling Your Home in a Buyer's Market
- 09/23/07 04:43 AM
My, what a difference a year or two can make, when it comes to selling your home! If you bought your Anne Arundel County home in the past five years, it's likely that you paid full price - perhaps OVER full price. You might have waived a home inspection, and even an appraisal. Your offer was probably in competition with many others so you resorted to little "tricks" like personal letters to the seller to convince them you were the most worthy buyer for their beloved home. That was a seller's market, when conditions were highly favorable to home sellers: Fewer houses available than buyers, … (10 comments)
maryland: Maryland Fishing Challenge Finale
- 09/18/07 07:09 AM
It sounds simple enough... Between June 14 and September 3, catch one of the 63 specially tagged stripped bass known as "Diamond Jim" to win a cash prize or any of the 60 specified species in waterways statewide to win other prizes. The Maryland Department of Natural Resource's 2007 Maryland Fishing Challenge is the third annual event intended to promote recreational fishing and promote Maryland as a great destination for sport fishing. 224 anglers across the state did catch citation-worthy fish in Maryland's mountain streams, the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays and the Atlantic Ocean. Now they are eligible for a drawing at the finale on September 22 at Sandy … (8 comments)
maryland: Name this super-computer and win $500 -
- 08/06/07 03:04 PM
WINNER ANNOUNCED Are your creative juices flowing today? If so, maybe you would like to participate in the naming contest for a new desktop super-computer prototype developed by Uzi Vishkin and his team of researchers at The University of Maryland, College Park. This technology uses uses a circuit board about the size of a license plate on which 64 parallel processors are mounted. To control those processors, Vishkin and his colleagues in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed the crucial parallel computer organization that allows processors to work together and make programming practical and simple for software developers, at a speed up to 100 times … (7 comments)
Anne Arundel County agencies are scrambling to anticipate the impact of 22,000 new jobs on infra-structure and public services ranging from transportation to education and health care, while REALTORS and developers are concerned about housing this increased population. Meanwhile, businesses such as restaurants and retailers explore opportunities for growth and profit in and around Anne Arundel County. To identify and prepare an effective plan for the expansion of Fort Meade, County Executive John Leopold established a BRAC Task Force in March … (4 comments)
maryland: Condo owners alert...
- 07/31/07 02:48 AM
It's up to YOU, each and every condo owner, to stay involved in your condo association - at least by paying your dues in a timely manner and being an active participant, if not a volunteer leader. The covenants and bylaws of some condo associations may not permit changes to the budget without a favorable vote by a quorum of property owners - this includes expenses for maintenance and capitol improvements, as well as any dreaded dues increases. Maintaining the status quo, then, is the only option when residents don't vote for and pay the actual cost of maintaining a condo commuunity. It's only a matter … (10 comments)
maryland: Maryland Loves Cal Ripken!
- 07/29/07 04:12 AM
Baseball fans know that Cooperstown = Baseball Hall of Fame. In case you are not a baseball fan, let me bring you up to speed... This is the day that Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. and San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn are being inducted into that Hall of Fame, the highest honor for anyone in baseball. I can only imagine how emotional it must be for them - it certainly is an exciting day for their fans, even those who may not also be baseball fans. To be honest, I don't know a thing about Tony Gwynn, and I hope his fans will … (5 comments)
maryland: Watermelon? I thought Maryland is for Crabs!
- 07/25/07 05:01 AM
Your real estate connection for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Home of Fort George G. Meade, Northrop Grumman, BWI and the U.S. Naval Academy "Maryland is for Crabs" - Who hasn't heard that slogan, even beyond Maryland? Apparently, if some folks get their way, it may also be "Maryland is for Watermelon" - A friendly rivalry between Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who says "there is no beter watermelon anywhere in the country than those grown in Maryland," and Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, who says "Except those grown in Delaware" has evolved into the MAR-DELicious campaign. Maryland and Delaware Departments of Agriculture and the University … (22 comments)
...on a national level. But it is important for you to remember that the real estate market is more accuratey measured on a LOCAL level. Today's report by Rex Nutting for MarketWatch sounds very dire: Existing home sales fall to 5-year low of 5.75 million. He quotes National Association of REALTORS statistics that sales were down 11.4% in June 2007 from June 2006. Just yesterday, John Spence reported for MarketWatch that Home-builder stocks fall on renewed housing fears. Now I would like to call a "time out", please, to ask a question in the face of all this bad … (6 comments)
maryland: Legacy of an "old pro" - passing it on to today's real estate rookies
- 07/25/07 12:01 AM
Those "old pros" - I know they get to you sometimes! When I was a real estate rookie, a lifetime ago, I had a love-hate relationship with them. In my mind, most of them were old-fashioned, overweight, arrogant - and clients seemed to fall effortlessly into their laps from nowhere. Yet, over the years I have found myself mentally giving some of those "grande dames" credit for different things I learned from them that still impact my business after four decades as a REALTOR. Now that I'm an old pro myself, I stipulate to the weight and being somewhat old-fashioned; I just hope today's rookies don't find me too arrogant... that they realize … (65 comments)
Maryland real estate may experience a slight "boom" now that word is out about what a great place it is to live!
Money's list of Top 100 Best Places to Live 2007 includes five Maryland communities: Crofton (72), Catonsville (49), Eldersburg (56), Elkridge (42), and Olney (17). Communities around the country were ranked for a variety of factors that impact quality of life including affordability, leisure activities, cultural options, job growth, health care access, commute time, and even the weather. Of course, that's no … (2 comments)
maryland: Anne Arundel County Real Estate - WATERFRONT CONDOS
- 07/17/07 12:32 PM
Waterfront condos are proof that living on the water doesn't have to be a high-maintenance lifestyle! You can sit in your easy-chair, perhaps a hundred yards from your boat dock, listen to the sound of wind-chimes hanging from the masts of nearby sailboats, and leave all the grounds and building maintenance to someone else. There are 35 waterfront condos on the market in Anne Arundel County today, July 17, 2007. They range in price from $275,000 for a one-bedroom condo in Mariners Cove to a three bedroom, three and a half bath townhome in Chesapeake Harbour for $1,499,000. Other waterfront condo communities include Shearwater, Stoney … (3 comments)
Real Estate and community information for home buyers and sellers, military transferees, and rookie agents in the greater Crofton area, including Annapolis, Bowie, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Joint Base Andrews, Millersville, Odenton, and the U.S. Naval Academy.
There's nothing quite like an Activerain Meetup in summertime or any time. YOU'RE INVITED!
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