Maryland’s home-buying process runs through the same general sequence as most states — offer, inspection, financing, title, closing — but two things here are worth understanding specifically before you buy: state law is unusually strict about who’s allowed to run the closing, and in and around Baltimore, a home’s title can still carry a leasehold quirk that doesn’t really exist anywhere else in the country.
Maryland requires a licensed attorney to conduct the settlement
Maryland doesn’t leave this to custom. State law (Real Property Article § 7-113) requires that a real estate settlement involving Maryland property — residential or commercial, a purchase or a refinance — be conducted by a licensed Maryland attorney. Separately, Maryland requires every recorded deed, mortgage, and deed of trust to include a certificate identifying who prepared it, and that person has to be either a Maryland attorney, someone working under an attorney’s supervision, or one of the parties to the deed itself. A title company can still be part of the transaction, but it can’t substitute for the attorney requirement — and a paralegal, an out-of-state attorney not admitted to the Maryland bar, or a title company employee acting alone doesn’t satisfy it either. Budget the attorney’s fee as a standard, non-optional part of Maryland closing costs.
The title search and county recording
Your attorney or title company will have a title search run against the recorded land records before closing. Maryland’s property-valuation function is unusual: it’s run by the state through the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT), which operates a local office in every county and in Baltimore City, rather than by an elected county assessor the way most states do it. Real-property recording, by contrast, is uniform statewide — every county and Baltimore City records through the Clerk of the Circuit Court. RefPages’ County Records directory links to your county’s Clerk of the Circuit Court and SDAT office.
Transfer and recordation tax — two layers, and it varies by county
Maryland charges a state transfer tax of 0.5% of the purchase price, split 50/50 between buyer and seller by default (though this is negotiable in the contract). A qualifying first-time Maryland homebuyer purchasing a primary residence gets a reduced rate of 0.25%, and that reduced amount is paid entirely by the seller under state law.
On top of the state tax, each Maryland county sets its own recordation tax rate — and these vary meaningfully: Baltimore and Howard counties charge $2.50 per $500 of consideration, while Charles and Frederick counties charge $7.00 per $500, for example. Because the combined state-plus-county rate depends heavily on which county you’re buying in, it’s worth confirming the specific local rate rather than assuming a statewide figure.
What sellers have to disclose
Maryland requires the seller of most residential properties (four units or fewer) to give the buyer one of two things under Real Property § 10-702: either a Disclosure Statement, listing defects and other conditions actually known to the seller, or a Disclaimer Statement, where the seller sells “as is” and makes no representations about the property’s condition except for latent defects — meaning hidden defects the seller actually knows about that pose a direct threat to health or safety, which have to be disclosed either way. Most sellers use the standard state form (COMAR 09.11.07.01), and which of the two options a given seller chooses tells you something about how much you can rely on it versus needing your own inspection.
The Maryland-specific risk: ground rent
In parts of Baltimore City — and to a much smaller extent in nearby Baltimore County — a real and still-active leasehold arrangement called ground rent can show up on a property’s title. Under ground rent, the homeowner owns the structure but not the land beneath it: the land is owned separately by a ground-lease holder, and the homeowner pays that holder an annual rent (commonly in the range of $50–$150 a year, usually paid twice annually) under what’s typically a 99-year lease that renews indefinitely. It’s a holdover from 19th- and early-20th-century Baltimore development financing, and it still affects an estimated 35,000–40,000-plus residential properties today, heavily concentrated in row-home neighborhoods built roughly between 1880 and 1970. It’s essentially unheard of elsewhere in Maryland or the rest of the country.
If you’re buying a Baltimore-area rowhouse, your title search should surface whether a ground rent applies. If it does, lenders and buyers generally prefer redemption — paying off the ground lease so it’s extinguished and the title converts to full fee-simple ownership — which SDAT administers through a simplified statewide redemption process and its ground rent registry.
If the property needs work before or after closing
If an inspection turns up something that needs a permit to address, RefPages’ Building Permit Departments directory links to the relevant city or county permitting office.