Homes for sale in Annapolis
Congratulations Russell & Barbara! Your home in the Saltaire community of Annapolis is now under contract.
Do you or someone you know need help selling their home in the greater Annapolis area? Call me -- I'll be glad to help! (443) 924-7418.
Eastport homes for sale
Congratulations Tony and Anja on the sale of your home in Eastport. It was a pleasure working with you!
If you or someone you know needs help selling or purchasing a home in the greater Annapolis area, contact me today (443) 924-7418!
Jerry Kline Wins Agent of the Month
Many thanks to my buyer and seller clients who closed their real estate transactions last month — among them Tony & Anja Bonacci, James Pyle, Ashley Marsh, and Chris Jaus. All of you could have chosen any real estate agent out there, and I very much appreciate the trust you put in me to get your goals accomplished. It was great working with you! Thanks, also, to all of the agents in the Keller Williams Odenton office. You’re always there to help!
JUST LISTED by Jerry Kline of Keller Williams Flagship of Maryland -- 710 Crawfords Knoll Ct. Odenton, Maryland (MLS#AA8677052 -- $435,000).
This 18-month-old, single-family gem looks new, smells new and feels new!
It's the first re-sale in the new-construction community of Crawfords Knoll, just down the street from Odenton's Piney Orchard and Chapel Grove neighborhoods.
The home features a stone front, 9-foot ceilings, a gourmet kitchen, four large bedrooms and a spacious family room on lower level.
Luxury abounds in the spa-styled super bath in the master suite.
The home also backs to trees and features a good-sized yard for that vegetable garden you wanted.
The home is nestled in an ideal location, five minutes from Fort Meade/NSA, the MARC commuter rail station in Odenton, and shopping and restaurants at Waugh Chapel Town Center. It's also directly adjacent to walking and biking trails. Best of all, since the home is so young, it includes the remainder of the 10-yr. builder's warranty!
Call me today for a private showing (443) 924-7418!
Need help with the Piney Orchard rental market? The Piney Orchard rental market is blistering hot at the moment!
Jerry Kline, realtor with Keller Williams Flagship of Maryland, just helped a local property owner rent 2474 Ivy Landing Way in Odenton, Maryland, for $2,000 per month.
As a landlord, are you charging enough rent?
As a renter, are all your target properties snapped up before you can get there?
As an investor, have you thought of purchasing a solid asset to help limit your exposure to income taxes?
With more than 10 years experience as a realtor and investment property owner in the Piney Orchard area, I can help! Give me a call for some free advice. (443) 924-7418.
This charming 2-level condo in the Annapolis community of Saltaire has a warm townhouse feel. It features great updates & a peaceful location.
It includes all-new carpet throughout, upgraded windows & quality built-in bookcases in the living room & master bedroom. There's also a fireplace with a pellet stove & California Closets in all closets.
The front of the home looks out over a conservation easement.
There's a tranquil rear yard, too, with fence, shed & concrete patio. The community features lots of off-street parking & a pool. The home is close to Rt. 50, shopping & schools. Call me today for a showing! (MLS#AA8646534)
Jerry Kline is a Realtor with the Odenton, Md., office of Keller Williams Flagship Realty (1216 Annapolis Rd., Odenton.) For more information on the local real estate market, contact him at (443) 924-7418, or visit his website (www.JerryKline.kwrealty.com).
Congratulations, Jim Blackstock, on the sale of your parents’ home in Odenton. Clyde and Fumiko Blackstock lived in their charming Odenton rancher for more than 40 years. When they recently passed away, their son, Jim, contacted me to sell the home to help settle the estate.
With Jim living in Oklahoma, he needed eyes and ears on the ground here in Maryland – and help coordinating all aspects of the sale. After 9 days on the market and multiple bids, we found a buyer for the Blackstocks’ lovingly cared-for home, allowing Jim to focus on the more important tasks of settling his parents’ estate.
If you or someone you know needs assistance with a real estate transaction involving a family member – or with any transaction in the greater Anne Arundel County Maryland area – contact me today at (443) 924-7418. I’m here to help you any way I can!
Looking for a great 5/6-bedroom colonial in Calvert County/southern Anne Arundel County? This home, located in the popular Richfield Station neighborhood, has 3 finished levels and is priced at $414,000.
Adjacent to deep forest, just step out the back door to hike in the woods or on the nearby bike/jogging trail leading to marsh lands and the scenic bay-front town of Chesapeake Beach. The home has an open floor plan with a large kitchen, hardwood floors, a 2-story foyer, and a cathedral ceiling in the owner’s bedroom suite. Contact me for more info!
(2424 Woodland Ct. Chesapeake Beach, MD. MLS# CA8651150; $414,000)
Tangie & Keith Roberson were tired of throwing away money on rent. So they contacted Jerry Kline, realtor with Keller Williams Flagship of Maryland. Jerry helped them take advantage of their VA mortgage entitlement, and the Robersons purchased a large, beautiful colonial near Fort Meade, Maryland, at a bargain price. They and their dogs love the new home, with its roominess, fenced backyard and quiet location.
If you or someone you know needs help buying or selling a home in the greater Fort Meade or Annapolis areas, contact Jerry Kline (443-924-7418) with Keller Williams Flagship of Maryland today!
Maryland Communities Like Annapolis, Greenbelt & Laurel Offer Both
Take a look at the three photos above.
From the property line, 3 Eastway Road #A in Greenbelt, Maryland, looks like a typical white, brick cottage.
The second, 3433 Lindenwood Drive in Laurel, Maryland, looks like a run-of-the-mill townhouse.
And the third, 7101 Bay Front Drive #207, is a snappy, two-bedroom unit in a luxury resort.
Despite their dramatically different appearances, however, these three properties share one important trait. All are what’s known as “co-ops.”
Whether or not a property qualifies as a co-op has nothing to do with the unit’s size, floor plan, exterior or any other physical factor. A property is a co-op because ofthe way it’s owned.
Cooperatives as a form of homeownership differ greatly from the more traditional “fee simple” or “condominium” properties. What exactly are co-ops and what are the advantages and disadvantages of owning one?
Forms of Homeownership
The fee simple form of property ownership grants the highest interest a person can have in real estate. With fee simple, the owner is entitled to all of the rights of the property.
Condominium ownership, on the other hand, provides the owner title to an individual unit, plus an undivided interest in the ownership of the common areas associated with the unit.
Co-ops, a third form of ownership, are different from both. In fact, many home buyers are surprised to learn that co-op owners do not actually own the units they live in. Instead, a corporation owns the units.
When a buyer buys into a co-op, they're actually purchasing shares of stock in the corporation that owns the units. A co-op member receives a proprietary lease to a unit that entitles him or her to occupy it. Co-op owners do not, however, receive conventional deeds.
The leases granted to co-op owners are valid for the life of the corporation. Through their control of the corporation, shareholders of the co-op control the properties.
Co-ops: Factors to Focus On
One important factor to consider when purchasing a co-op is how shares of the corporation may be transferred to new owners. These rules differ, depending on the co-op at issue.
Another key factor to consider is that, even when a buyer submits a satisfactory bid for the property, the co-op board controlling the unit must approve the buyer as the purchaser. In practice, co-op boards sometimes reject buyers. Most boards are not required to give a reason why.
There's a famous story about how Richard Nixon, after his presidency, sought to buy into a swanky New York City co-op. The co-op board rejected him, however, citing a fear of Nixon’s notoriety. If Nixon could be rejected by a co-op board, anyone probably can.
Co-op Boards Focus on Buyer Finances
One thing that most co-op boards will do when weighing a purchase offer is to dig deeply into the buyer’s finances. Some boards will require the buyer to use a certain lender for the purchase, and some boards will require that the buyer put down a certain percentage of the purchase price -- sometimes 10 percent or even more.
Co-ops pay a lot of attention to buyer finances for an important reason: If the buyer defaults on the purchase – or the buyer experiences another sort of financial setback -- the other members of the co-op can suffer from those problems.
Condo associations have the authority to place a lien on one of their member properties if a condo owner fails to make their monthly condo payments or pay the special assessments levied by the association. That's the condo association's method for recouping the lost funds. This practice protects the fellow condo owners from having to cover the missing payments of a deadbeat owner.
Co-ops do not work this way. Because co-ops cannot place liens, each shareholder is directly affected by the financial ability of the others to pay.
Thus, if one member of a co-op cannot pay his or her monthly fees or other assessments, the remaining co-op members may have to make good on those debts of the deadbeat owner. This is a risky proposition for some co-op buyers, particularly when the co-op they’re targeting is located in an area where there are lots of distressed properties, like REOs, foreclosures and short sales.
Other Factors Buyers Should Consider
There are other factors to consider when purchasing a co-op. For example, when a member resells his/her unit, some co-ops require the member to sell the stock back to the corporation at the original price they purchased it. This means that it’s the corporation that realizes any profits when the shares are re-sold, not the co-op seller. In contrast, with condos and fee simple properties, the property owner receives any profits (or losses).
Another factor to consider is the monthly fee that co-op members are required to pay. These fees can be considerably greater than the fees charged by homeowner associations and condo associations for similar types of units.
With 3 Eastway Rd. #A, above, for example, the monthly co-op fee is $445. Given that the property sold for $98,500, that fee is relatively high. And, of course, it is not tax deductible.
Still, the $445 monthly fee for Eastway Road is only a drop in the bucket compared to what some co-ops charge. At the ultra-swanky Chesapeake Bay-front co-op at 7101 Bayfront Drive in Annapolis, for instance, the co-op fee for the two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit is – gulp! -- $3,932 per month. This property includes every imaginable amenity, however, including water views, a pool, a fitness center, maid service, one meal a day and more.
When weighing monthly fees, co-op buyers should keep in mind that the benefits of buying real estate include the tax deductions that owners can claim. In this respect, homebuyers who pay high HOA/condo/co-op fees may not be maximizing their investment potential.
Advantages of Owning a Co-op
There are several advantages to owning co-ops, however, and co-ops are very popular in certain areas of the country.
Mortgage companies usually view co-op shares as collateral for obtaining the financing needed to purchase. Plus, a co-op owner has more control over their property than a renter would.
Co-op owners do not have to perform their own maintenance. And, for income tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service does recognize the deductibility of mortgage interest, property taxes and home seller’s tax exclusions for co-op owners.
In summary, buyers need to do extra research when weighing whether to purchase co-ops. Many realtors are not familiar with these types of properties, and there are many potential complications that can arise.
Jerry Kline is a Realtor with the Odenton, Md., office of Keller Williams Flagship Realty (1216 Annapolis Rd., Odenton.) For more information on the local real estate market, contact him at (443) 924-7418
