Who is ACPT?

In short ACPT is the developer responsible for developing the Saint Charles Region of Waldorf.  They own a ton of land in the region, and have been involved in the area for decades.  They developed multiple neighborhoods and shopping districts, including the mall, subdivisions such as Carrington, Hampshire, Dorchester, Lancaster, Wakefield, Bannister, Fairway Village, and even the land that the Blue Crabs Stadium now rests on was part of ACPT’s development holdings.

Why Does This Matter?

ACPT has been building in Charles County since 1968, and in that time, they’ve built over 12,000 residences and more than 230,000 square feet of commercial space.  They still own more than 4,000 acres of undeveloped land and have county approval to build an additional 11,000 dwellings and 5 million square feet of commercial space.  Needless to say, ACPT is the biggest developer operating in Charles County, and has been for some time.  The new owners say they do not plan any major changes, but this deal turns ACPT into a private company, one that does not need to answer to shareholders.  It allows them greater freedom to operate with less people to question their decisions.

Is This Good For Charles County?

Only time will tell how this is going to impact local residents.  Without shareholders restricting company actions, ACPT may find itself able to operate more efficently, lower costs, and improve the quality of the county through it’s future growth.

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
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What Is a Property Tax Assessment?

In short, a tax assessment is the approximate value of your home, according to the government, used for taxation purposes.  It is NOT an appraisal, nor is it an estimate of the sales value of your home.  Homes are assessed every three years by the government, and then annual adjustments are made based on average value changes each year.

How it Works:

When you look at your property tax bill, the amount of tax you pay is based off of this assessed value.  For homes that were just re-assessed, the last assessment was in 2006, so almost all of these homes have been taxed at an assessed value that was higher than the home was actually worth.  In Charles County, just over 18,000 homes were re-assessed, and all but 6 of them had a decrease in value!

The county tax rate for residential property is $1.026 per $100 of assessed value.  This means that for a home valued at $300,000, the tax bill should be $3,780.  The average value drop on this round of assessments for Charles County was 28.2%.  That means that if a home was previously assessed at $300,000, the new assessment would, on average, place it near a value of $215,400.  The tax bill would then drop from $3,780 to $2,714, a savings of $1,066 on the annual tax bill!

Not All Good News

While the benefit of saving $1,000 or more on your tax bill is obvious, this isn’t exactly a rosy picture for residents.  You see, all that money collected from property taxes is used by the government to keep the state running.  In total, Maryland is losing $1.7 billion dollars in tax revenues from this current re-assessment, and we as residents are going to feel it as everything from school budgets to local outreach programs are scaled back or eliminated to cope with the loss of revenue.

Keep your eyes out for a post later this week about the Homestead Tax Credit, which allows owners to cap the annual value increase on their tax assessments at a maximum of 7%!

Link:  Maryland Independent Article: Property Assessments Plummet

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

The Gaylord hotel at the National Harbor in Fort Washington, MD has gone all out for the holiday season!

What Is ICE?

As part of the festivities, 40 Chinese artisans were brought in to hand carve thousands of blocks of ice, turning a 15,000 square foot tent into a winter wonderland!

(View Photos from ICE! here)

It’s Cold in There!

The tent is kept at a constant 9 degrees, and heavy winter coats are handed out to visitors in order to keep warm while visiting the indoor ice palace.

How Much is Admission?

Monday-Thursday before 4 p.m., adults $19.99, after 4 p.m. and Friday-Sunday all day, adults $24.50. Seniors $18; kids ages 4-12 $13; kids younger than 4 free.  The sculptures will be on display until January 10th, so don’t miss out!

Don’t forget that through Jan. 3, the Gaylord atrium has a 60-foot glass Christmas tree is lighted every night at 6. (Friday’s lighting will also include fireworks in the harbor!.)

Ice skating is also offered through Jan. 10 for $8 at a rink next to the ice tent.

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

Give me a call to set up your appointment, and feel free to look over the property details below!

Link:  Listing on Realtor.com

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

According to the article, the U.S.
unemployment rate is 9.8 percent; Maryland’s is 7.2 percent; and Charles’s
is 5.9 percent!!!  In addition to this news, rising homes sales, and a continuing influx of new jobs, Charles County is becoming a much more popular place to be!  Also, if you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in the area, I know a FANTASTIC Realtor, LOL!!!  

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9pDkekZ6E4]

This Beautiful home with loads of upgrades is located right in
Waldorf! Large kitchen, and gorgeous family room! It’s Located in White Oak Village subdivision and move in ready! The
Open floor plan makes this home feel large and inviting. Beautiful
private deck with Large fenced back yard. and playset for the kids!
Don’t miss your chance to see this fantastic property!

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
301-653-8116

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

Unfortunately, that sort of approach makes it difficult for your home to been seen by potential buyers.  The more marketing you agent does, the better chance it has of selling, right?  Every bit of exposure is one step closer to finding the buyer for your home!

Here’s an example of some of the things we do to get our homes sold quickly:

Professional photography
No point-and-shoot cameras, we hire professionals to take gorgeous hi-res HD shots of our homes!  Better photos increase the chance of people taking a closer look at your home when they see it online!

Online Video Marketing
“virtual tours” are dead.  People want to see something more engaging, and video is it!  We take video tours, combine them with high resolution photos, and add text descriptions to generate buzz and give people more incentive to call their agent and make an appointment to see your home!  Here’s an Example:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNPLcwBaho]

Listing Syndication and Featured Advertising
Most Realtors don’t “Get It” when it comes to online marketing. the MLS isn’t enough!  We syndicate our listings to over 45+ websites and pay for tons of Featured ads to get you seen first!  If there are 50 homes comparable to yours on the market, our job is to make sure that your home is on the top of their list when people are searching the internet.

Aggressive Direct Marketing
This includes open houses, direct mailers, flyers, signs, trade shows, home book advertisments, fairs, blogging, direct email marketing and more all designed to get YOUR HOUSE sold!  Direct Marketing has long been the staple of real estate advertising.  It still gets business done, but not as efficently as it once did.

If you’re thinking about putting your house on the market, give us a call for a free Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) and a demonstration of how our marketing strategy will get your home sold quickly!

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
301-653-8116

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

Is the Real Estate Market in Charles County and Waldorf finally turning around?

It’s been a long time since we saw good news in the real estate market.  In the last few years we’ve seen that home values have dropped, sales slowed to a near standstill, and foreclosure rates skyrocketed.  The good news is that national sales trends have picked up recently, and it looks like we may have finally hit the bottom of the real estate market downturn.  According to a report released on August 26th, 2009, new home sales are up 9.6% in July, and up 30% from the beginning of the year.  All of that is fine and well, but what about the local market?

The best way to look at sales trends is at the local level! If we take a look at current sales in Carrington, we can see that as of August 26th, there are 60 homes currently for sale.  of those 60, 21 are under contract!!  The national average for inventory volume is between 5-6 months, but the inventory volume for Carrington is just under 3 months!  This is excellent news for homeowners in the neighborhood!

It’s great to see sales up, but what about prices? Unfortunately, you’re not going to find that prices have risen back to the levels we saw 5 years ago.  Listing prices for homes that are UNDER CONTRACT range from a high of $299,900 to a low of $139,999.

Homes that are currently active on the market range in price from $299,995 to $145,900.  A quick look at recent sales shows a range in value from $279,000 to $126,500.  Want to know how your home compares?  Give me a call at (301)-653-8116 and request a free Market Analysis for your home!

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

I get multiple calls each and every day regarding the program, and unfortunately not everybody found out about the program in time. I get at least one call per day from somebody who has just purchased a foreclosure in PG County and didn’t find out about the program until after settlement. Inevitably, the conversation goes something like this:

New Home Owner:    I didn’t find out about the program until after I closed on the house, can I still take advantage of the program?

Me:    That’s not a question I can answer.  All I can say is that I am telling all of my PG County clients about the program.  My best suggestion would be to call your Realtor directly and ask them.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of any way to take advantage of the program if you’ve already purchased, but I know plenty of people who would like to!  This situation (unfortunately) teaches a very important lesson when it comes to real estate.  Not all agents are equal, and choosing the wrong agent is costing people up to $20,000 in PG County!!!

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNPLcwBaho]

The price is only $285,000, and there’s no HOA to worry about!  Don’t miss out on your chance to see this great home!  This home needs absolutely nothing!  Give us a call to schedule a viewing of your new home!

~Jonathan Benya- Realtor
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000 – office
301-653-8116 – cell

Charles County Real Estate Blog
SOMD Home Search
Southern Maryland Custom Homes & Land