Land Ownership. More wealth has been created by ownership of land, by average Americans, than by any other investment vehicle. The first decision of whether you need long term strategic planning or shorter term estate planning  is understanding the complexities of your land holdings. Knowledge is power and this is absolutely true when it comes to making a decision regarding your land holdings.

Since land transactions are always long and complex it is important for the land investor to understand the various issues involved in marketing, selling and/ or processing a parcel of land through the development pipeline.  In the Baltimore-Washington suburbs it will take a parcel of land approximately eighteen months to transverse the “minor” subdivision process for three lots or fewer and two to five years to run the gamut that is the “major” subdivision process for a commercial development or a subdivision of four or more units.

We work with you to understand your goals and objectives and then examine all of the development hurdles and options affecting the development of your land.

We can assist you in understanding the little issues that can have an effect on value. Issues such as the agriculture recapture tax. This erroneous, regressive tax penalizes landowners who take their property out of agriculture for the purpose of developing it into a subdivision, business park, retail center or other commercial or industrial use. This tax, paid at the time of settlement, may be upwards of 5% of the recorded sales price. We can show you a number of ways of minimizing the impact of this tax prior to sale.

Should you own your land in your own name, or  via a single purpose entity such as a Limited Liability Company , an S Corporation or a Trust? We can show you the merits and pitfalls of each of these options.

We study your property to determine the various issues that will affect your value and give you our expert opinion as how to best navigate around them.