Transactional Funding in Washington DC

It depends on which side of the line the property sits, and this is the single most consequential difference in the metro for a repeat wholesaler. Virginia has already answered this, and the answer is yes past a threshold: VA Code 54.1-2100 folds a person who deals in real estate contracts, including assignable contracts, on two or more occasions in any 12-month period, into the definition of a real estate broker. That covers Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax alike. Maryland's HB 124 (2025) is a different kind of law entirely: it requires disclosure of an assignment on residential property and gives the seller or assignee a rescission right, but it did not create a wholesaler license, whatever a blog post says. The District is the wild card: no DC statute or DC Real Estate Commission guidance on wholesaling has been located, so no page, including this one, can tell you whether DC requires a license in either direction. A wholesaler working all three sides of this metro is under three different rules within about fifteen miles. Talk to counsel licensed in the specific jurisdiction before your second Virginia assignment in a rolling year, and before any District deal.

Genuinely different money, and the gap is worth building into your assignment fee. The District taxes a deed at 1.1% recordation plus 1.1% transfer for residential consideration under $400,000, or 1.45% plus 1.45% (2.9% combined) at or above that and on all commercial or mixed-use property; on a $700,000 leg that is $20,300 in combined recordation and transfer tax alone, before any lender fee. Virginia is by far the lowest-cost of the three to close in: the state recordation tax is 25 cents per $100, the local recordation tax is one-third of that, the grantor tax is 50 cents per $500 (0.10%), and a 0.10% regional WMATA capital fee applies in NVTA member jurisdictions, which Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax are understood to be. Run the arithmetic per deal rather than quoting a single blended Virginia percentage, since the local one-third and any city-level add-ons are not fully sourced here.

Yes, and it is specific to Prince George's County. Most jurisdictions in this metro only tax the deed itself, but Prince George's County's transfer tax ordinance defines 'instrument of writing' to expressly include deeds of trust and mortgages, not just deeds, at a rate of 1.4%. Purchase money mortgages and purchase money deeds of trust recorded at the same time as the conveying deed are excluded, but a non-purchase-money deed of trust, the kind that shows up on a refinance, a cash-out, or a second-position loan used to bridge a Hyattsville deal, can itself attract that 1.4% tax. Montgomery County's recordation tax runs on a different, tiered structure entirely, and Virginia has no equivalent rule at all. If your Prince George's County structure uses anything other than a same-time purchase money deed of trust, verify the treatment with the county before you quote a closing cost to your end buyer.

No, and this is the reason a District deal needs its own read before you contract around a same-day close. DC's Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) gives a tenant a right of first refusal before an owner can sell a housing accommodation. The RENTAL Act, effective December 31, 2025, exempted most owner-held buildings of 2 to 4 units from the Offer of Sale requirement, along with buildings that received a certificate of occupancy in the prior 15 years, but that exemption fails for an owner who holds multiple District properties through entities. Foreclosure sales stay outside the Offer of Sale process but now require a Notice of Transfer. Maryland and Virginia have no TOPA analogue located in this research; Montgomery County's own multifamily right-of-first-refusal regime was not researched either, so a Montgomery multifamily deal should not be assumed clear just because it is outside the District.

No, and Virginia's is the cleanest of the three by a wide margin. Virginia's carve-out, VA Code 6.2-317, applies to any loan of $5,000 or more for business or investment purposes, with no entity requirement and no collateral requirement, so effectively every USA Mortgage Virginia loan clears it outright. Maryland's carve-out only removes the rate ceiling once a commercial loan secured by residential real property exceeds $75,000; below that threshold in Montgomery or Prince George's County, the layered statutory ceilings still apply and the loan needs counsel before pricing. DC's business and investment-purpose exemption from its 24% ceiling exists, but this research grades the exact dollar thresholds MEDIUM and they should be re-verified against the statute before anyone quotes a number. Structure a District or Maryland assignment with that threshold in mind; a Virginia assignment rarely needs to think about it at all.

You are not stuck with a stalled deal in any of the three jurisdictions. Our fix and flip loan funds up to 90% of the purchase price and up to 100% of the rehab budget, capped to ARV, so you can renovate and resell instead of carrying the property on the hook. Carry costs differ sharply by jurisdiction if the property sits vacant: a District property taxed as Class 1A residential runs $0.85 per $100 of assessed value, but one that lands on the vacant-buildings list is taxed as Class 3 at $5.00 per $100, an increase an active building permit application only defers for half a tax year. Maryland and Virginia have no comparable vacant-property tax class documented in this research. Line up your fallback financing before your closing date, not after, and structure it on the jurisdiction the property is actually in.

Not for the purchase itself. We fund the A-to-B leg up to 100% of the purchase price, priced as a flat fee, with a simultaneous close measured in days rather than weeks. What you still carry is the jurisdiction's own cost of closing, and it is not close to even: a $700,000 District leg runs $20,300 in combined recordation and transfer tax, while Virginia's state recordation tax is 25 cents per $100. Price that into your assignment fee before you contract. Subject to underwriting.

No. There is no credit check and no appraisal on this program at all, so there is no score to price off. Pricing is a flat fee rather than a rate, and the money is only in the deal for the A-to-B leg, which is why the term runs in days. What actually decides a Washington DC file is the jurisdiction: Virginia folds a repeat assignor into its broker definition at the second assignment in twelve months, and a tenanted District property can carry a right of first refusal that a same-day close cannot route around. Subject to underwriting.