The Maryland records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: The seller must complete and deliver either a disclosure statement or a disclaimer statement on the Real Estate Commission's form; even when disclaiming, the seller must reveal latent defects they actually know of that a buyer could not find by careful visual inspection and that directly threaten health or safety.
Maryland sellers give you one combined form on which they either disclose the property's condition or formally disclaim all representations and sell as-is, and many choose the disclaimer. Even on a disclaimer, a seller must flag known latent defects that pose a direct threat to health or safety. If you get a disclaimer, treat the form as no information at all and rely on your inspection.
Sources: dat.maryland.gov · dat.maryland.gov · mgaleg.maryland.gov · insurance.maryland.gov · dpscs.maryland.gov · law.justia.com
Buying does not reset your taxable value to the purchase price; SDAT reassesses on a three-year group cycle and phases increases in over three years. Your bill can still outrun the seller's if the home's taxable assessment was capped by a Homestead Credit you have not applied for yourself.
Homestead: Maryland's Homestead Tax Credit is not an exemption but a cap: it limits how fast the taxable assessment on your principal residence can rise each year (10% under state law, lower in many counties), but you must file a one-time application with SDAT and be approved, or the cap does not protect you.
Maryland Sex Offender Registry is run by Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS). Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
Open the official Maryland registry
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Maryland also republishes the official flood data through Maryland DFIRM Flood Maps (Maryland Department of the Environment) — a second official look at the same FEMA determinations.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
The credit that capped the seller's taxable assessment growth does not transfer; a new owner must submit the one-time Homestead application to SDAT and qualify, or the taxable assessment can rise to the full phased-in value uncapped.
Maryland's dedicated flood-risk disclosure form (HB 200, 2026 session) becomes mandatory only from July 1, 2027; before then a seller using a disclaimer may tell you nothing about flood history, so check the FEMA map and the Maryland iMAP floodplain layer yourself.
What the Maryland disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official Maryland registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Sourced registry counts and FBI-reported county crime for 12 ZIP codes in Maryland — the registry figure is each ZIP’s own; the crime record is its county’s, labeled as such. Every figure dated.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview