Around Maryland

Buying or selling real estate is perhaps the most complex transaction you’ll ever make. That’s the cautionary adage some Maryland realtors tell prospective buyers and sellers. Hire us, they say, and we’ll advocate for you until the keys change hands. How agents are compensated for that time and effort is the central focus of several changes coming Saturday to the National Association of Realtors.

With a new chief of security for schools and the beginning of classes a week away, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Taylor is slated to introduce several new safety and security changes for the district at Tuesday’s county school board meeting, according to board documents. The scheduled update included in Tuesday’s meeting agenda follows Taylor’s comments at an Aug. 7 press briefing where he said the district had work to do when addressing safety.

Earlier this year, the Hagerstown City Council voted to annex two properties near the Interstate 70 interchange on the Sharpsburg Pike south of town. Now there's a dispute in the Washington County Circuit Court between the city government and the county government over whether one of those annexations was conducted legally.

A heads up for people who live in the Camp Springs area of southern Prince George’s County. WSCC Water is asking customers to limit their water usage to help avoid a Boil Water Advisory and preserve water in case of a fire. WSCC says crews are currently working to restore water flow to the Camp Springs water tank. The advisory impacts nearly 1,400 customers.

Just weeks before Pimlico Race Course closes all public-facing activity, fans and friends were invited to gather for a special appreciation day as Maryland horse racing takes the first steps of an industry transition. Pimlico will cease training, wagering and all “customer facing activities” at the end of the month, as the racetrack’s new owner — the state of Maryland — prepares an overhaul of the facilities.

For more than a century, when someone wanted to buy a home all they had to do was walk into a real estate office and ask the agent to start showing them properties. That agent was paid by the seller if a deal ever went through. All that changed Saturday. As part the settlement of a lawsuit brought by home sellers, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed that sellers’ agents will no longer share the commission with buyers’ agents for a successful sale. Now, buyers have to agree upfront to pay their agents independent of the seller.

Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) loves the Chesapeake Bay, but she continues to make sure her General Assembly colleagues and the public don’t forget about the state’s five coastal bays. Carozza made that case last month when state officials unveiled new license plates that called for protecting the Chesapeake and as well as the coastal bays. She did it again Thursday, during this week’s Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City, when she took three of her Senate colleagues on a tour of one of those bays between Ocean City and the mainland.