Long Foster

Several Baltimore-area homeowners are suing the largest residential real estate team in the state, alleging a "scheme of fraud and misrepresentations" involving home purchases, sales and financing. The suit, a proposed class action, names the Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster and several mortgage firms — including Long & Foster's Prosperity Mortgage Co. — as defendants. A similar lawsuit brought against the Northrop team by a Howard County couple was settled in March.

Karen Gaylord, a sales associate with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.'s Bel Air sales office at 3004 Emmorton Road, Abingdon, has been named top lister and top producer for 2011. A 10-year real estate professional, Gaylord is president of the Harford County Million Dollar Realtor's Association, a board member of the Harford County Association of Realtors and an active member of the Maryland Board of Realtors. Consistently a high achiever since she entered real estate, Gaylord has frequently been cited as a top real estate producer.

Long & Foster Real Estate is holding a food drive to collect donations for Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services. Donations of non-perishable food can be left at the Burtonsville office, 3901 National Drive, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Dec. 16. LARS serves the greater Laurel area by assisting homeless and low-income individuals or families. For more information, contact Lenora Dernoga at 301-221-1700.

After serving as the manager of the Bel Air office of Long and Foster for 22 years, Mick Curtis announced his retirement March 7. While teaching full-time, he started his career as a part time Realtor with H M Dale Realtors on Emmorton Road in the mi-70s and learned the business from, in his words, "a wonderful person and top notch Realtor of the times, Helen Dale. " When times changed in the '80s and the turn to technology began, Curtis moved to Steffey Realtors on Route 924 directly across the street from his present Long and Foster location.

For more than two decades, real estate broker Richard J. Roszel has helped Baltimoreans buy and sell houses in some of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods -- Roland Park, Guilford, Homeland.An ardent preservation advocate, Mr. Roszel is one of the few real estate industry representatives to serve on the city's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation.He is also an officer of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors, and a member of its executive and finance committees.Starting this month, Mr. Roszel brought his expertise on Baltimore's historic houses and upper-end neighborhoods to Long & Foster Realtors, where he recently was named manager of its Roland Park office.

* Long & Foster Real Estate, the largest real estate company in the mid-Atlantic region, reported record October sales of $728 million on 4,479 transactions -- a 25 percent increase over October 1992.The 31 Long & Foster offices in the Baltimore region had $131 million in sales for October, a 16 percent increase; the 16-office Southern Maryland region, $65 million, up 8 percent; the seven-office Washington area, $37 million, up 58 percent.

Long & Foster to give $1,000 scholarships to 125 students Long & Foster Real Estate has increased its scholarship program to $125,000 for high school seniors entering an accredited four-year college or university. The Long & Foster program will award $1,000 to 125 recipients throughout its sales area - Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia - for the 2003-2004 academic year. The scholarship award will be paid directly to the college or university on the student's behalf.

Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. will handle listings for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development properties in Baltimore after acquiring a local realty firm that had received the HUD contract this year. Long & Foster, the largest real estate firm in the mid-Atlantic region, acquired American Dream Home Realty, which is based in the city's Mount Vernon neighborhood. The company did not disclose the value of the deal. American Dream Home's broker/owner, Nicholas Piscatelli, will become an associate broker and assistant vice president for Long & Foster.

Low mortgage rates helped push Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., the mid-Atlantic region's largest real estate company, to its best October ever, with residential sales up nearly 17 percent over October 2000. The Fairfax, Va.-based company sold 7,349 homes last month compared with 6,371 properties sold the previous October. The company reported year-to-date sales volume of $16 billion - an 18 percent rise over a sales volume of $13.6 billion for the corresponding 10-month period last year.

Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. said its November home sales increased 9 percent to $950 million from $872 million in November 1998. Home sales at the company's 29 Baltimore-region offices were up 3 percent to $154 million for the month. The top five Baltimore sales offices were: Annapolis, $16.4 million; Columbia, $14.9 million; Timonium, $11.2 million; Greenspring, $11.1 million; and Bel Air, $9.3 million. Year-to-date sales were up 11 percent to $12.1 billion from $11.3 billion in 1998.

Several Baltimore-area homeowners are suing the largest residential real estate team in the state, alleging a "scheme of fraud and misrepresentations" involving home purchases, sales and financing. The suit, a proposed class action, names the Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster and several mortgage firms — including Long & Foster's Prosperity Mortgage Co. — as defendants. A similar lawsuit brought against the Northrop team by a Howard County couple was settled in March.

Long & Foster Real Estate is holding a food drive to collect donations for Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services. Donations of non-perishable food can be left at the Burtonsville office, 3901 National Drive, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Dec. 16. LARS serves the greater Laurel area by assisting homeless and low-income individuals or families. For more information, contact Lenora Dernoga at 301-221-1700.

Genesee Valley's new board includes Rob Belcher, president of Sealtite Roofing; Shannon Comer, chief architect at Shannon Comer Architects; Steve James, vice president of Keelty Real Estate; Marianne Maranto, educator; John Martindale, CEO of Brothers Service Co.; Scott Magill, principal at Ecotone Inc.; Wilmer Sauerbrey, real estate agent with Long & Foster; Larry Schmidt, attorney and president of...

Long and Foster of Harford County has announced its top producers for recent months. Bel Air Central: Elsie Herbst, vice president and branch manager of the Bel Air Central Office announced Top Sales groups for September - Team: Katie Rash. Top Sales Partners: Jackie Barbieri; Top Sales Individual: Regina Crabb. Top Listing Team: Katie Rash. Top Listing Partners: Jackie Barbieri. Top Listing Individual: Bill Schilling. The new Bel Air Central Office is at 590 Baltimore Pike in Bel Air, phone 410-879-0900.

More homes were sold last month - and for more money on average - than a year earlier in the Baltimore metro area. About 1,100 homes changed hands in January, up almost 9 percent from the previous year, according to numbers released Wednesday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. The average sale price was about $272,000, an increase of just over 2 percent. It's the first time in three years that both sales and average prices were up in the metro area. But it's too soon for home sellers to rejoice.

Acquisitions Phillips Edison & Co., a Baltimore-based retail real estate owner, acquired three shopping centers: Blaine Center in Blaine, Wash.; Creekview Plaza in Price, Utah; and Country Club Center in Rio Rancho, N.M. Standard Auto Parts, headquartered in Southwest Baltimore, acquired Action Auto Supply in Rosedale and Parkville and Belvedere Auto Parts in Baltimore, giving the company five locations. Alliances Fox Residential Auctions LLC and Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. have expanded their alliance to provide auction services to Long & Foster's Southern Maryland region.

Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. reported that 2000 was the best year in company history, with sales of $15.5 billion, a 17 percent increase over 1999. The Fairfax, Va.-based company, fourth-largest in the nation, said it sold 79,203 properties in the mid-Atlantic region. "It was an exceptional year for the real estate industry," said P. Wesley Foster Jr., president of Long & Foster. "Real estate brokerage firms have never before experienced a market condition marked by such high activity and scarcity of inventory."

Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.'s Fast Start training course has received collegiate approval for two undergraduate elective transfer credits to people who complete the course work. Fast Start is one of the courses in Long & Foster's career development program. The course, which is for new agents, includes about 60 hours of instruction in real estate law, market development, ethics, sales and contracts, as well as negotiating, finance and marketing. Long & Foster, the fourth-largest real estate firm in the country, said it is the only real estate company to have a new-agent training program that grants students college-transferable credits.

Before it fell into disrepair, at the end of a dead-end street in a neighborhood on the brink of demolition, the townhouse at 137 W. Lee St. had for more than 200 years housed a broad range of people. An aide to George Washington lived there during the early years, records say. It became a boardinghouse in 1870, and 22 people set up camp in its four bedrooms at one time. And in 1978, an accountant bought the then-dilapidated four-story structure from the city for $1 and a promise to restore its grandeur.

Baltimore area home prices leaped more than 20 percent in June for the third month in a row, extending a real-estate boom unlike any seen before by local Realtors. The average buyer agreed to pay about $262,600 for a home last month, a 20.2 percent increase over June of last year, according to numbers released yesterday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. Even with nearly 900 more properties to choose from, buyers snatched up homes faster than a year earlier: The average house sat on the market 38 days, compared with 48 days the previous June.