Baltimore Maryland - Yes or No?

[Lamont Marable]

So we all know that Baltimore City certain areas are cheap. I have a simple question, should I invest there? I was looking at a TH, 3br, 1 bath for $17k.

I was planning to rehab it and do a buy and hold with it. Try to get qualified with section 8 and give them a nice home to live in. I went on gosection8.com and there were 1000s of vacant homes looking for tenants.

Are there more rental properties than renters in Baltimore? I truly don’t want to invest in an area where it’s impossible to get a tenant. Please advise.

Thanks.

[Sherman Ragland]

@Lamont Marable - cut my teeth in Baltimore over 15 years ago after getting started in Capitol Heights. Best deal ever was $120,000 on one 3/2 townhouse near Hopkins Unuversity, also lost money too...

Here are my five rules for buy/hold in Baltimore (especially) if you’re coming from the DC market...

Rule #1 Baltimore is NOT D.C.

Rule #2 Don’t forget rule #1

Rule #3 Everything walking distance to the water is gold. Note actual walking. If you can see it, but are too afraid to walk through the neighborhood to get to it, it’s not “walking distance”

Rule #4 If it’s not walking distance to water, it needs to be walking distance to an anchoring institution.  In Baltimore City, the things that keep neighborhoods from falling apart are major employers like Hopkins (Hospital and Unjversity), MICA, Mercy, Stratford etc. they have sweetheart deals with the city, whereby they keep on expanding their footprint and improving the neighborhoods where they’re located.  These are the major employers and catalyst for positive change in their neighborhoods.

Rule #5 If you can’t be near the water, or near an anchoring institution... leave it alone.

Even with these five rules, basic real estate common sense still needs to be applied.

Sherman

P.s. I’m building a 22 unit apartment in Konestown and in negotiations to do a 120 room hotel downtown so I’m in Baltimore a couple of t8mes a week. Happy to show you around...