Baltimore City Investment Property Help

[Natasha Graves]

Since the end of May I've been looking with my agent for a good property to flip in Baltimore City and as we all know the market is nothing short of crazy. Any property I had my eye on either was under contract by the time the sellers agent got back or was priced too high for hard money lenders to want to touch. I'm looking for agents that have off-market deals and advice on how to best leverage my cash for a flip in this market. I would also like advice from anyone that doesn't have deep pockets and can't househack on how to purchase my first rental property and maximize the potential to purchase another property within 6 months to a year. (I'm obviously option to all options for investing.)

For context, I currently own and rent rooms in my home in PG county off the border of DC so house hacking currently isn't a true option for me (took advantage of first-time home buying programs so I have to wait a couple of years). My options for financing are to use hard money at a max of $25k down or apply for a HELOC since the value of homes in my neighborhood have gone up pretty high. Best case scenario that would allow or an additional $35k in cash on hand.