@Mathward Howard.

As far as best schools, bang for your buck, and crime rates, I would put Howard County at the top of the list.

Quote from @Matt Howard: Quote from @Jay Ag: Closing on my first MFH with an FHA and just got the closing docs.

Pampa and Borger are two towns now too terrible far away, but little bigger l and oil driven towns, but you can regularly find 2/1 houses for under $20k that obviously need some work but that’s just the going rate, so me personally I’d put Howard wick a notch below that, the flip side to that is, there’s not much available there so you might list it and have someone day 1 wanting it, it’s just such a small market who knows.

I have 2 single families in Baltimore County and 2 in Howard County where the cash flow is great and wanted to expand to multi families or even a small apartment building.  

Hey @Marc Howard - thanks for the reply!

Howard Marks details this in his wonderful book Mastering the Market Cycle.

@Marc Howard provided some good commentary. 

Do you have any specific counties (Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George)? 

You generally should work with someone that will analyze each scenario and see which one is more advantageous or preferable in light of your future expected use as noted by @Marc Howard.