I'd still get the house inspected.If you have this personal relationship with the flipper there should not be a reason you capture some equity at closing, even if it is nominal. 

That way my investments are diversified between real estate and equities, and I capture the tax advantages of both the real estate and the retirement accounts. 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/carrabba-o...There is a famous chef in Seattle who owns 32 restaurants.

Fix it up quickly, start living there paying below avg rent for Fells Point, rent out the other bedroom for that ~$1400-$1500 number that you suggested and then live there for 2 years to avoid capital gains tax as a owner-occupant, selling the home for $350K or more capturing ~$35K in profit from appreciation.Our company, Four Twelve Development, works as a contractor in Baltimore City.

Many chefs do that. season it their way and get into trouble and go out of business.

We call it Hatch - as we hope to capture tenants that have outgrown the incubators they are currently working in.  

as long as your not paying any fee's up front other than appraisal and maybe credit report ... sounds fine.. no way a lender can stay in business if they do not capture at least 5k per file no matter the size.fee's and points do not go lower exponentially as the loan amounts drop.so if your payint 12.5 on a 40k loan or 5k... your not going to pay 12.5% or 50k on a 400k loan like Jeff alluded to.. there is simply a minimum to stay in business

I hope your REI investing is going well so far in 2017 and if not I'd be glad to discuss with you how you can improve your game.I have a question however regarding a system for capturing all my incoming leads.

A cage sometimes will help, maybe a camera would help capturing whomever is doing this

The advantage Podio has over say Highrise, Salesforce, Top Performer etc... is the fact that it is basically infinitely customisable from its setup, lead capturing, integrations with other platforms, and automated workflows