What it comes down to for me is that I think Baltimore is an incredibly vibrant and interesting city today.

Account Closed is also correct in that it has the flavor of a one property REIT.  

This area has a pretty vibrant investor community with lots of meet ups to network.

If you look at the large vibrant cities, this is a common problem- Manhattan's median apartment price is about $1,200,000, and the median rental rate is about $50k/yr(culled from various sources.)

Any advice out there for a newbie on how to buy properties at the lowest price and how to secure financing would be greatly appreciated.Finally, I'm really excited to be part of such a vibrant community of real estate minded people.

Excellent opportunity to purchase vibrant mixed use property in bustling part of town and only .3 miles away from Route 2!

We also do deals together and are a sounding board for each other for business advice.If you want to get a flavor of the local market, I would suggest attending local meetups and REIAs.

Many people eat for flavor, not too many eat for fuel.

I have also used esri to get a flavor of the tenant base and or even run local rental ads for more feel.

Real Estate can be boring to some so I try to add some flavor whenever possible.