I relied on a property manager who ended up really messing me up.

Neighborhood selection, property management, tenant risk, and rehab surprises can make or break an investor.

Centralize your back office / use remote employees / VA where appropriate to cut costs and improve service levels / responsiveness.  5.

I do my own property management to keep my expenses low. 

We manage over 85 listings.  

And do you have a certain price range in mind and I assume you're good with up to a moderate level of rehab?

Since you’re in research mode, getting familiar with neighborhood-specific trends will be key, some areas have strong rental demand, while others can be trickier to manage. 

You really need to know what you're doing or have a strong management company in place that does.

A 12-month lease means stable cash flow, fewer turnovers, and minimal involvement, especially if you use a property manager.

Depending on your flavor, this could be good or bad.Connect with a great property manager early on, as many won't work just any property in any part of the City.Being an east coast city, our housing stock is fairly old and unless it's been properly rehabbed, will have typical "old house" maintenance.None of this is meant to discourage you from investing in multi units in Baltimore, but I'd try to set realistic expectations about the market here.TLDR; we have a wide variety of "multi-unit" structures in Baltimore.