I've found at least 5-6 around Baltimore that really look promising and I guess I'm just wondering if I'm missing something with these properties that make them bad deals...how often do you tend to find a deal in the area that you think is a worthwhile investment?

Here in FLorida, in the 2010-2015, I sold almost exclusively SF investor homes (about 200 of them, to investors from Cali, and abroad), and as values rose, and ROI's dropped, I found the natural progression was toward multi, to get worthwhile returns for my clients. 

We've been looking at duplexes as well, but given our price range (up to around 100k) I don't think the potential properties would be a worthwhile investment.

Jay, what kind of margins must you have on those new construction builds to make it worthwhile?

The added advantage of working downtown and not paying inflated rent by living in my investment may make it worthwhile to me.

As a rental you will need to push rents to $1300 otherwise it is not a worth while investment. 

I initially was interested in house hacking, in the Bronx, NY where I currently reside but potential ROI is currently not worthwhile.

Dead equity is only saving the cost of a mortgage at 5% and is not a worthwhile investment.

With a value of $240K and rent at only $1500 this is not a worth while rental investment.

My feeling is that if you're in this business one worthwhile strategy is to find and define your market and then become a local expert.