Hello all, I live in Portland, OR and have my eyes on Aberdeen, WA for some smaller single family investing. I would like to visit the market and am looking to connect with some people who know the market. Initially I...

History: Offer was accepted on 10/5/17, contacted the mortgage brokers who gave me a pre-approval, they gave me 2 one for conventional and one for FHA, was told FHA would be a better option.

I had a lead contact me this morning and she is interested in selling her property but the problem is she has two liens and an outstanding loan balance of about 58,000 dollars.

It will give you the mailing address & contact the tax bill goes to. 

Several hours later she contacted me to pay rent...

I was in contact with them prior and was hesitant given some of the issues you noted before. 

I had a lead contact me this morning and she is interested in selling her property but the problem is she has two liens and an outstanding loan balance of about 58,000 dollars.

But for future references, my suggestion would be to contact some reputable property management companies in your local area, and see what they'll tell you about the crime clean up company(s) they've used. 

I've decided to try and make contact with some the HOA board members and try to get a feel on the matter.

Thanks for the Baltimore data.To answer your question, the reason I'm debating between theses markets is because I live abroad and the most important thing for me in choosing a market is the people I can work with on the ground.I have family in Atlanta that can help me and I really think it's a good and stable market, my only problem with it is that the prices are a bit high for me and I'll probably need to do an all cash deal for my first property (problematic to get funding for an out of country investor).For Detroit and Baltimore I have a few contacts referred to me by people I trust that can help me get the work done on the ground.