If I ever did spend several minutes of my usually way too short time reading ANY of this genre of "Top whatever # of cities (or states, countries, etc) that are good/bad/declining/rising" that often pop up, I wouldn't admit that I'd foolishly wasted my time like that!

If you lived in another part of the country where your mortgage would be close to what you would be paying in rent then it would make more sense to own.

He said to be out of Nevada, but when I spoke to him on the phone it was clearly out of the country. 

@Ernes Sahic I'm in arguably the worst market in the country. 

For example, we have a CA forum and inside that, the Los Angeles forum for local discussions.As to the question, I am not from MD so my input may not be viable but in dealing with these issues across the country, most states have rules and regulations now that specifically disallow a party to lock up a contract with a seller, market that contract which always includes the specifics of the property (otherwise how would the potential buyers know what they are buying) and then "market" that contract and property via Craig's list, emails, their websites, this website, etc which is "publicly marketing" to find a buyer.

It's a free country, we can disagree on anything :) Here is my point that you're missing.

So it looks like you're starting off right ;) I would be happy to meet with you for a cup of coffee, except that I am taking a cross-country road trip right now.

LLC questions:  I'm not an attorney myself but an ex financial planner and owned 6 businesses myself in 2 Countries and registered in 5 different States.

Ex-pat tax issues can be complicated based on the foreign country you are in and what **they** consider taxable.  

It can be harder in colder parts of the country but not impossible.Just last week I found 2 tenants- one for a C property and a 2yr lease for an A property.I did reduce rent by $50 and scheduled 3 showings at the same time for the C prop.