Is Baltimore still a good place to purchase?

Question

GoodMorning BP community,

I am a newbie investor looking to buy and hold in Baltimore, MD. My question is, is anyone actively purchasing in Baltimore if so how’s it going? Is it still worth it? I know the market is pretty low in Baltimore and that it’s also a block by block area so it all depends. Any advice on moving forward in Baltimore would be extremely helpful!

-Alex

Tim Jacob · Answer

Baltimore has good and lower grade areas like other large cities.  A good way to figure that is arv.  In general over 200k arv for a place with 2 beds or more puts you in an area where you wont have to worry.  150k arv and you are still in decent areas but expenses go up.  100k arv it keeps going down.  At less than 100k you are asking for trouble and a lot of the people with problems up here went that route.  You can't find decent property management in places with the arv under 100k.  There is a lot more to it but these are good starter numbers.  If you keep in mind you get what you pay for, actually visit the site a few times in the day before buying, and screen tenants, contractors, and others thoroughly you should be alright.

Cody Benedetto · Answer

If you're not from the area I'd recommend doing some market research on population growth, income growth, and unemployment overtime. I know historically Blatimore has had a decreasing population and has struggled to keep bigger businesses. There are definitely some gem neighborhoods and some beautiful architecture.

Alex Walcott · Answer

Hey Tim,Thank you so much for the advice, I’ll keep all of that in mind on the search!! Appreciate you!