Buying Baltimore rowhouses from another state? Your boots-on-the-ground team IS your due diligence. I'm the guy investors call after it goes sideways. Five red flags that would've saved most of them:

**1. No verifiable track record.** Anyone can answer the phone and send photos. Ask for three past clients you can call, dated photos of real work, and a Maryland MHIC license number. **No verifiable history = no money moves.**

**2. They won't show the basement, the panel, or the roof.** "Send me pictures" gets you three blurry kitchen shots. Demand every room wide-angle, dated shots of panel, furnace, water heater, basement walls, plus a street shot. **What they won't photograph is the risk.**

**3. The price beats the corridor comps with no explanation.** A sight-unseen "steal" priced well under as-is value isn't a deal — the market is telling you something's wrong.

**4. No interior access before earnest money.** Boards, a lockbox, "tenant won't allow it" — if your person hasn't been inside, you're buying a story, not a house. **Insist on interior access first.**

**5. Pressure to wire before verifying.** "Another buyer is coming tomorrow" plus a request to send funds first is the oldest script in Baltimore. Real deals survive 48 hours of verification.

**Comps.** Quick look at the numbers around it: Druid Hill / Penn North pocket (21217). Distressed shells — 2440 Francis St sold $32,000 (Jul 2026, marketed as-is investor special); 2434 Etting St sold $38,500 (Jul 2026, 1900-built, prior foreclosure deed); 2306 Druid Hill Ave sold $12,500 (Oct 2024 — oldest comp, market may have moved). That puts as-is value roughly $12,500–$38,500, most likely $30,000–$40,000 for a buyable shell today. Renovated — 2444 Druid Hill Ave sold $259,900 (Jun 2026, updated triplex, active rental license); 1912 Division St sold $245,000 (Jun 2026, bought $73K in 2025 — flip pattern, reno inferred); 2842 Mayfield Ave sold $244,900 (Jul 2026, documented 2026 gut reno). So a renovated range of $245,000–$260,000. Honesty caveats: the Division St reno is inferred; Mayfield is Belair-Edison (21213), a different submarket; 2444 Druid Hill Ave is a triplex, not a single-family resale.

**Run the shell-to-reno spread yourself before you wire anything.** In this pocket it's roughly $220K — anyone quoting $40K to close that gap is selling you a fantasy.

What's the worst sight-unseen deal you've caught before it closed — and what tipped you off?

— Dawon | Baltimore, MD