Hi everyone - this is my first of hopefully many posts on BP. My goal is to be more active in 2015, start attending the BWI meetup and REIA meetings, and acquire at lease one rental in/around Baltimore this year. I currently have two rentals in Fells Point (one being my former home and another I purchased two years ago). I'm pretty familiar with Fells Point and Canton at this point because that's where I live and spend my time, but I'm planning to look at other areas as well (Dundalk, etc). I'm curious what kind of returns people are targeting in Baltimore these days for buy and hold rentals? Any thoughts would be great.

There seem to be a lot of Baltimore-area folks on here, so I look forward to eventually meeting some of you in person as well.

Thanks,

Matt

Firstly welcome to BP.

@Matt Good   I can tell you more about my criteria, then about my returns.  I think you will find a lot of landlords don't know their actual returns, they just know they have a good deal. Or perhaps they have a total pain the rear, that is bleeding them dry. But to say I am earning X% Cash on cash or X return on equity, I couldn't do it. I would like to know but I am too busy day to day to figure it out.

For buying criteria I want the rent to be 2-4% of the acquisition and renovation cost. My guess is nothing in Fells point is going to make that.

@Ned Carey What areas would you suggest looking into?

By area I presume you mean geographic area vs area (type) of real estate investing. 

Invest in the area you know best. 

if you want specifics, I can't give you that. I only know the city. Every zip code has good and bad areas. Every street has good and bad areas. Every good area has bad deals. 

I know investors that are successful in war zones. I know investors who swear by  high priced areas that do not cash flow well because of appreciation

You need to spend time in the market and networking to learn what you feel comfortable with.