Buying Baltimore from another state? Your local person IS your due diligence. I'm the contractor investors call after it goes sideways, and nearly every disaster story starts with "a guy was supposed to check it." Five checks before any money moves.

**1. License and insurance you verify yourself.**

Ask for the Maryland MHIC license number and look it up on the state site — takes two minutes. Then get a certificate of insurance with you named as certificate holder. **A number they won't give you is a number they don't have.**

**2. Three past jobs with addresses, not photos alone.**

Anyone can text you pretty before/afters. Get three addresses of past work and pull them on Google Maps. Did they actually touch that house? **Addresses are verifiable. Photo albums are not.**

**3. No retainer without a paper trail.**

Never wire a "mobilization fee" on a phone promise. One-page scope, per-milestone payments, lien waivers on every draw. **If they won't sign that, you just learned everything you needed to know.**

**4. Live video, not just photos.**

Photos get staged. A 10-minute live video walkthrough — basement, panel, furnace, roof from the alley — can't be faked. **If there's always a "scheduling conflict" for live video, assume you're not seeing the real condition.**

**5. They pull real comps before quoting your reno.**

Anyone can say "$45K full reno." Ask for three as-is sales and three renovated sales they're pricing against. **A local who can't produce verified sold comps in the same zip is guessing with your money.**

**Comps.** Quick look at the numbers around it — this is what your person should pull in 21213 before quoting anything.

As-is shells: 1822 Aiken St sold $49,000 (Apr 2026, distressed listing with seller-financed reno money); 2132 N Wolfe St sold $65,000 (Apr 2026, investor-marketed, hold-harmless required to tour); 1710 Normal Ave sold $60,500 (Mar 2026). That puts as-is value roughly $49–$65K, most likely around $58K.

Renovated: 3022 E Federal St sold $250,000 (Mar 2026, documented gut reno); 1743 E Federal St sold $242,500 (May 2026, bought $37,500 as a shell in Nov 2024 — a real flip); 1502 E Hoffman St sold $220,000 (Mar 2026, MLS "high-end renovation") — so a renovated range of $220–$250K.

Caveats: the shells are small 3bd/1ba rowhouses (520–1,050 sq ft) while the renovated comps run 1,500–1,900 sq ft — not one-for-one. On the Aiken block itself, small-format renovated resales landed at $165K (Jul 2025) and $179K (May 2024), so the $220–250K ceiling belongs to the bigger homes. And if your local can't produce comps like these on demand, check #5 just failed in real time.

What check do you run on a local team before the first dollar moves — and what made you add it to your list?

— Dawon | Baltimore, MD