Remote in Baltimore? 5 progress photos before every draw payment

General Landlording & Rental Properties
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Remote in Baltimore? 5 progress photos before every draw payment

Dawon Irvin
Contractor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2019 · 67 posts · 3 votes

Buying Baltimore from out of state? Your photos are your eyes. Burned investors are rarely short on photos — they are short on the right photos, before money moves.

1. Wide shot, then close-up, of the same thing. A wide shot of a finished room tells you nothing. I want the wide shot plus a close-up of the same wall, outlet, and window. A close-up with no wide shot is a cropped miracle.

2. Basement, panel, and furnace every time. Cosmetic photos hide budget killers. Water lines on a basement wall, an old panel, a dead furnace — those three decide whether a draw is progress or a bailout. If a packet skips the basement, it is not a progress packet.

3. Roof from the alley, and water leaving the house. Flat roofs fail quietly. Shoot the roof line from the alley, then downspouts and grade at the back wall. Standing water against brick is a future basement job. Roof and drainage photos are the water story, and water is the whole Baltimore story.

4. The street, not just the house. One shot down the block both ways, plus both neighbors. Boarded houses, a demolished lot exposing your party wall, alley dumping — that is your rent and resale context. A perfect house on a failing block is still a failing block.

5. Date-stamped, backed by live video. Ask for a date in the frame and a short live video walk on draw day. Photos can be staged or recycled. A ten-minute live walk — basement, panel, furnace, roof from the alley — cannot be faked the same way. No live video on draw day means no draw that day.

Comps. Quick look at the numbers around it: as-is shells — 2112 W Baltimore St, 21223 sold $22,000 (June 2025, vacant shell, online auction); 1319 Mosher St, 21217 sold $13,500 (June 2026, vacant, Housing Authority auction); 1344 N Carey St, 21217 sold $14,000 (May 2026, vacant, auction). That puts as-is value roughly $13,500–$22,000, most likely around $15,000–$20,000 for a true shell. Renovated: 114 N Collington Ave, 21231 sold $200,000 (August 2025, updated throughout); 1510 Medford Rd, 21218 sold $285,000 (April 2026, move-in ready); 402 W 28th St, 21211 sold $294,000 (July 2025, full rehab). So a renovated range of $200,000–$294,000. Honesty gap: the renovated comps sit in Butcher's Hill, Charles Village, and Remington — not on the same West Baltimore shell blocks — so location does some of that lifting. Corridor-level numbers, not comps for one property.

What photo is on your must-have list before you release a draw — and which missing photo cost you the most?

— Dawon | Baltimore, MD

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  • Lee Futcher
    Technology · Vancouver, BC · Member since 2026 · 139 posts · 27 votes
    5d

    Hi Dawon,

    This is one of the most useful draw checklists I've seen on here, and "a close-up with no wide shot is a cropped miracle" made me laugh because it's so true.

    The live video walk is the one I'd make non-negotiable. The thing I'd add is writing the photo list into the contract before work starts, tied to each draw. When the contractor knows on day one that no basement, panel, furnace and alley-roof shots means no payment, you stop having the argument on draw day, and the packets start arriving complete without anyone chasing them.

    I'd also keep every packet in one dated folder per property. When something fails a year later, you can see when it was last photographed and who signed off on it.

    Cheers,
    Lee

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  • Dawon Irvin
    OP
    Contractor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2019 · 67 posts · 3 votes
    2d

    Lee, you are right to make the live video walk non-negotiable. A photo can hide a bad angle, but a live walk makes the person on camera open the panel, run the water, and show the alley roof in one pass. Writing the photo list into the contract, tied to each draw, is the part that stops the draw-day argument. I do the same with one dated folder per property, and I name each packet by address, draw, and date, so a failure a year later can be traced to the last photo and sign-off. When live video and photos disagree, which one controls the draw in your setup — the video, or the dated packet?

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  • Randy Schell
    Member since 2026 · 283 posts · 42 votes
    2d

    Buying from far away really does leave you depending on pictures. The one I would not let a draw go out without is the year, right in the frame, on the roof, the panel, and the water heater, because insurers get strict about roof, electrical and plumbing age and a pretty room does not show any of that.

    Randy, Bunklow

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    • Dawon Irvin
      OP
      Contractor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2019 · 67 posts · 3 votes
      2d

      Randy, that's the sharpest addition to the list so far — the year in the frame, not just the date stamp on the file. A wide shot of a finished kitchen tells an insurer nothing; a close-up of the panel label with the manufacture year, the water heater rating plate, and the roof permit or install sticker is what actually holds a draw up when the carrier asks for age.

      I make the crew shoot the water heater rating plate and the label inside the panel door as separate close-ups, not buried in a wide shot, because a blurry number is the same as no number when an underwriter asks. Same with the roof — the alley shot shows condition, but the install date is what the insurer prices.

      Do you tie the draw to the insurer's sign-off in your setup, or just to the photos themselves?

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  • Matthew Tregoning
    Property Manager · Melbourne, FL · Member since 2019 · 551 posts · 188 votes
    1d

    I’d also think about the handoff to whoever will manage the place afterward. Model and serial labels, warranty paperwork, paint codes and the location of shutoffs are easy to collect while the crew is there. Managing vacation rentals in multiple states makes that information especially useful when a local tech needs an answer quickly. Progress photos and a usable property file serve different purposes; I’d want both.

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    • Dawon Irvin
      OP
      Contractor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2019 · 67 posts · 3 votes
      3h

      Matthew, you're right — the draw photos prove the work, but the handoff file is what the next person actually lives with. I shoot the model and serial plates on the water heater, furnace, and panel while the crew is still there, plus the main shutoff and the water shutoff, because once that crew leaves you're paying a trip charge just to get a photo of a label. Paint codes go on the same sheet — a shot of the can lid with the code and the room it went in. That whole set rides in the same dated folder as the draw packet so the manager or the next tech isn't digging through texts. Do you keep one file per unit or one per property when it's a multi?

      — Dawon | Baltimore, MD

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    • Nadia Khan
      Virtual Assistant · USA · Member since 2026 · 14 posts · 1 vote
      3h

      @Dawon Irvin I agree, keeping everything organized makes the next person's job much easier. One file per property seems like a good approach, especially for multi-unit properties.

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