Baltimore Real Estate Investing Blog

The Other Foreclosure Menace Mortgage Paid Off, Woman Loses Home — Over a Small Water Bill By Fred Schulte, Ben Protess and Lagan Sebert Huffington Post Investigative Fund A version of this story appeared in The Baltimore Sun. One raw day in early February, Vicki Valentine stood by helplessly as real estate investors snatched her [...]

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Congress offered an $8,000 credit for first time home buyers ($6,500 for repeat buyers).  To receive this credit the home had to be under contract April 30, 2010 and close by June 30. Many buyers have been unable to get their properties closed in time.  Settlements involving short sales for example can take many months [...]

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Anne Arundel County MD tax sale will be held online June 8, 2010.  Their website for the Tax Auction is AAcountyTaxSale.com.  The site  currently lists 2876 properties for their tax sale.  This is about 1/2 the number in the Prince  Georges county tax sale and about 1/10 the number of tax liens is the Baltimore [...]

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Cleveland, Ohio and Baltimore have a lot of similarities.  Both were successful industrial towns after WWII.  Both have been losing population since the 50s as jobs left with the decline of heavy industry. They both now have crime, vacant housing and poor school performance. Baltimore and Cleveland have used some of the same failed approaches [...]

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Prince Georges County MD tax sale will be held online May 10, 2010.  Their website for the Tax Auction is PrinceGeorgesCountyTaxSale.com.  The site  currently lists 5760 properties for their tax sale.  The site also has all the information you need to bid including video tutorial. Tax Sale Registration Deadline If you want to bid you [...]

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The Charles County Md tax sale will be held May 18, 2010.  Currently they list 837 properties.  Their auction for tax lien certificates will be conducted as an online auction.  Bids may be submitted starting Thursday May 13th and the Auction will end on Tuesday May 18. Their website is www.charlescountytaxsale.com.  Their tax lien website [...]

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In my recent post What is Hard Money,  I promised to post a list of Hard money lenders.  So here it is.  Much of this list comes from an e-mail by Baltimore real estate investor John Parker; thanks John. Local Baltimore Hard Money Lenders Cavalier Realty Company, Inc. Hard Money Bankers Jeffrey Shiller from Hard [...]

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If you are new to real estate investing you may have heard the term “Hard Money”.  Just what exactly is hard money?  It is a short term loan with high interest designed for investors who renovate properties. These loans do not come from banks or traditional lenders. They are offered by private lenders in the [...]

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Howard County has announced the date of the 2010 tax sale.  The date will be May 24th 2010. Howard County traditionally has run their tax sale as a live auction and it appears that this year will be no different. A tax auction is for a tax lien certificate, which give you the right to [...]

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Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods have colorful names that hint at the history of the neighborhood, Greektown,  Butchers Hill, Brewers Hill etc. But do you really know the true borders of those neighborhoods?  There are official names for every part of the city.  Often investors say a property is in [...]

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Today’s Baltimore Sun had the tax sale list of properties that are delinquent on property taxes and municipal bills.  There are approximately 28,000 (!) on the list.  This is the largest I have seen and an indication of the effect that the economy is having. Are you on the list? You better pay up by [...]

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Maryland’s Groundbreaking Lead Law Marylanders can be proud that we introduced a ground breaking lead paint law in the 1990′s.  This was politics at it’s best creating a law that was a win – win for both tenants and landlords.  If landlords registered their properties and took steps to prevent lead paint hazards they would [...]

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HUD has proposed new mortgage licensing regulations that would affect how investors do owner financing.  Unless you are selling your own personal residence you would have to be a licensed mortgage loan originator in order to offer owner financing.  I felt this is an unreasonable and unnecessary requirement and submitted a comment saying so (See [...]

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“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties out of his opportunities.  An optimist is one who make opportunities out of his difficulties.” – Harry Truman

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One book I recommend in the wealth building category is the popular Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. In his book he talks about the Cash Flow game.  The game is a blast and you will feel like a tycoon as you build your financial portfolio. It is designed as a financial teaching tool.  [...]

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