Baltimore Real Estate Investing Blog

It’s been a little while since I last posted because this is a busy time of year for me. One of the things I do is buy tax liens at the Baltimore tax sale. This is not really a direct investment in real estate but it is a way to get passive interest. In very rare cases you can foreclose and actually get a property but it is much more rare that the late night TV gurus would have you believe.

One important thing you should do if you bid at tax auctions is inspect the properties. Especially in Baltimore it is important to make sure there is actually a building there. A case in point, this last weekend my partner and I were out looking at properties. We saw a property in a very nice single family home neighborhood. It was assessed at $100K but the neighborhood is worth double that. It would be a very desirable neighborhood to own or do a rehab in. There is just one problem. It was an empty lot. Clearly the building had just been demolished because we could see fresh grass seed growing.

There was a $900 lien on the property. Without looking at the property it would be easy to bid $50-100K or more. Of course an MT lot is not worth anywhere near that much, so you would be throwing away your money.

It will be interesting to see if someone bids for this. I’m going to watch this property and I will report back after the sale next week what someone bid.

Happy investing,

 Ned