It’s street parking within the park.

There’s free parking all around the front of the conservatory.

It’s called mountain pass trail, I just accidentally discovered it, very hilly

300k is definitely the norm. But there’s a reasonable looking 2bd 900sqft for 180k listed up above Wine Source and Hampden, and similar sized houses in Remington have gone for $175-$200k in the last couple months.

At your price point you could look at some smaller rowhomes in Remington or Hampden, 2bd 1ba 1000sqft will sell in the 180-200k sort of range.

Probably more in the $200-250k range, there’s some similar houses in Upper Fells/Highland Town.

But certainly spend time getting to know an area and the city as a whole before you commit to buying a house. Nothing wrong with renting to get to know an area, and make sure it’s a place you want to stay for at least 5 years.

I’m not too familiar with the inspection process as far as photos or in person, but you might want to make sure a permit was actually pulled. City lookup site:

http://cels.baltimorehousing.org/Search_TM_MAP.aspx

Amtrak is cheaper if you can book a good ways in advance. So if your work trips can be planned in advance by a couple months you can get tickets for $30-$40 each way.

The vacants could be remaining vacant for a bunch of reasons. They could be owned by a speculator type, who bought the house with no intention to fix it and is just timing the market. They could be in bad enough shape due to structural issues that even at a $200k selling price it’s not worth it to fix and flip.

The houses being 2 story just means they wouldn’t sell for as much. I expect adding a third floor would be very expense and not worth it from a ROI standpoint.

The 150k number I mentioned earlier, is location/size specific. It seemed to be the price point around me when a lot of 3bd, 2 story houses started getting fixed up.

It is not. A couple blocks closer to the park maybe are into that $150k range

In theory, in areas where ARVs approach/exceed $150k it starts to be worthwhile to fix them up for resale. That’s while you’ll sometimes see developers redoing an entire block of vacant houses.

So there’s a ton a variables. If you can assume the structure is still good, the roof, framing etc. Also assuming you got have mold, asbestos etc.

Process wise your looking at demo, permits, install of all the stuff inside the walls, drywall, flooring and finishes (paint, trim, fixtures, tile etc). With inspections throughout each stage.

Figure you might spend: $10-15k each for electrical, plumbing and HVAC (central heating/air).

$5-10k each for drywall, flooring (including subfloor, leveling, flooring material and trim)

$3k-5k each for demo, appliances, kitchen cabinets and counters, paint, and adding a new layer on the roof

So you could easily be spending $75k-100k. Assuming you don’t have any big ticket surprises.

Yeah. Flat roof.

Rental machine is for blown it.

Before you install insulation, you should also figure out your attic venting situation. Without proper venting condensation will build up and cause mold.

I just did blow in insulation at my house, around 900sqft worth of roof, because of the slope we couldn’t hit the same r value throughout, but used around 30 bails of cellulose insulation. Was around $600. Venting, installed by a roofer will be another $700.

Check furnished finder. It’s a platform similar to Airbnb, intended for travel nurses who are usual on 2-3 month stays.

Or a lot of rent by rooms are setup month to month might be able to find a good option through Facebook marketplace.

This is probably more of a general architectural tour to get a sense for Baltimore. I just finished reading the Baltimore Rowhome book already mentioned.

I’d start by explore the areas around the harbor. Especially Fed and Fells for some of the oldest homes. They were generally built to be working class. So smaller, narrow or setup for a business downstairs and housing upstairs.

And then venture your way North into Midtown/Mount Vernon especially around the Washington Monument for the big grand fancy houses built not too long after Fells/Fed.

Then just generally visit areas directly bordering parks. So Patterson park. Druid Hill. Union Square. General the park front properties were the builders show pieces. Venturing off the main streets you should see scaled down versions of the premium houses. So 2 story instead of 3. Narrower. Less detailing etc.

As you venture further and further from the harbor, home will be newer and general styles will change as preferences changed overtime. So you’ll see wider shorter rowhomes, or fully detached homes. That look a bit more suburban.

Obviously this is all massive generalization of the architectural identity of the city. But it hopeful could be a good starting point.

So for installing over concrete you’ll need to have a vapor barrier and 3/4” OSB installed over top. Figure around $1.50/sqft in materials, if you buy them at Home Depot.

Subfloor install might be around $500 or around $1/sqft Hardwood floor install probably would be $1000-$1500, around $2-$3/sqft, so maybe $1500-$2000 for install.

Assuming $5/sqft for the flooring, plus subfloor you’re at around $3250 in materials.

I would try to get a labor only quote, reimburse them for subfloor expenses and source the flooring yourself to avoid getting a markup on the materials.

https://instagram.com/grahamprojects?igshid=ZDg1NjBiNjg=

I’d try reaching out to this guy. He’s does a bunch of these around the city.