Bayview is next to the Hopkins-Bayview campus. You can walk to Hopkins-Bayview and take the shuttle to Hopkins. I used to own a 2 unit rental in Bayview. At one point, I had 2 women (roommates), neither of whom had a car. They were nursing students and each day would walk to Hopkins-Bayview and take the shuttle to Hopkins.

Some here insinuate the neighborhood is not safe. All I can say is I owned the house for almost 20 years and never had a tenant tell me about any problems with the neighborhood.

You can routinely see people from the Hopkins-Bayview campus walking through the neighborhood during their lunch hour. Would they be doing that if they thought for a minute it might be risky?

I sold the house in 2016 but I doubt the area has gotten 'dangerous' as some here seem to think.

There are 2 sub shops on Merritt Blvd in Dundalk. Merritt Sub (in Merritt Park Shopping Center) is owned by the Filetti family and Filleti's is owned by someone else.

Merritt Sub was voted Dundalk's best cheesesteak by readers of the Dundalk Eagle. There is so much meat on it, it is not possible to keep all of it on the roll when you try to eat it. And it's only $8.

Try Future Tech Heating and Cooling. Scott is honest and very reasonable. He will do his best to fit you in ASAP.

I believe a 203k loan would allow you to check all of your boxes. A 203k loan is an FHA loan, with an FHA sized down payment, that includes the cost of major repairs in the mortgage.

The 203k program is similar to the Healthy Neighborhoods program except it is a federal program and applies anywhere.

How it works, generally speaking, is you find a house that wouldn't qualify for conventional financing because of at least 1 major problem. For example, you find a house but it needs a new HVAC system and windows. The 203k loan will include money for those repairs and any other repairs needed to bring the house into code compliance.

The money for the repairs is held in escrow until each job is finished. This eliminates expensive financing since the repairs are part of your mortgage.

This would eliminate your getting a crappy flip and widen the pool of potential houses.

Plus, the cosmetics would be up to you so you can make your new house into your home.

On a side note, I noticed someone had mentioned the problem of sewage backing up into basements in the city. It is a lot easier, and maybe cheaper, to be proactive and prevent a backup, than to clean one up if you have to hire a company to do it. The fix involves installing a back check valve in your sewer line. I believe they can be installed on your main sewer line but are mainly installed on pipes connected to toilets, laundry tubs etc. in the basement.

Happy hunting and good luck!