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Baltimore investor rowhome foreclosures

Business · Heat 1.0 / 10 · 2 shows · 25m airtime

In January 2025, Baltimore Banner reporters began investigating two out-of-town investors whose 700-plus Baltimore rowhomes were entering foreclosure. Reporting since has established that the loans came from dozens of private lenders, including Cake Mortgage and Loan Funder LLC, tied to Rock360, and that about $35 million of the $100 million in bad loans came from lenders tied to Eric Abramovich's company. Eliezer Gold's LLCs bought more than 500 of the homes at double or triple prior sale prices, and a document lists Gold's address as the same as Benjamin Eidlis's home address. The FBI has opened an investigation into Gold, Eidlis and others. A bankruptcy filing says the LLC could only ever occupy about a third of the homes, and…

How 2 podcasts covered it

  1. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (0:24 to 3:37)
    Introduces the Banner's rowhome investor investigation
    Introduces the Baltimore Banner's tip-driven investigation: two unknown out-of-town investors bought over 700 Baltimore rowhomes and borrowed about $100 million in a couple of years, with paperwork pointing to a New York suburb. Sets up a national story about a new fast-mortgage loan product.
    New angle: Two out-of-town investors bought over 700 Baltimore rowhomes and borrowed about $100 million in a couple of years.
  2. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (8:27 to 11:39)
    Traces the fix-and-flip origin of DSCR loans
    Goes to the origin of the loan product behind the Baltimore foreclosures: Rock360's co-founder explains how post-crisis fix-and-flip lending, exempt from mortgage rules as business loans, was connected to Wall Street money and grew into 30-year DSCR mortgages for landlords.
    New angle: Private lenders began issuing 30-year mortgages to landlords around 2018, after Wall Street money entered fix-and-flip lending.
  3. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (11:39 to 13:30)
    Explains the DSCR loan growth behind foreclosures
    Explains the DSCR loan mechanism behind the Baltimore foreclosures and puts numbers on its growth: originations roughly $20 billion in 2021 to about $50 billion in 2025, with lenders underwriting on credit score and estimated rent rather than borrower income.
    New angle: DSCR loan originations grew from about $20 billion in 2021 to about $50 billion in 2025.
  4. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (13:36 to 14:25)
    Traces the loans to private lenders nationwide
    Traces the Baltimore landlords' $100 million to dozens of private lenders nationwide, naming Cake Mortgage and Loan Funder LLC, which is tied to Rock360, and notes the electronic or phone application process.
    New angle: The Baltimore landlords' loans came from dozens of private lenders, including Cake Mortgage and Loan Funder LLC, tied to Rock360.
  5. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (14:25 to 15:29)
    Adds the foreclosure collapse and bankruptcy filing
    Adds the collapse: starting in late 2024 the Baltimore portfolio goes into foreclosure all at once and companies tied to one landlord file bankruptcy, with a filing saying the LLC could only ever occupy about a third of the homes.
    New angle: A bankruptcy filing says the LLC could only ever occupy about a third of the homes.
  6. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (15:29 to 16:27)
    Adds the prices paid and names Eliezer Gold
    Adds the price side of the Baltimore spreadsheet: the landlords paid double or triple prior sale prices for homes that were not renovated, and names Eliezer Gold, whose LLCs bought more than 500 of them.
    New angle: Eliezer Gold's LLCs bought more than 500 of the Baltimore homes, at double or triple prior sale prices.
  7. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (19:09 to 20:49)
    Drives to Gold's address and finds Idliss
    Drives to the New York suburb address that appears on hundreds of pieces of paperwork and tries to confront Eliezer Gold; a man resembling him swerves around Jack in a black SUV and drives off. The reporting then turns to a second name, Benjamin Idliss, who sold Gold more than 100 Baltimore homes.
  8. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (20:52 to 22:26)
    Tracks down Eidlis and the Gold address link
    Tracks down Benjamin Eidlis near Spring Valley and, talking through his car window, watches his console light up with a call from Elie Gold; documents later list Gold's address as Eidlis's home address.
    New angle: A document lists Eliezer Gold's address as the same as Benjamin Eidlis's home address.
  9. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (22:26 to 24:05)
    Lays out the reporters' theory of the scheme
    Lays out the reporters' theory of the scheme: one buyer sells to a close friend at an inflated price, the friend takes a DSCR mortgage on the fake valuation, and with no cap on loan count it can be repeated hundreds of times before the payments stop.
  10. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (24:05 to 24:51)
    Adds the FBI probe and lender blacklists
    Adds the aftermath: the Banner series by Bologna, Miller and Jayaraman, an FBI investigation into Gold, Eidlis and others, and private lenders blacklisting those names. Then pivots to the structural argument about DSCR loans and Wall Street.
    New angle: The FBI has opened an investigation into Eliezer Gold, Benjamin Eidlis and others.
  11. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (25:37 to 27:22)
    Puts a lender on record with a $35 million figure
    Puts Eric Abramovich on the record defending DSCR lending against easy-credit comparisons, and adds a number the earlier coverage lacked: about $35 million of the $100 million in bad Baltimore loans came from lenders tied to his company. Also notes DSCR is roughly 2% of new single-family mortgage loans.
    New angle: About $35 million of the $100 million in bad Baltimore loans came from lenders tied to Eric Abramovich's company.
  12. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (27:38 to 30:10)
    Walks the burned and boarded Edding block
    Walks the 2400 block of Edding Street, where Gold's LLC bought 20 rowhouses that foreclosed last year; one has since burned and the rest sit boarded up. Neighbors say the block worsened after the new owners, and private lenders have stopped lending in Baltimore.
    New angle: One of the 20 foreclosed Edding Street rowhouses burned last week; private lenders have stopped making DSCR loans in Baltimore.
  13. Planet Money, 2026-09-11 (30:13 to 30:57)
    Restates the lenders' pullback from Baltimore
    Brief beat on the aftermath: private lenders have pulled back from Baltimore, making DSCR loans harder to get while the foreclosed rowhouses sit empty. It restates the pullback already on the record and stays inside the Banner's reporting.
  14. WSJ What's News, 2026-10-13 (2:56 to 6:37)
    Explains DSCR loans behind the foreclosure wave
    Explainer on how DSCR loans work - property income instead of borrower earnings, no pay stubs - and how they opened distressed neighborhoods in Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit to investors. The Baltimore fraud and foreclosure wave is recapped as background, with the industry's claim that lenders have tightened and delinquencies are healthy.
Unpacking...