My Story of Buying a Commercial Property with a VA Loan

[Jonathan Dudley]

Before I started by real estate investing education with Bigger Pockets it was the summer of 2013 and I was searching for that perfect house. After months of research I found the perfect house build in 1900 in a historic part of town. Armed with my VA loan I was sold on getting this property. For some reason in my area alot of real estate owners had rezoned their properties into commercial properties. It is also one of the reasons I found this house no one was looking at it because it was listed as a commercial.

I had read all the guidelines, YOU CANNOT BUY COMMERCIAL PROPERTY WITH VA LOAN. So I asked my lender is there a way around this road block and to my surprise there is. If the property your buying was originally built as a residential property and it is obvious that it is residential you can purchase it. I did have to get a letter from the city stating that they defined this house as a residential property it had just been rezoned. 

While I am new to bigger pockets I hope that this information can be used to benefit fellow members. Thanks.