Veteran beginner needs VA Loan advice

[Shannon Reynolds]

Hello,

So I'm pretty new to real estate. I'm a Veteran in the D.C./Baltimore area. Currently I have a VA loan for the home I live in, but I want to add my next property. To do this, I understand that I'll need to buy a new primary residence, but that's about as far as I can connect the dots. I want to rent out my current home to offset my payment so I can qualify for the next mortgage...but how do I do that? It seems like a catch-22 unless I want to live in my car long enough to build up the rental income reserves (my kid is too high maintenance for that. Haha.)

Also, what is the best approach using the VA loan? Property here is expensive, so my gut tells me I'll need to refi my current property under a conventional loan so I can reset my VA entitlement. It's unlikely I'll be able to fit two properties in this area under the loan limits.

I would greatly appreciate advice from anyone knowledgeable about VA loans or anyone who knows the tricks of the trade on how to get started with buy and hold using your primary residence as the starting point.

Thank you for reading my post. I look forward to participating and giving back one day!

Respectfully,

Shannon