Investing in Real Estate while serving active duty

[Oscar Sosa]

Good morning to everyone on the west coast, and good afternoon to you all on the east coast! I discovered Bigger Pockets a few months ago, and decided that joining the BP world would benefit myself in acquiring a wealth of knowledge from you all, so I would first like to thank you for your time.

I am currently an active duty Marine stationed out in the Los Angeles area. I am just beginning in the real estate world at the age of 25, and was wondering the best route to consider while living an active duty career in the military? I have read many success stories on the forums about other active duty military members who have bought properties at every duty station they have been assigned to, and I really think that is a great idea! Any specific suggestions in terms of making the leap while still serving? Thank you all for your time, and I look forward to gaining great insight from everyone!

Respectfully,

-Oscar Sosa

[Elizabeth Colegrove]

@Oscar Sosa

You are not ale to utilize your VA on a pure investment. Before you purchase the house you have to supply orders indicating you will be there for at least 12 months.You are required to live in the house for at least 12 months. Obviously things happen so if you get transferred before hand they make an acception. The point is good faith that it is going to be your personal property.

What we have done, is used it to buy our personal property. Than once we left the area, it became a rental. We bought the house to live in but still to be a good rental when left.

Note that the VA loan does have a limit. In most area you can only spend up to $417k. There are some areas that you can go higher based on cost of living. Per the new guidelines you can "split" your va loan up over multiple houses. You ARE NOT allowed to except the amount.

Now that we have used up the VA loan we are using the conventional 5% rule on our subsequent personal properties. For the "pure" investments ie they were bought as investments, we do investment conventional with 20% down as required.