Ready to purchase first investment property, but not sure which

[Alex Maksimiak]

Hey all, my name is Alex and I am new to this forum.

I have wanted to do real estate investing for a while now and just got pre-approved from the bank for $225,000.

I am currently Active Duty in the U.S. Navy at Naval Station Norfolk so I can utilize my VA Loan with 0 money down. The only catch is that I must live in the property for 1 year.

I was trying to look for duplex/tri-plex's but good ones are hard to come around, and the ones that I am finding tend to be in bad/sketchy neighborhoods with low rents. What I was just thinking to do was buy a SFH, 0 money down

live in 1 room and rent out the rest of the rooms. When looking for a home, should I look for a ran down type of home and take a rehab loan to force equity, or should I just buy one already turnkey and start renting the rooms out to people while making positive cash flow?

Thanks. 

[Joel Allen]

@Mark Small, you're on target that standard VA home loans are intended to put military members and veterans into move-in ready homes that don't require significant repairs.

There is a separate loan product called the VA Renovation loan, which essentially packages a home purchase loan and a home improvement loan into a single product. This allow veterans to purchase a home in need of renovation/repairs and fund those renos/repairs as part of the mortgage.

The general eligibility criteria for a VA Renovation Loan mirror the standard VA loan, but it does require extra steps because it involves quotes and work from a contractor registered with the VA.