20 Years Old, Soon Moving into My First Place. Advice?

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Hi, Peter. Here's my take... Let me recommend the easiest, yet slowest approach. "Buy-and-Hold... The Tradition VA Loan Route" 1) Move onto base housing. 2) Once settled, get to know the surrounding neighborhood. Look for the good, the bad and the ugly parts of town. Ask yourself one question while doing it... "Would you move your family into this neighborhood?" If the answer is yes, you've got a winner! 3) Get on Trulia or Zillow and look for a duplex, triplex or 4-plex. Do your homework! You need to learn what a good deal looks like in your town. Avoid settling on the first property you see listed. Give it about 2-4 weeks. 4) Once you've studied the market, and have an idea of how much your first purchase will be, you'll need to find a lender/mortgage broker ASAP. Make sure your financials are in order - i.e. a list and any supporting documents detailing your income vs. expenses... Oh, and an LES. How do you find a lender/mortgage broker? Well... Right here, on BiggerPockets! NOTE: You will have to upgrade your BP account if you want to solicit an agent. While placing your solicitation, make sure you tell potential agents that you are a military member wishing to use the VA loan. 5) Once you are happy with your lender and you've been pre-approved, it's time to do some shopping! Back to Trulia or Zillow. BONUS TIP #1: If during your drive, around town, you happen to have seen any "For Sale By Owner" signs... Head there first. Those are sometime your better deals. BONUS TIP #2: Get a realtor that is investor friendly (...search BP for one). As long as you and your wife are on the same page (INVESTMENT PROPERTY!) when asking the agent to specifically find a duplex or larger, you shouldn't encounter any problems. ------------------------------ Phew! That's a lot of typing on an iPhone. Beyond this point, you should be be fine. Make sure you stay on BiggerPockets and keep asking questions. People on BP are always looking to help others in anyway they can.

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I went camping at a naval base in southern Maryland near pax river. What I found interesting was the number of military that lived in their RV . I talked to one guy and he gave me the story , it was $ 200 a month to keep the camper there , he was getting $ 1500 housing allowance . The RV cost him 2 grand . He worked his navy job , had a part time job , and he was bird dogging real estate . I real hustler , I was impressed . He was putting the extra money into the bank to buy a house and flip for himself . Something to think about

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My advice -- base housing is your friend. Buying your own house doesn't usually work out well unless you're going to be there at least 5 years. There's just too much in selling costs and fixing up costs to make it worthwhile. There's a decent likelihood that you can't sell it when you're ready to move elsewhere. And as you've probably found out by now a 20 year old's salary just doesn't buy a lot in San Diego. Another point -- if you end up spending long periods of time cruising the Pacific for Uncle Sam then base housing is really nice. Your wife will have folks around that have 'been there, done that' to help out. And that support system is really nice if you're gone for a long time. Your time to buy a house will come, but it's not now. Wait until you leave the Navy or get stationed at a base where the prices aren't as high an volatile as California. Your time to buy a house will come, but it's not now. BTW, my son is a 21 year old Army E-5 that's headed for Pearl Harbor soon to live the next few years with his wife (and soon with a son also). I gave him this same advice -- wait.

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@Peter Whitaker Welcome. Thanks for your service. Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing. Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having 50 past ones to catch up on. Two Great reads, I bought both J. Scott The Book on Flipping Houses,The Book on Estimating ReHab Costshttp://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook Locate and attend 3 different local REIA club meetings great place to meet people gather resources and info. Consider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack. You might consider Niche or Specialized Housing like student housing. Rents can be 2-4 times more. Remember you don't have to own a property to control it. Good luck Paul

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To piggyback on what Elizabeth Colegrove said, if you do decide to buy as a personal residence with the idea of renting later (which I think is a good idea), you need to buy the house initially as a rental otherwise it may not be a good rental later. You will get all of the favorable financing terms available for primary residence purchases. You could do this at every stop. Just keep in mind there are different challenges with owning and managing properties in different states.

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@Peter Whitaker My husband is active duty. We have bought at every duty station that has made sense. That being said, we don't buy "personal" properties. We buy houses that make sense as rentals and buy them as personal residences (so lower interest rates/down payments) and than rent them out when we are relocated or we decide to move again. We tend to buy in A areas. We have houses with clientel that we can self manage long distances. The rent is at least $200-$300 more than the mortgage. More if we are going to have major expense (older home needs more of a buffer because roofs, siding, windows and other larger expenses are sooner than newer houses)

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@Paul Timmins Thanks Paul. I have been listening to the podcasts, and i just read Millionaire Real Estate Investor which was very good with a few more books on order also. I'm going to look for a local REIA meeting very soon.

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@Forrest B. I will be able to get into base housing since we have already been on the waiting list for awhile now and are almost at the top. I think waiting is the best choice and just save as much as possible while I'm in. Thanks for the advice. @Michael B. Valid point for sure. I think i need to just slow down for now and learn as much as i possible can.

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Peter, I'm in the Navy as well, though I've been stationed on the East Coast most of my career. I've heard and known a lot of people go underwater on their houses in San Diego. I don't know the current market, but unless it's profitable on a cash flow basis, you probably don't want it. Even if you can't get into base housing, it might be better to just rent and save your money, then focus on buying into your local New York market. You can go a lot further in Central New York with your resources than in San Diego. Forrest

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@Richard Montoya Thanks for taking the time out of your day to give me a lengthy response, i appreciate it. My ultimate real estate goal is to buy and hold to create cash flow and gain equity for an early retirement but, after these 5 years in San Diego i plan on moving back to Central New York so my concern with getting into MFH here is trying to manage the property from the other side of the country. Whereas if I got into SFH then i could sell before I leave. Maybe there is a flaw to this train of thought but, as a beginner investor I'm not sure if i will be prepared to be a landlord from 2,000 miles away with only one property owned.