first time house hack (va loan) (repairs)

[Joshua Briscoe]

Hello again Bigger Pockets

I would appreciate advice from the experts and tax gurus on my situation as I am new and possibly about to buy my first property.

I am under contract (VA loan) for a tri-level that has an in-law apartment. If I close at the current price I should have about $50k of equity. I am plan on initially house hacking with a long term lease on the in-law suite to cover about half of the mortgage and eventually transition to short term leases of the suite which should cover all or most of the mortgage.

There are several issues with the property. The house needs some roofing repairs and will need to be replaced within the next several years. There are also several other repairs the VA may require to be fixed before we close. I figure the cost to do all the repairs to be less than $10k.

2 questions

1) If the seller will not pay for repairs would you escrow the money to pay for these or would you walk away?

2) If I do close on the property would it be a better tax advantage to replace the roofing over the rental section in stages (half 1 year, half the next)?

Josh

I definitely appreciate any advice on these questions or my situation in general.