New Military: invest in hometown or next duty station to use VA

[Dimitri Paspalaris]

Hello all. I am currently stationed in California but my hometown is Jacksonville, FL. I currently have 50k to play with and was wondering should I wait till my next duty station in 1.5 years and save some money up. Next duty station is possibly back out in Hawaii and based on the numbers I have ran I would need more money in reserve to make it work with a VA loan after I finish my tour on the island due to HOA fees that make the property that I want a significant negative cashflow or should I invest in my hometown Jacksonville Florida in the next couple of months? I would like to do a SFH to start maybe a multifamily but the only issue I have with Jacksonville is that the cash flow is like 5-8% including my calculated 5% for vacancy, 5% for Capex, 5% for repairs and 10% for property management. I am evaluating my mortgage rate to be 6% for a 30 year fixed on the investment property in Jax, Florida. Thanks for the help.