Can I use my VA home loan to purchase a rental property?

[Gonzalo Diaz]

Hello BP community, my name is Gonzalo and I'm currently an active duty Marine with 4 months left on contract. My goal for when I EAS is to own rental properties and I plan on starting small with a single family home. I don't know anybody at the moment who invests in real estate who once served and I have a lot of questions regarding if I'm able to use my benefits (i.e. VA home loan, business loan, etc.) to purchase and own rental properties. I heard there's some catches like how I can't use my VA home loan to purchase a rental property unless I live in it first for a year then rent it out but I'm not entirely sure if that is true or not. I also heard that if I'm set up as a business I'd be able to use the business loan to cover the downpayment for the rental property I buy, but again I'm not sure if that's entirely correct. Another question I have is if I'm able to purchase a property I plan to flip with the VA home loan. Any guidance or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[David Pere]

Gonzalo, you must intend to live in the home for a reasonable amount of time (generally assumed to be one year) in order to purchase with the VA loan. I love the idea of house hacking with the VA loan, and absolutely think this can help set you up for success!

Check out the two articles below that I wrote for the BiggerPockets blog with a lot more information about the VA loan. After you check them out I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@Gonzalo Diaz one issue you might run into is that you will need to have income, and your military income won't work if you're getting out in a couple of months. There are some ways to work with this though, and I'm happy to loop a lender into our conversation to ensure you're headed in the right direction!

@Eric Jones I hope you're not insinuating that "intend" is a loophole worth exploiting. Mortgage fraud is not a place to play the grey area game, and we don't need veterans ending up in hot water when this product is already incredible!