Short hiatus

[Anthony Martin]

BP, I've missed you all!

Being deployed down range takes a bit of a toll on free time on occassion, so I have been on a small hiatus.  But I've managed to find myself with some downtime as of late which I fully took advantage of!  I just put my second property under contract! 

I've owned my first primary residence since June of 2011 and have been claiming rental history on it since about August of 2011 to help bring down my DTI for my next purchase (and it's paid off! DTI for the mortgage I just applied for was ~26%) I have a VA loan on my first property and am taking advantage of the 0% down to use up the rest of my entitlements. The only unfortunate caveat to using additional entitlements, that I recently learned, is that there is a minimum purchase amount requirement. So, I've sacrificed a bit of a more expensive property to buy in a higher rent area near a military installation which will greatly help to keep my vacancy rates low. @Elizabeth Colegrove has helped me with some great insight into her strategy (Thank you so much, and I'll be responding to your message shortly) So, I should be closing on this property in early September with first payment required in November.  I think if I play it right, I may never have to make a full mortgage payment on this house (pick up a temporary roommate until I PCS to a new location).

So, I think the real reason for this post is to try and figure out my next step for looking into property number 3. I'm projecting to move overseas in the next year or so, but I'd love to hear the opinions of others as to whether or not I should sit on these two properties until I move back stateside in 4-5 years, or if I should keep pushing to build my portfolio and how to potentially go about it.  Two mortgages and a small auto loan, which I hope to have paid off in the next two years, are the only debt I hold.  I've got a small chunk of change being held by my FA that I can sell off if necessary, but like most of us, I'd like to do it for as little out of pocket as possible. 

I look forward to any opinions/insight offered!  Again, I'm very happy to be back in the community, talk to y'all soon!

-Anthony