To Buy or Not to Buy: Military Spouse buys first home in Georgia

[Amanda Arredondo]

Hello Bigger Pockets Community,

First I would appreciate any and all feedback to my question: is it a good idea for me to finance our first house?

My question is should I finance the first home my husband and I will purchase? Heres the situation: my husband is active duty military and I am currently working at a financial institution with a year there. We currently rent because we weren't in the position to purchase when we got here to NY but we know we will buy a home at our next place in Georgia. 

I'm sure my husband could get financed, he has the Va loan which is very attractive because you can do no money down no pmi etc, thats always an option. But we have a goal of financing as many properties in each of our names (separately) as possible. I'm considering purchasing an investment property while I am still working my job and when we move there we can move into it. If we like the market, we could, purchase another home in my husbands name without any trouble. I may not be able to qualify for another property for a year or two depending on how quickly I can find a job. 

I'm know there are pros and cons to each, with an investment property we need 20% down, and I would need to convince the lender that my income is stable, which is up in the air, but I would love any feedback I can get. Is this a crazy or bad idea?

[Elizabeth Colegrove]

Hi Again :) 

As we talked, my husband is active duty. We got started with our VA loan because it was what we could afford. Than I went back to work and we invested my salary into 2 rentals than we moved again. For us it makes sense to leverage whoever has the best job at the time, since it changes every duty station.

We have done very well self managing our houses at every duty station that we have been transferred too. This has allowed us to save tons of money, although there has been some moments over the years.

The VA loan can be split up. so that is a huge bonus. Here is a VA loan guide I put together for BP.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/12/0...

PM if I can help further! While owning homes has definitely had LOTS of moments while being an active duty spouse. It has also been such an amazing blessing.