VA Loan multi-family investing in Lawton, OK.

[Edward Zachary Samperio]

I am currently an Active Duty service member and am very interested in using my VA loan to buy a 2-3 unit multi-family property. I live in single soldier off-post housing, I am 3 years in, and have about 2 years left in service. My original goal was to begin investing in San Antonio Texas after I leave the military, but I have a few questions about Lawton because I am considering starting here.

1. Is Lawton a good place to start investing? (I am okay with receiving a smaller return because it is more important for me to build momentum rather than get everything perfect).

2. Am I even eligible to use my VA loan since I am not married?

3. Would it be wiser to wait 2 years to invest in San Antonio?

If anyone has any experience in investing in Lawton Oklahoma, I would appreciate hearing your experiences. Thank you.

[Erik Browning]

Quote from @Edward Zachary Samperio:

I am currently an Active Duty service member and am very interested in using my VA loan to buy a 2-3 unit multi-family property. I live in single soldier off-post housing, I am 3 years in, and have about 2 years left in service. My original goal was to begin investing in San Antonio Texas after I leave the military, but I have a few questions about Lawton because I am considering starting here.

1. Is Lawton a good place to start investing? (I am okay with receiving a smaller return because it is more important for me to build momentum rather than get everything perfect).

2. Am I even eligible to use my VA loan since I am not married?

3. Would it be wiser to wait 2 years to invest in San Antonio?

If anyone has any experience in investing in Lawton Oklahoma, I would appreciate hearing your experiences. Thank you.

Great questions Edward. Like Brandon Turner says - "everything works." What he means by that is every asset class works: multifamily, mobile homes, syndications. This includes location as well. Although I'm not an expert in Oklahoma, I'm 100% certain there is a deal to be had. "Deal" meaning a property that you can purchase under market value, either on the MLS or off market, do some light to medium renovation, and rent/flip/house hack to earn a return.

1. Instead of focusing on the location of the property (at the moment) learn about how to analyze deals in your backyard first. Start looking on Redfin, Zillow, etc. and see what makes sense to you. How do you analyze deals? Look on the Tools Tab at the top and start playing around with the calculators. There are little videos in the calculators that will help break things down and show you how to analyze a deal.

2. You can use your VA loan at any time, single or married, active or separated. I'm a veteran and started investing using my VA loan when I was 21. Since then, I've purchased multiple properties with it, along with conventional investing products, and received both house hacking and rental property income from all of them. It's a good idea to do some planning with your VA loan before you purchase however. You can split your entitlement, buy 2 homes in 2 years, and then do a 1-Time Restoration and repeat the process 2 more times over another 2 more years. This is a general description of how to get this done, however it requires some more elbow grease when you actually want to move forward.

3. Either works, just make sure you're financially sound and have a well thought out plan. Like @Lorenzo Prieto mentioned, time in the market beats timing the market. Have a good plan, have a good team, take the leap. 

You'll make the right choice, good luck!