Physician loan vs. VA loan

[Matt Toeneboehn]

Hey everyone,

I'm an active duty, military physician and have an upcoming move in JUL2022. I'm tired of paying rent and hope to house-hack and continue to invest in rentals in the future. I'm married, have 3 kids, and a dog and think we will need a 3 bed/1-2 bath to feel comfortable as our live-in unit.  Currently interested in finding a duplex/triplex.  More than likely we will only be living at that location for 1-2 yrs max before moving but I plan to hold onto the property and continue to rent it out. We have excellent credit, no debt and approximately $25,000 to put towards a down-payment if necessary with additional reserves. I should be able to utilize physician as well as VA loans for a low down-payment.  My long term vision is to repeat this process of buying a duplex/triplex every move to obtain a significant passive income from multi-family properties, which would allow me to cut back on hours (I love my job and don't want to quit!) and possibly work part-time so I can spend more time with family. 

Would you recommend I use the VA or physician loan on my rapidly approaching move? If it makes a difference, in JUL2022 I will be moving to a relatively affordable location and in JUN2023 I will likely be moving to a relatively expensive location (i.e. California/DC).

Thanks for your help!

[Matt Toeneboehn]

Quote from @Rodney Sums:

Quote from @Matt Toeneboehn:

 This is slightly unrelated to your post but hopefully you find it useful. Are you a newly licensed physician? 

Secon, with your goal to invest in real estate have you considered the free to low cost housing options that are afforded to military personnel and physicians? You'd know more about what's available to military personnel. I can tell you as a RN there were facilities that gave free to low cost housing for working at their facility, usually due to travel assignments which also pay better. You already know how much in demand you are, so I brought that up as an option for you to stack more cash toward multiple investment properties. 

1) I’m relatively young physician. I’ve had my medical license for 2 years and currently have some time in residency remaining.

2). The Navy pays basic housing allowance based on your rank and dependents which is tax free money that can be used at my discretion. For Oklahoma and my rank it is $1700/month. For San Diego it is significantly more. This can be spent on anything and is just added to our paycheck with the intention of paying for housing.