New to REI, lots of questions!

[Cameron Miles]

Hello everyone!

My name is Cameron Miles and I am currently active duty military (USMC) with a little over 7 years of service, however I will be separating from active duty in 10 months. My plan is to move to Houston Texas (I am originally from Austin) so I can attend college at the University of Houston and purchase a multifamily home, either a duplex or fourplex. While attending college I will receive $1,623 per month for 36 months as long as I am a full time student. Using my VA loan to purchase a property with 0% down and renting the other units while receiving BAH makes me feel like I have a leg up for my very first purchase. Here are my questions:

1. To qualify for a home loan, my understanding is that I must be employed and show my income. Part of my dilemma is that I move to Houston in either December or January, but don't officially separate until March 31 2015. I can seek employment, but I cannot be hired until I receive my DD214 upon separation. I wanted to purchase a property prior to my departure from here (Okinawa, Japan) so I have an address for the military to ship all of my household goods to. Is there a way I can purchase a property prior to separation if I cannot legally take on another job? I have a wife and daughter so staying with a friend would be inconvenient for everyone involved.

2. The degree I am seeking at Bauer is their entrepreneurship degree, which mainly offers daytime, face to face classes. This means I can probably only get a part time, night and weekend job while I am a student. Is it feasible to be approved for a home loan with only part time work of some sort?

3. Is anyone here currently residing or investing in Houston Texas?

4. I have been looking at properties, but I am unsure of how to establish their actual value. When I click on Tax Information on most websites, it has an appraised value but no date of the appraisal. Almost every property I have looked at is listed for 100k or more over the appraised value. Does this mean the market is high and it's a bad time to buy, or could the appraisal be old? How do I determine the actual value of a property so I can make offers for 80% of that value?

5. I spoke with another military member today who is separating and will receive $147,000 (pretax) for separation, but they have no plan for their money or life after the military. I explained my plans and convinced them to start a new company with me, investing 20-50k into the business to use as a down payment on an investment property. What are the different rules or factors that change for a property purchase if you do it with a company name instead of in the name of an individual?

6. Is renting to fellow college students I meet in school a bad idea?

These are all of the questions I can think of so far. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance to anyone who finishes reading this long post and is kind enough to respond. I do greatly appreciate all guidance and wisdom shared!

Very Respectfully,

Cameron

[Greg Fend]

Hi Cameron, good luck on your transition!

A couple of notes I'd mention:

"1. To qualify for a home loan, my understanding is that I must be employed and show my income. Part of my dilemma is that I move to Houston in either December or January, but don't officially separate until March 31 2015. I can seek employment, but I cannot be hired until I receive my DD214 upon separation." I'm assuming that you have a good amount of leave saved up and are taking terminal leave. The good news about that is that until your FINAL ETS date, you in fact are still employed by Uncle Sam, with 7 years of employment history. Use that to your advantage if you can.

"I wanted to purchase a property prior to my departure from here (Okinawa, Japan) so I have an address for the military to ship all of my household goods to." Don't be too worried about this. Normal HHGs take at least a month to get to you from overseas, at least with my experience of receiving mine in Korea. I also think you get 90 days of storage on the government's dime before you have to pay or schedule delivery. It should say in your orders.

As to the rest of your questions, keep digging on BP, you'll find a wealth of information on how to work with local realtors to find out comparable prices in the area you're interested in, thoughts on partnering, and planning out your investment strategy.

Good luck to you, and welcome to the site!