VA Home Loan for Rental Properties

[Dane Porter]

Hello everyone!

I am curious if anyone has any information that could answer my question. I am a 23 year old veteran and full time college student majoring in business with a concentration in entrepreneurship. This summer I purchased my first rental property with my mother. Together we were able to qualify for a conventional morgage on a great building, giving me a great opportunity to continue my passion as a real estate investor.

While attempting to qualify for the loan I learned a couple things. I was not able to qualify for the VA Home Loan guarantee on a multi family property without first having established experience as a landlord. This is because to qualify by myself I would have needed to use the future rents as income to qualify for the loan. (About 75% of future rents can be taken into consideration in getting qualified is my understanding, I have heard 85% but not sure)

My question is how much experience, in terms of time, is required by the VA to guarantee a he loan on a multi family property when the buyer is trying to use future rents to qualify? I have heard everywhere from 6 months to 2 years. I am very motivated and excited to get my second rental property and want to do it as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate any feedback people have!