New College Student Investor - VA Home Loan House Hack

[Michael Ferrito]

Hello! My name is Mike Ferrito, I'm 20 years old studying Industrial & Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University. I serve as an aerial-refueling crew chief in the Ohio Air National Guard and for a fun fact, I have my Private Pilot's License. I intend to invest in Columbus, OH, specifically within the University area.

My main focus is pursuing a VA Home Loan "House Hack" in a smaller-sized duplex (2-5 br per side). I am brand new to real estate investing, lending, property management, etc., so I want to start with something manageable and work from there. I'm tired of renting!

I still have a good 1-1.5 years before I can seriously start to put in any offers, so I want to use this time to educate myself the best I can, that's where your help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some of the questions I have at the moment:

-Which metric should I use to analyze this specific situation? (IRR, cash-on-cash, ROI, etc)

-What should I expect to pay for closing costs with a VA home loan?

-Debt-to-Income Ratio: If I'm an authorized user on a credit card does that show up on my DTI even if I don't use it?

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you!

[Remington Lyman]

Originally posted by @Michael Ferrito:

Hello! My name is Mike Ferrito, I'm 20 years old studying Industrial & Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University. I serve as an aerial-refueling crew chief in the Ohio Air National Guard and for a fun fact, I have my Private Pilot's License. I intend to invest in Columbus, OH, specifically within the University area.

My main focus is pursuing a VA Home Loan "House Hack" in a smaller-sized duplex (2-5 br per side). I am brand new to real estate investing, lending, property management, etc., so I want to start with something manageable and work from there. I'm tired of renting!

I still have a good 1-1.5 years before I can seriously start to put in any offers, so I want to use this time to educate myself the best I can, that's where your help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some of the questions I have at the moment:

-Which metric should I use to analyze this specific situation? (IRR, cash-on-cash, ROI, etc)

-What should I expect to pay for closing costs with a VA home loan?

-Debt-to-Income Ratio: If I'm an authorized user on a credit card does that show up on my DTI even if I don't use it?

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you!

I graduated from The Ohio State University in 2016 and started house hacking shortly after. It is a great way to build wealth.

-Which metric should I use to analyze this specific situation? (IRR, cash-on-cash, ROI, etc) When I first started I did not use any analysis. I just picked a double that was in my price range and went for it.

-What should I expect to pay for closing costs with a VA home loan? @Chris Wharton @Ashley Cross can you opine on this

-Debt-to-Income Ratio: If I'm an authorized user on a credit card does that show up on my DTI even if I don't use it? @Chris Wharton @Ashley Cross can you opine on this