New Member, Hungry to Learn!

[Seth Church]

Hello everyone,

     My name is Seth and I have been in the military for 14 years. Over the time of my career, I have met a few people who invested in property, but never really worked the math to see why they do it the way they do. I come from a family who is very risk-averse in terms of taking on debt, and so I have always been that way. When I first joined the military I bought my first house. I immediately received deployment orders so I only lived in it for 9 months before starting to rent it out. For the next 9 years I dealt with tenant after tenant who destroyed the property. I usually repaired it myself, painting the house 3 times over those years and repairing the other damage to sinks, carpet, the yard, etc. When I used a property management company they ripped me off on simple repairs. I finally got sick of it and sold the property. 

     Since that time I have rented and I am tired of paying for others' houses, so am now looking to make smarter decisions and start on a new path in life. I am currently in military housing, basically paying $2300 a month in rent. I have $0 debt, can come up with $40,000 to invest in a property, and can potentially take out a loan through my retirement fund at 3.5% interest. I am looking to develop a strategy and to get started on this journey! I have already read through chapter 5 of 'Real  Estate by the Numbers', and have 'Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat' and 'Long-Distance Real Estate Investing' on order (although I don't plan on doing long-distance quite yet).

If anyone can point me in the right direction to answer these questions, I would be very appreciative! Looking forward to getting started.

- Can I use the BRRR method on a property I plan to live in? I.e. can I find a property that needs rehab, rehab it, refinance it and live there, taking the cash (assuming a 70% loan on the ARV will provide cash on top of expenses) and rolling it into the next property?

- Where do I find reliable comparables to determine a house's ARV? likewise, how do I determine the market rent for the property?

- How do most people estimate the cost to rehab? 

-Last, where are you all finding the deals?! What website / realty services?

Thank you, looking forward to learning,

-Seth

[Hamp Lee III]

Welcome to BiggerPockets!

I recommend looking into using your VA loan benefit and moving out of military housing.

I'm active duty Air Force and PCSed last year. I've maxed out my VA loan benefit with three active loans now.

Let me know if you ever want to discuss how you can do the same.

I wish you all the best.