Elijah and Isabel saying Hello!

[Elijah H.]

Hello, my name is Elijah. My wife, Isabel, and I are interested in investing in real estate. We are a military family currently renting in Yelm, outside Joint Base Lewis-McChord in WA. We have spent a few months reading books, watching YouTube videos, spending time on the BP forum, etc. trying to gain as much knowledge as we can before jumping into this new adventure. We are set on our first investment being a house hack, and will be looking to buy our first duplex/triplex/ etc. by the beginning of next year. We don't want to just keep talking about this, and want to set our plan into action! So we're making this post to say hello to the community and have the opportunity to network! We also have a few questions, which are: Does anyone have experience renting to military families?... In particular around Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington? We have seen a lot of the pro’s and con’s to having military tenants and would love to hear some real world feedback! With that, we are pretty convinced that our best bet will be purchasing near the base. I’m thinking that the constant demand from the military tenants, as well as the housing allowance, would be beneficial to us. Does anyone have experience purchasing multi-family properties in areas such as Spanaway, Graham, Puyallup, North Tacoma? Also since we are military, we are looking to use a VA Loan to purchase our first property. I know that you can purchase multi-family with the loan, and that you can have multiple loans so long as it does not exceed the amount for your location, but we saw that it can’t be used on multi-family properties with separate utilities? Some clarification on those limits would be really appreciated. Lastly, Does anyone have advice on how to get realistic estimates when running numbers? Specifically how you get the numbers you do in order to make your calculations. We’ve been able to use mortgage calculators, and Zillow for some ideas on property tax, etc. Sorry for the lengthy list of questions, hopefully you are still reading to this point! We look forward to any feedback, and questions that can be answered. Also to meet other investors, even in our local area! But most importantly, we are thankful for this app and all of the resources out there to make the jump into this adventure. Thank you so much for your time.