VA Loan Deal Analysis

[Nathan Doherty]

Hi everyone!

I’m working on getting my second deal under contract and I’m feeling conflicted.

I usually can look at properties in my area and really have a good idea of the current value and the ARV but ironically the one property my wife and I are most interested in is giving me problems. I'll explain below.

I'm currently active duty and we live in a house that I purchased with an fha 203k loan. We decided we are going to rent this house out and move to another house in the same city with plans to rent both once we move away. I still have my VA benefit and I'm already preapproved so it's all about finding the deal.

We found a 3/2 with 1500 sq ft and a 2 car garage. In a nice, safe neighborhood and backyard is on a canal. It’s mostly updated but we could add some value in the bathrooms and kitchen.

The list price is 183000 and it has been on market for about 6 months. I had my realtor run us some comps and those comps show the projected value to be about 248000. I think this is a lot higher than the actual value even if the home was in absolute best condition.

Most of the homes in the neighborhood are going for about $90-115 per sq ft. They’re currently asking about $120 per sq ft.

From everything I’ve looked at I’d be comfortable paying up to 160k for this house because based on all of my numbers I could cash flow at that price when I move out. But I would also like to get the best deal possible and when I look at equity I feel that I should be offering around 140k but my wife and I really do want the house and I don’t want to low ball the seller too much. Any thoughts are much appreciated and thanks for taking the time to read!