House Hacking in Jacksonville FL

[Devin Voelker]

Hey everyone, I'm new to BP and property investing. I'm stuck with a 9-month lease right now but I'm using the time I have to study hard and save more money. I plan on using my VA home loan for my first house hack so I can get 0% down and no PMI. I was wondering if anyone here has experience with multi-family homes in the Jacksonville area or experience using VA home loans for house hacking and could give me some advice.

[Andrew Postell]

@Devin Voelker now you are talking my language! I wish more of us veterans used our VA loans for this purpose. I've invested in Jacksonville for many years but I want to provide some advice that will apply to any city just in case:

1. Realtors - rely on a real estate agent to find properties. A realtor should be able to tell you more about your local market than anybody else...at least, a good realtor should. We rely on them for their market expertise. Now, you will find that in many markets where land is relatively cheap (like Jacksonville, Florida) that multi-family homes are significantly harder to find. In NYC or San Francisco the land is so expensive that builders have to put multiple units on a lot to make the numbers work. But here in Texas there's so much land they will build a house on an acre of land and hardly think twice about it. So some markets will have more limitations than others. It doesn't mean they aren't out there, but your choices might be limited. Maybe even think about a single family home with an "ADU" (aka mother-in-law suite or garage apartment) and that might open your choices up more. You can absolutely house hack a single family home as well. That's how I got started.

2. Getting PreQualified - make sure you are working with a lender that knows how to navigate some of the nuances to VA loans. For example, if you don't have rental history in your background...that will limit you when buying a 4 unit property. Make sure your VA lender knows how to advise you in this arena. Your lender should also know how to advise you on the TIMING of your closing so you aren't paying two payments (your mortgage and rent) at the same time. Closing about 2 months out will still allow you the benefit of one payment. Make sure they know that element too. Once you are prequalified you can go shopping for a property. It should be free to get prequalifed. Another bonus question to ask your lender - how many VA loans can I receive? The answer should be 2. If it's not two...then go to another lender.

3. Your Commitment - you commit to live in this property for 12 months. That's it. Then you can go and do it again. You can really leverage your VA loan to maximize your property acquisitions. There are some tax benefits if you stay 2 years...so maybe that might be a good goal to have as well? But in either case, map out what your plan is and you'll find yourself on property 2 before you know it.

Thanks for the post!  Feel free to ask anything else if you need.  Thanks!