All Forum Posts by: Adam L.

 Are you working with a real estate agent by chance? They may be able to help find other things to go after and find those in-law suites as well.

That is not a bad idea at all and I always recommend people save money from their BAH. It may be hard to find, but almost every location has du/tri/quadplexes to choose from. You can even look for a house with an in-law suite that you can rent out as well. If you do buy a traditional house, make sure you can get rent it out with some cash-flow when you PCS. If you are buying a house when moving around you should always try and set yourself up for cash flow when you leave. 

Sure, you may end up just buying a house because you want to live in that house. Just remember you are buying that as a liability not an asset.

@Adam M Drozdowski, it definitely only needs to be 10%. And I may be able to refer a lender to you if you’d like. Hit me up in a DM if you’re interested.

@Adam M Drozdowski, honestly, that sounds odd to hear that to be honest. BAH is used exactly for that and should be accounted for as part of the income.

Also, the funding fee is waived for a service connected disability. That stays in your record forever once it’s there so it’s a one time process to get that finalized. Should you still need to pay the funding fee, it can be rolled into the loan as well which means no money out of pocket.

Be very careful though. Buy correctly because you can get yourself under water quickly if you pay no money down and the market drops around the time you need to sell. Make sure it’s a smart financial decision and buy for cash flow not appreciation. If it doesn’t cash flow well then don’t buy it!

@Adam M Drozdowski, fantastic way to start investing! I wish I knew about it at the beginning of my military career. Things would be much different now. Ha ha. I'd be more than happy to help with VA questions and help with investing. That is what I do and I'm always ready to help military members and their families. Let me know what I can do!

@Mikhail Llauder, what's going on! Congrats on setting some goals and working towards them. The VA loan can certainly help get you there and you can build a decent portfolio while moving around. While overseas you may have a bit more of a difficult time since you get OHA not BAH and they are treated a bit differently.

The SDIRA is a great plan you just have to invest in other people’s deals for that as you can’t invest in your own deals.

As has been mentioned, make sure your financial house is in order before you start buying houses. Get out of bad debt, have money saved up, etc. then jump into buying a property. You can do turn key investments while overseas which would help you out but that means putting a tradition down payment down and not using the VA loan. Still get you going but a bit more money involved.

I would love to help however I can as that is what I focus on: helping military members and their families with real estate! Hit me up if you have any questions.

@Chan Jung, I would be careful with this as there are a lot of variables that could affect this. One, some lenders won’t allow you to refinance until after a year. It’s not technically a requirement, but the banks can choose to do that. Two, you are not technically intending to live in the property for more than a year as you signed you were for the original loan. That could be thrown at you as mortgage fraud and they could have a pretty good case for it. Three, the rate of the refinance needs to be lower than the rate you currently have. There is a possibility that will happen in that 1-3 month period, but certainly no guarantee.

I would do some research and see if this will really be an effective strategy for you. Not something I would recommend in most cases though.

There are quite a few ways to use your VA loan to your advantage. You can use it multiple times as well and build a decent portfolio while you are in the military with nothing down (as long as you stay below the max allowed for your county). Learn a lot and get the right network to help you out. Let me know if you have any questions!

You just have to have the intent to live in that house for a year. Let's say you're planning to move to Anywhere, USA, so you go find the place you want and buy it. Then life happens and you have to move to Somewhere, USA instead; it's ok. You can write the letter to the VA and likely use your remaining VA benefit in Somewhere even though you already used some of your benefit in Anywhere. No big deal.

You still have to qualify for the loans based on your income, so keep that in mind. Nothing is given to you just for playing. 

Thank you for your service, @Noah Schultz. I think you are on the right track with thinking about multifamily. I will almost always suggest (pending any familial problems with this) buying a multiplex for an investment property using the VA loan. It is a fantastic tool that really pays you to use. If you get an acceptable place (doesn't have to be the best place you have lived in... its temporary!) then you can rent out the other units and make some money. If you buy near the school and rent them out more like a student housing property (rent rooms to individuals) then you can make even more money. Mind you, you need to make sure the property works without the student housing setup as well just in case but the student housing option will really accelerate your income and growth!

Please reach out to myself or my partners, @Eric Upchurch, @Markian Sich, @Mike Foster, or @Tim Kelly and let us know if we can help.