All Forum Posts by: Tyson Bumgarner

From what I gathered, you have to stay in the property for an amount of time decided by your lender, like 6 months to 2 years. After that you are free to move. The low rate is because they assume you are more likley to not give up on a property that you live in. So I would assume that you can get this loan as many times as you would like as long as you are staying in the property the agreed upon length of time. At least thats what I was told.

I was really only concerned with when I started my investing. I will be hard pressed to find something in WA with the cash I have now, or the cash I will have by the end of the year for that matter. I was looking to use the 0% down VA loan or OO loan. But I don't want to put myself in a bad place with my first property.

Perhaps I will just keep saving and searching in WA until either I get there or I find a suitable investment that I have the cash for.
Plus, I got a little demotivated by reading a thread here on when I could expect to quit my 9-5 job. :p

Good looking out Sam. I will be sure to do allot of research on the VA loans before a do any buying. I can't let my first purchase fail.
I did set a goal to make my first offer on a property before the end of April assuming I have found a deal worth getting.

My only concern is with this 2% rule. From what I have seen, the majority of duplexes on Oahu are around 500k. That would mean I need an NOI of 10,000 a month? I'm still learning, so correct me if I'm wrong please. But from what I can tell I would be collecting around 2,600-2,800 a month in rent (keep in mind I would be living in one unit for a while), that would give me a .6%? Is there an exception to the 2% rule for areas like HI that have very high property prices?

I should have said this before. I'm getting my BA so I can become an officer. I will also be getting it during my active duty time, so I will still have a fulltime job.

Like you said Brian, it may take me years before I can stop working a "normal" job and do RE fulltime. Being an officer is a faster way to get there because I have to have a BA and I get paid much more while I maintain my active duty service!

I was leaning towards accounting already before I asked this. I feel like I can learn what I need to know about economics from reading some books and paying attention to the news. And I will definitely look into the RE license, some of the terminology is still very confusing to me!

Hi everyone,

I've been in the military since I was 19 (I'm 26 now) and because of being stupid for a while I don't have any higher education to speak of. I have since figured out the error of my ways and have enrolled into college to get a BA. My end goal is to be a full time multi-family real estate investor.

My question is what type of degree would be the most useful to an investor? Right now I am on the pace towards either an economics or accounting BA. I'm not sure which BA to get yet. I chose these because I figured these would be handy with knowing the economy of my investing area and running my own books.

Also, would it be worth getting my real estate license? I'm not really familiar with what use this would be to an individual investor.

Thanks for any reply's!

Thanks Sam. That seems like the best play right now with a 2 or 3 plex that is OO with my VA loan. The only problem I'm running into is when I inevitably have to do a permanent change of duty station. I will either have to get a deal that I can sell on appreciation or find some way to keep my loan and not get hit with some rule about moving. But still, I think this is the direction I'm going to try and focus on right now.

Hmm, now this makes me think maybe I should wait until I get to WA to buy the first one so I can move in. Or do you think it would still be better to get the first one while I'm still in HI with 25% DP loan? Because then when I got to WA I could get the second right away using the VA loan. Or would it still be less hastle to get one with the OO loan?

Wow! That would be great! I will have to look into that. That could be the break I was looking for to get this ball rolling.

BAH(basic allowance for housing) in HI is $2,100 an month. And if I didn't have to pay rent, it could go towards all types of things, like upgrades, or the mortgage. Hmm, new opportunities!

My plan is to buy a 4-plex in Washington while I'm in Hawaii. Multi-family homes in HI are crazy expensive so that will never happen.

I expect to have at least 20k saved by August for a DP. My concern is getting the loan and then finding a PM to deal with the property. I am also anticipating 15k worth on work to get any unit up to rent levels for the area.

It's just hard to know what the right amount of money I need before I start this investment. I could just keep saving until I have enough, but I want to try to get something as soon as I can as long as it will have some kind of positive cash flow.

I guess I'll just tell you my new plan and see what you think.

I have 2 more years left in Hawaii. I would buy my first 4-plex outside Ft.Lewis in WA before that 2 years was up. I would then do my last 3 year re-enlistment in Ft.Lewis (God willing I get it). Using some cash from the first unit along with my own cash, I would attempt to buy 1 more 4-plex a year until my last three years were served. Then I would be out of the Army with 4 4-plexes to my name.

unrealistic?

I took the advice about not paying down my low interest debt. I was just about to put $7,500 from my tax return on my car. But the rate is only 3.2%. So with that extra cash I have 13,500 in saving right now. We average 1,200 saved every month. So by August I should have $20,700 saved. I'll work on having more than that, but that should be a good start right?

The OO won't be an option because I won't always be able to live there due to the Army. Would you suggest just plugging away with the saving and try to get my 4-plex or should I be looking for a duplex that I might be able to afford with 20k down? Keep in mind; I will be using a PM so I can buy in WA state.