All Forum Posts by: Chase Kimbrell

@Chase Kimbrell I meant to add that the houses and duplexes near the airport are in the most dangerous areas. Anyway, let me know what you think!

This will be my very first real estate investment, and here are my goals: I'd like a multiplex in a decent area for a decent price. I am planning on using my VA Loan to buy a multiplex and rent out the unit(s) I am not living in. I'm in the military and don't exactly get to choose where I live, and I'm being sent from my station in the UK to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I don't have a problem with this, except for the fact that it has a reputation for being utterly crime-ridden and unsafe. The houses and duplexes for the best price are all in the Southwest of the city, nearest to the airport and Air Force base, my future place of work.

I applied for a loan with Navy Federal, a military-oriented FCU that I bank with. They're offering me 3.5% with no money down, with the VA Loan. Incredible, right? Their only stipulation that I don't like is that they don't lend for anything over a duplex. So now I have found 3 duplexes in my price range, and only one of them looks to me like it would pass the VA Loan inspection for sure. It's $175,000, a 1 bed/1 bath with a garage space for myself and the future tenant, which would not yield more than $700 a month, despite my mortgage, insurance, and taxes being closer to $1050 a month. It doesn't seem to be in the safest area either.

My options seem to be to: A. Be happy with $700 or so a month and just do it. B. Ensure it cashflows more by setting up an automated Air BNB system for it. Or C. Pass it up for greener pastures.

This is my first property and I want to make it count! Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

@Chris S.

Thanks very much for the advice, Chris! I will keep those things in mind and I’ll probably end up getting a job out of the military instead of going back to school. I hope you’re enjoying the heat up there!

@Chris S.

Chris, thank you so much for your reply. With all of that in mind, I’ll definitely find a job to do after the military. Do you think that lenders would look favorably on being in the reserves/getting reservist pay? That’s one option I have considered. Otherwise, I’ll graduate with my degree in Communications, leave the military, and maybe just move back to Alaska and look for a job. I wanted to go to Liberty for their songwriting degree. Maybe I could wait on that degree until I get up to my “freedom number” with properties, so to speak.

So I am interested that you bought 2 properties with your VA Loan. I saw another YouTube video where a guy described doing that, but I didn't understand how he was able to do that. How can I find more information on that? I'd love to start my investing career with multiple houses.

My family lives down in Kenai, but I lived in Anchorage when I went to college, and I loved living there. I might move back. Either way, it would be really cool to connect with you sometime!

@Mario Flores

There’s a good section in The Richest Man in Babylon that talks about that. You can try to set aside 20% of you income toward it. Then either tackle the smallest debts first or the ones with the higher interest rates.

I've technically been a member of BP for years, ever since I felt that urge to find passive income streams when I was in college. I stumbled upon BP while looking into different ways of investing. I didn't understand it completely back then, and I didn't make a plan to save money for any properties. But now I'm back because since I joined the military after getting my associate's, I still want to be able to earn more through passive income. I watched some YouTube videos on the subject which pointed me back to BP. I logged in a few months ago and rediscovered my old account. Ever since then I've been listening to the BP Realty Investing podcast (while playing PS4 Monopoly simultaneously lol), reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Richest Man In Babylon, and Brandon Turner's blue Real Estate Investing book. I'm saving up as much as I can these days, despite many setbacks as of late, to be able to put money into a multiplex that I want to buy with my VA Home Loan. Of course, I don't have to have a whole down payment with the VAHL, but I know there will be fees I need to pay and possibly some expensive repairs or appliances I will need for my rental units. I live overseas (not a deployed location), and being in the military, that means I'm not allowed to house hack now (there are military laws against having non-family room mates while using Overseas Housing Allowance), but I leave in 6 months to go back to the states. I don't know where I'm going yet, as the vacancy list drops in about 3 weeks. I'm hoping to go to the Mid West, South, or North West.

Once I am back in the states, I will have 2 years left on my enlistment contract. I plan to save the money saved from house hacking and put it into buying at least one other house. I am also putting money into the military’s version of the 401k, and they match it 5%. I have about $4,000 in it now and I think it should grow to about $9,000 by the end of 2 years. I’d like to put that money into another house. So hopefully, in the next 2.5 years, I’ll have at least 3 houses, at least one of those being a multiplex that I spend 2 years house hacking in. One of those would also conceivably be a multiplex property that I move to when I decide to either go home to Alaska or wherever I end up going to college, like Liberty U in Virginia. I believe that if I can have 3 houses (5-12 units) by the time I go to college, I can spend the next 4 years in college using my GI Bill (military full-ride scholarship) and continue to grow my investment portfolio. By the time I’m out of college, I could have a fully-fledged investment portfolio and be completely ready to retire without working.

Please let me know what you think. Tell me if you have any concerns. I’m worried, personally, that lenders won’t like that I don’t have a job during college despite being supported by the GI Bill. I’m considering owning/operating a photography business on the side during college if it would help my credibility for lenders. Please let me know if you have insight on this issue. Thanks for any responses and feel free to ask me questions about my plan.