All Forum Posts by: Claudia W.

Aloha everyone,

My husband and I currently live in Hawaii and are looking to get started in REI soon. Our strategy is to start out with rehabbing houses at first to increase our financial resources and then eventually transition to buy and holds. We've established a 10 year plan that should enable us to have acquired enough properties to be financially independent enough to where we can travel the world! We're currently still in the education phase of our investing career and are reading books, blogs and listening to the podcast every day on our way to work.

Here's a little bit about our background: we bought our first house in Alabama (before we knew anything about REI). Our agent then sold us on how it would make for a great investment property once we move and just rent it out (the good old rent-mortgage=profit). Needless to say, we're not making money on this, the market (house values and rents alike) are steadily going down and now we can't even sell it because we're underwater - unless any of you have a creative solution for us?

Moving on to our next 'deal'. We bought our 3/2 home in Hawaii using the VA loan again, as a short sale this time) but didn't really negotiate 'a deal'. Luckily, it has been appreciating quickly and we're looking to sell it within the next year.

About 6 months ago we found BP, ironically while researching reviews on certain gurus that came to town. While the 3 day seminar gave us the final push and motivation to seriously consider real estate, we're now very happy that we didn't fork over the tens of thousands for 'advanced training'. BP blog posts, the forums and of course the podcast are amazing resources and we're soaking up as much information as we can :)  I'm looking forward to being a part of this great community and learn from and grow with it! 

P.S. Our next step will be to buy a duplex/triplex/fourplex using the VA loan again once we moved back to the mainland. We then plan on living in it for 2 years while renting out the other units. This should give us a nice start into becoming long term buy and hold investors, all while hopefully living rent free.

@Mitch Dowler, Great points! This is also the route we plan on taking. We've currently used the VA loan to buy our property here in Hawaii, but plan on selling it once we PCS again. (Bought it as a short sale, so it actually appreciated in the short 2 years we've owned it). Then we want to buy a multiple unit property using our VA loan entitlement again. Do you know the limits as far as repairs needed? (We don't want to buy at retail, but realize that the conditions of the property has to be good enough to qualify for VA).

Hi Jeremy,

We're in a similar situation and looking at using our VA loan to buy a multiple unit as well. Here's what I can tell you what I've found from research so far, if someone knows more concrete information please let us know:

1) I read that VA underwriters use up to 75% of potential rental income to determine your approval.

2) I believe it's 2 years. Not sure how the "intend" to live there comes into play here.

3) As far as I know, the VA is pretty strict regarding the condition of the house you're buying. It has to be in move-in ready conditions (all major systems/appliances in working order). They're not too concerned about cosmetics as long as all the units are "livable" and safe. Because of this requirement, I don't think you can include repairs in your original loan.

I've found all this info after some online research, and am now combing through old BP forums :) I hope it helped you a little bit and good luck with your investing!