All Forum Posts by: Gabi Ashenden

Hi Andrew! That's very helpful, thank you, we are planning to use the VA loan, which is offered to us at 6.4%. The 8% I mentioned was for the loan we would take if we would buy the property as an investment property, that would be a different loan if that makes sense. We will definitely look into the funding fee, thank again!

Hello everyone,

My husband (veteran) and I bought a house last year with a VA loan (0% down), and we lived in it for more than a year. We have been researching our market and are very ready to buy an investment property. We were prequalified for 400K at 8.4% (Ouch!). We have renovated the house we live in, and we put way more into it than we should have, because we didn't think we would house-hack it, and we made it customized to us.

Anyway, we are thinking about renting the house that we live in right now for a year and moving into another house that we will house-hack, probably upgrade it with an intention of renting it in the future, and probably come back to the house that we live in right now. Here's what the loan officer told us: "You still have entitlement left over that you can use if you choose to make this property your primary residence. Long and short, if you were to buy a primary residence at $500,000 you would have to put down 6%.".

What are your thoughts at the moment? I think it's a great idea, but what are the downsides of using a VA loan for house-hacking?

Hi!

I've recently moved to the US, my husband is a US citizen, I have a green card and we bought a house in TX that's our primary residence. I have an apartment in Europe that my parents bought for me when I was in college, that is now worth around 340 - 350k . I'm thinking about selling it, because even though it's in a great location (Warsaw city center), and I've never had a mortgage on it, I only get around $1200 a month out of it. The issue is, that I will have to pay capital gains taxes here in the US, which will be around 30.000-40.000. 

My question is, how to reinvest that money? Is it better to put that money down as even 50% in an expensive market like California, etc, or buy a couple of cheaper properties?  We also live in a great area of Houston (the woodlands), and thought about investing here, but the taxes are very high, and can't get anything under $320.000. What are your thoughts on that? Is it bad to invest in areas with high taxes? 

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! 

I'm familiar with that rule, but I'm trying to get the clarification. 

I'm trying to sell the property overseas to invest in the US economy, so I don't know how that defeats the purpose. I would agree if I would sell the property in the US to invest outside. But we all know the rules are there for a reason. 

I'm not worried about the nationality aspect at the moment :) 

I'm European, and I purchased a property when I was back in college in Europe (2009). I just got my green card, and I'm thinking about selling the property because rent to value ratio is ridiculously low. The property has more than doubled in value, and I was wondering if it's possible to use 1031 to buy the property in the US. I don't want to keep investing back home. Also, how would the rate conversion work? Obviously, the rate 14 years ago was different than it is today to the currency that's used back home. 

Thank you!