All Forum Posts by: Gerhard Listander

I bought my first property when I was stationed in Abilene about 3 years ago. I used my VA loan to purchase a 3 bed 2 bath and I lived in it for about 2 years until I PCS'd and I still have it as a rental. Not sure what you're current housing situation is but if you're living on base or renting I'd suggest using the VA loan and get a house now that would make a decent rental in the future. You could move out in a year and get another one. I didn't have much luck finding any multi-family when I was there but you could try finding a duplex, triplex, fourplex and move in one unit and rent the others out.

I'm definitely a fan of using the VA loan since it's no down payment and no PMI. If you're not a fan of actually owning a primary residence yet I'd probably try buying properties in Dallas/Houston/Austin, those markets are pretty good compared to Abilene. There's not much there besides the base in my opinion.

Hope you do well!

I've used my VA loan on my first rental property but of course I had to live in it to satisfy the VA requirements but I eventually moved away and I still have it as a rental. My next purchase and advice to you would be to use the VA loan on a duplex, triplex, fourplex and just live in a unit and rent the others out. I can't think of any other way that would be easier and have the lowest upfront cost of getting your first investment units.

When I was in I used my VA loan to buy a 75k house in Abilene TX. Lived in it for about 2 years until I PCS'd and hired a property management company and it has been a rental for almost 2 years now. The VA loan is a mortgage specific for military/veterans. Its a 0% down payment loan but you do pay a $1,500 funding fee to use the loan which can be added to your mortgage amount. Depending on where you buy you have a limit of up to something close to 450k but you probably won't qualify for anywhere near that. It is a primary home loan so in order to use it you have to state you will be living in the house you buy for at least one year.

If I were you I would try to buy a duplex, triplex, fourplex. You can live in one unit and rent the other units out. I did have a couple roommates through the years I lived in my single family and charged them half their BAH and it covered almost the whole mortgage payment so it wasn't bad.

I would use the profits from the rentals to invest in something else that gives a return. I'm not exactly sure how it all works out but I wouldn't count paying down principal as a valid way of compounding money. Use rental profits to buy mutual funds or more real estate would definitely be the way to go in my book.

If you're goal is massive cash flow, the easiest solution I see is selling the condo and taking whatever is left over and buying an apartment building. If you end up with 600k-700k you could use as a down payment on something like a 2m building. If you can get something like a 5% cap rate that could be 100k a year in your pocket.

I bought my first house with a VA loan. Lived in it and redid the kitchen and other things and had a roommate that paid a good chunk of the mortgage and utilities. I moved away and now its a rental. I would suggest buying a duplex, triplex, or fourplex with your VA loan.

I'm not a big investor yet but I do have one rental unit so I'm just going to state my opinion on what I've been learning and the route I want to take. My one rental unit has been decent, couple repairs here and there that a property manager handles but I still dread even talking to them when a problem comes up.

So I've been looking into investing into syndications instead. Just invest for equity on someone elses deal, let them handle all the headaches and be pretty much a 100% passive investor while still getting good tax benefits but you do lose your leverage and control. 

I read your other post and it was definitely inspiring. I've turned my investing strategy towards the syndication route for some real passive income. My only problem is I'm currently a non-accredited investor and can't seem to find anything other than online crowd funding sites that use a private REIT fund for investing. I was wondering are you an accredited investor or did you happen to find a really good non website form of sponsor/syndication? Thanks for all the info.

It makes perfect sense to me. If you're an "expert" in something you can teach it to others for money. I guarantee you the profit margin on selling courses you create, consulting, or just building a YouTube channel and an audience of people who love what you're about will be so much greater than profits made from real estate. Then you could easily use those profits to buy more real estate at such a faster rate then holding a job or just waiting for funds to accumulate from real estate cash flows.

Whats the cold hard truth thats so bad? He raises money, makes X% from money raised while buying and managing assets with raised money for others who in turn make X% return. What a bad bad man.