All Forum Posts by: Ian Morales

Ian,

This is a pretty well thought out plan. Much better than most. A few suggestions/thoughts:

- Ask your agent to provide you recent sales (last 12 months) of deals that would have met your criteria, starting with deals they were the broker on. This is the one question I’d add to your otherwise strong list of interview questions.

- Doubling the penny every year for 5 years is really tough and really risky if it’s not your full time job. Make sure that’s really what you want. 

- PR and Florida are good markets. Florida will have a rough go if it in 2024 and 2025, but may emerge smiling in 2026 and beyond. Make sure to look into supply, insurance, taxes, etc. if you invest there. In PR, understand the locals disposition to OOS investors, even those fluent in Spanish like yourself (or so I gather from Spanish language interview questions).

No harm in beginning the interview process with both lender and agent today. You’ll need both and interviewing all at once has advantages. You can reach out to a few lenders and a few agents in both markets under the “build your team” section of the navigation bar anytime. Today is a great day to get going. 

@Ian Morales Heck yeah! It sounds like PR and FL definitely make sense for you as investing locations. 

I'm not sure if you'll be in the area on September 22nd, but we're doing a local real estate meetup down in San Diego. Its all military folks (current and vets) that do real estate in some capacity. You should come down and hang out! 5pm at Deft Brewing on Banks St. Theres no pitching or sales presentation - just folks chatting real estate. 

Be patient there are always new opportunities for real estate. You can't completely avoid risk, but you can do your best to minimize them. When your stable and you know the market that's when you can start making moves. 

Puerto Rico offers a 40% tax credit for tourism projects. The smallest of these would be a bed & breakfast that can be as little as 3 rooms. (3-5 rooms total) Host must live on site, and breakfast must be provided. There are many other requirements, but it seems like in theory you could use your VA loan to buy a 4 unit building, live in 1 unit, STR the other 3 and receive a Puerto Rico tax credit (which can be sold to high income earners for between 70 to 83 cents on the dollar) for your purchase, rehab and 1st years operating costs.

It is a lot of paperwork and compliance. I got halfway through it once (then sold the 4plex) and am halfway through it a 2nd time on a more expensive building. If I had to do it again, I would personally not do this much work for a 4 plex, I would do it on a bigger hotel project. But you are limited with your VA loan to 4 units or less. So in theory, I think this is possible. I do know several active military members here who have used their VA loans to buy 4 units and they are doing STR very successfully. They are not using the tax incentives. If you do down this route, it is critical to meet with Tourism *before* your purchase. And this is not legal advice, lots to explore on your own if you do this.

@Ian Morales If you plan to use your VA loan, you must intend to live in the home for at least a year. Where are you currently living, and will you be moving after deployment?

To answer your question, I would take the time right now and while on deployment to build up your knowledge and start networking with folks on FB and the BP forums, depending on your connectivity while deployed. 

Why do you like PR and FL? There's nothing wrong with those markets, but I just want to see how you decided on those two markets.