All Forum Posts by: Jacob Pham

Amazing thank you! I really needed miltiary specific advice. 

Hello New to Real Estate- 100's of podcasts in and excited to take action. So this post is July 2022. 

Hi my name is Jacob. My fiance and I live in Austin, TX. We want to find a multi-family to live in one side and rent the other. I feel like Zillow has very limited postings and I am curious what sites people use, or if I have to figure out some way to find off-market deals.

We lived in Massachusetts for many years, and we wanted to move and see a different part of the country. 

I've been in the Army Reserves for 5 years. I am 1 year away from being eligible for the VA home loan. I debate daily if I should just do an FHA home loan and get started now or wait. The issue is I am getting mobilized right around year 6 so I feel I might wait for that to start house hacking. I am open to thoughts on that. Again, in short:

(Opton 1) do FHA now and get started in Austin, TX where I am,

(Opton 2) wait until mid-2023, go on mobilization, keep an eye on Augusta market, and house hack in Augusta, GA as soon as we arrive. 

(Option 3) I could also just wait until mobilization is over in 2024 and do our first house hack then which might be less stress back in Austin, TX

Any VA home loan experts on here with insight? Again, I want to get started but the mobilization throws a wrench in my plans. I am trying to not let it hinder my financial decisions though and use it as an opportunity. I am leaning Option 2 and using VA home loan. Does anyone know if when you PCS back home you are eligible to use VA home loan again? Could I use the mobilization as opportunity to get two multi-families (4 doors total) under my belt?

Thanks and thank you to any guests on the show that might see this. I've loved the many stories you have shared that makes this goal seem attainable. Thanks.

Thank you for getting back to me! I'm glad I looked at it right. The homesteads concept is new to me. I will be doing a VA home loan in august 2023. Ideally something will still be available in round rock/ George Town area similar to this home.

So just to confirm essentially conservatively I’m upgrading my space for 900 bucks but if I can get 2k for other side (happy path) I might get more space for only 400 bucks and over time my costs will go down as my mortgage rate stays the same but I can charge slightly more for rent each year.

so is the homestead concept is just some sort of discount on property taxes for veterans? 
 

I'm also looking to use the VA home loan next August 2023 for a multi family house hack. Anyone here in the Austin area?

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Hey I am super new to real estate. I have been binging the podcasts and wanted to try out the calculator. There are many assumptions I am not sure if I got right. There is this multi-family we want to buy for 515K in Austin, TX area. We would live in one side and rent the other side. Both sides are 3 bed/2baths. The calculator asks us to type in the income if both sides were rented. I think we can get 1500-2000 in rent for ONE SIDE. I conservatively put in 3K total rent if both was rented. Right now the calculator say we lose money each month because the cost is ~4K to live in the house. Yet my view is that we currently rent for about 1600. We'd be increased our living space, getting help with mortgage and paying only a small additional amount (1600 current + 1500 help from renter possibly 2000) of approximately 900 more than our current rent to be in the game of real estate.

Questions:
1. Is there a calculator for multi-families you plan to live in one side?

2. Am I looking at this deal all wrong? I am new so go ahead and tear me apart.

Thanks for any help. 

-Jake