All Forum Posts by: Jacob Scholes

I work for the US Coast Guard in the San Francisco Bay Area and my wife and I are looking for a house that we can buy with the option to rent out when we move. We have been looking from Santa Rosa to Fairfield California and the surrounding areas. 

We have been approved for 650,000 but unless it has a second unit that can help pay down the mortgage we don't want to pay more than about 2500 a month so around 400,000 has been our price point.

My wife and I got pre-approved for a VA loan a month ago and have been working with an Agent from Redfin. She is great and my wife loves her because she is so friendly! However, it seems that whenever we want to try and make a property work she says it won't work with a VA loan. Is there no way to purchase a property that needs repairs with a VA loan?

We had found one that could possibly work but the agent didn't seem to understand how a VA loan worked when we wanted to offer 0 % down. So we waited 3 days over a weekend to talk to the loan officer to make sure that what I wanted to do(put 1% down for earnest money and roll the closing fees into the loan) was possible however, when the loan officer finally said it was alright, we tried to put in the offer and found out the seller had accepted another offer that day.

Am I just trying to do things with a VA loan that aren't possible?

Or should I find a new agent and if so how is the best way to tell her?

Does anyone recommend a good buyers agent that works in the north and east bay that has worked with Investors and VA loans?

Any advice including constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks in Advance!

Hey Lee, I'm also a newbie looking to buy in the Fairfield area, I am stationed in Alameda, but everything close is really expensive. Fairfield seems to be one of the more affordable markets in the area. Have you been able to gather any more information on the area? My wife has been looking at houses near Fairfield today, unfortunately I am underway out on the Pacific ocean(Coast Guard) so I am basically doing long distance as well. I would love to chat though and perhaps meet up down the road. Good Luck!

@Brian Garlington

I am stationed in Alameda and currently carpool from Santa Rosa. The reason I would consider Stockton is because I have a Coworker that lives there I could carpool with. I had looked at Oakland before but I am not familiar with the area. Do you know which areas would be on the safer side and which ones to avoid? It would need to be somewhere my wife could feel safe while I'm away for months at a time. Thanks for your response!

I am looking to buy near the California Bay Area while I am stationed here for the US Coast Guard. I have never purchased a home but would like to find a lender that would be willing to include rental income of a live in fourplex towards the loan. Has anybody done anything like this? I dont know the area very well, but Stockton, CA seems to have the most 2-4 unit properties available. I know a few people that live there so I could get local knowledge of the good areas to buy.

A few more things you may want to consider are:

-Some Renters have allergies (approxiamately 15% of the population)

-Pet smells can be hard to remove, especially in carpet. At times cat or dog urine can seep into the floor boards. But if you have hard wood, tile or linoleum floors it is a lot easier to clean up.

-At times pets can damage the rental. A house I help manage had a dog that tore a rather large whole in the carpet, it was an easy fix and luckily we were able to take it out of the deposit.

As others said before make sure you have a large enough deposit to cover any damages, charge a little extra per month (we charge 50$) and use your best judgement