All Forum Posts by: Joseph Doyle

He has to live in the property purchased with a VA loan for at least a year. I'm not a VA expert, I've just used one and plan on using another shortly. But the only real way to invest using a VA loan is to purchase a home you are going to occupy with it and then when you move turn it into a rental. The benefit doesn't transfer, unless you're the widow of a service member killed on active duty.

@Jessie Nunley if you can find a good property manager at your next duty station there's no reason you can't buy one. My first rental isn't where I plan on settling down and I bought it with a VA loan. We lived in it while I was stationed there and turned it into a rental when we had a change of station. I'm planning on using a second VA loan to buy my next one. You can use more than one so long as you haven't maxed your entitlement.

@Chris Thomas I'm in the northeast.  Like I mentioned my observation is purely anecdotal and I don't pay any attention to the El Paso market so take my opinion on it with a grain of salt.  I've just seen a lot of rapid turn over.  I've been in my house (I'm renting) for 3.5 years and I'm on the 4th different set of neighbors on one side and the 4th just moved out on the other.  Maybe it's me?  Nothing wrong with the neighborhood, its just a bit out of the way which is probably the cause of the turn over.  

@Adam Detig I’m in a very similar boat to you.  I plan on relocating across the country in the next 6 months and I personally don’t like my current location (El Paso) for owning property.  Not that there’s anything wrong with El Paso just anecdotally, based off my neighborhood, I see a lot of frequent rental property turn over and a lot of for rent signs out for an extended period of time.  So like you just building my knowledge base through reading, looking into properties in the area I plan to move to, made initial contact with some agents and saving capital.Best of luck in Indiana!  I'm eager to get started myself.

Had a general question for anyone with experience in relocating.I’d love to get a multi family that’s also a great deal but at the same time I feel like I need to balance getting a good deal but still face the simple fact that my family needs a place to live.So are there any recommendations for a good compromise between getting a good deal and getting something that’s good enough in my time frame?I plan on managing myself at first so that can improve my cash flow.As transitioning military it’s a 9 month process so I have a fairly inflexible moving time frame.

Of course once I’m established in the area I can pick and choose a second house hack based off of it being a good deal and the numbers working well.It’s the first house that has me a little concerned with the transition.

I've got a single family home in Vine Grove that I bought when I was stationed at Knox and it has been rental ever since I moved in 2013. That's currently my only rental and I'm looking get started with more. Having had an established relationship with a property manager that I've been happy with I'm considering investing in more rentals in either the Vine Grove/ Radcliff/ Elizabethtown area. I’m looking for general advice from anyone that has some firsthand experience with recent trends in the area that has an idea about vacancy rates, most popular types of rentals, etc.

It'd be long distance investing for me since we don't plan on returning to the area but given the housing prices in the area and having a PM already it seems like it might not be a bad idea.Let me know what you think.

Thanks @Stephanie 

@Stephanie P. for your information.  Have you or do you know of anyone that got started this way?

I'm looking to get started with a few house hacks. I already own one home which is currently a rental purchased with a VA Loan. I would like to do my next two with FHA and a second VA over the course of the next two years. My question is if either before purchasing the first house hack, or while occupying it, I find another deal I want to use purely as a rental through a conventional mortgage will the number to properties I own impact my ability to get a future VA or FHA loan or is it just done off of my debt to income ratio?

@Andrew Eichelberger good luck to you as well.  I'm in the process of transitioning off active duty.  Been looking around a bit online but plan on going up at the end of the summer to actually see some places.