All Forum Posts by: Josef T.

Hello, welcome to BP. I am still active duty with a few years left, we are developing our investment strategy now (LTR, STR, Notes, Liens). Lots of resources available here. JT

Hello, @Andrew Walker, welcome to BP, I am a fellow Texas investor looking to invest in the College Station area.

@Brian Adams is a vet, licensed agent and knows the area extremely well.

@Charles W. I would recommend you check with your unit legal rep as well before making the decision to rent out a room.  Based on the updated military fraternization policy (AR 600-20) there may be limiting factors, for example: an O4 cannot rent a room to an O3 although they are both officers, the O4 is considered a field grade while the O3 is company grade and that impacts personal and business relationships and transactions. The new AR has also placed limitations on how junior and senior enlisted interact as well.

Yes, the exception to the business aspect is, the AR does take into account landlord/tenant relationships and has established that as an exception.  Will a military legal rep view the renting of a room, with common community space, as a landlord/tenant exception to the AR? What about a unit commander?  Just some thinking points as you move forward.

JT

@Kenny Lewis

I recommend you talk to your VA benefits rep. You do not need to refinance to a conventional loan to use your VA again. I am buying my second home using VA while my first is still a VA guarantee loan. Yes, as mentioned previously, there is a higher origination fee (roughly 3.5% of buying price) but still no down payment or PMI. That origination fee can be added to overall loan amount depending on your lender.

JT

@Angela Hansen

Any decent PM should have an extensive lease and also be extremely familiar with city, county, district, state, and federal laws.  I have dealt with three property managers and each of them had their own 'standard' lease as well as tenant screening criteria.

JT

@Patrick Blankenship

I recommend you talk to someone at VA because I believe that refinancing to a conventional loan does not free up the VA loan in it's entirety. Also recommend that you look into Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan for Veterans, otherwise known as a VA Streamline Refinance. You may be able to save additional money that route.

JT

@Beth L.

You've met his wife and she can sign all documents if he provides her a power of attorney or she may have one already. Most military members provide a POA for spouses to handle such matters in their absence on their behalf.

If not, then you can ask to video chat (Skype, FT) with him, again, if you are concerned with meeting him before everything is officially in stone.

JT

I won't be able to make it this time.  Look forward to the next one.

@Eric Schenck

Thank you for your service. . .

First, yes, I have been in the situation you are concerned about regarding your current house. . . do you sell or rent upon PCS. . .  My wife loved the house we bought in Texas and when it came time to leave, she was a bit torn on what we should do. . . Eventually we settled on renting it, with a PM, and after three months it was rented to another military family that remained in place for 4 years until we moved back into it. . . we knew it was likely that we would have to get it to our level of "liveable', but to our surprise, the tenants took great care in the house and even added a few beneficial features. . . Fast forward a two years and those same tenants now live next door.

Secondly, I would recommend you take research the VA loan timeline again, you said that you determined that once you get out of the military, you would be unable to use a VA loan again. . . I recently went to an extensive VA Benefits seminar and heard several times from the representative that VA loans are available for any Soldier, serving or ETS or retired, as long as the loan does not exceed the cap for that respective area as well as total cap for one person to have. . . The only contingency there is that a Soldier that has ETS'd must have a honorable discharge. Again, this is what they told us, I recommend calling VA directly or visiting their website for the ground truth.

JT