All Forum Posts by: Julia W.

Hi Charles, thanks for the offer. We have pictures of the property and the location (I guess "sight unseen" isn't exactly accurate but not sure how else to describe the fact that we can't be there in person to verify anything before we lay down a deposit + first month's rent). We FaceTimed with the prospective landlord and got a virtual tour of the property. The landlord seems to be renting it out themselves and not through an agency. How do we discern between a newbie DIY landlord versus a con artist?

We're currently undergoing an application process with a landlord who seems eager to accept us. We found this house through Trulia and we're currently in another country. How do we make sure this person is legit and not an internet scammer before we hand over a hefty deposit? Thanks.

@Benjamin K. My husband and I were just wondering about this very thing! I've been looking a lot at http://www.livinghomes.net/C6/buy.html because they seem to be the only ones with a half decent website that bother to explain the process fairly thoroughly.

@David Hale Do you know which companies these people who had problems used? I know Berkshire-Hathaway recently bought a modular housing company so that seems to indicate at least one company has an ability to churn out a consistent quality product.

@RJ Mitchell Thanks so much for your insight! We will definitely consider all of this advice. I think you may be right about Monterey proper as opposed to PG for an investment.   

@Jonathan Beemer The VA loan caps are dependent upon the county in which you are buying your home/living as full time residence (basically, where you are stationed). You can check rates for 2017 here: https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Downloads/Documents/Conforming-Loan-Limits/FullCountyLoanLimitList2017_HERA-BASED_FINAL.PDF

I'm a total REI noob so bear with me. My husband and I are looking to make our first investment purchase using the VA loan (0% down up to $575k for our area, a bit more for multi-family). We must live in whatever we buy for at least the next two years and are looking to purchase in the next 3-6 months. We will be long distance landlords in a couple years when we move, and are looking at this house as an equity egg to cash in when we decide to sell 15+ years down the road.

$575k sounds like a lot but for the Monterey (CA coastal town) and desirable Pacific Grove area it's a drop in the bucket. We can get a cheaper deal by going to a neighboring zip code with poorer schools and higher crime (whose houses are on the upswing but have yet to bounce back from the crash), but I'm concerned about being able to find quality renters. Additionally, we will not be in a position to put a lot of sweat equity into the house beyond weekend projects over a span of two years.

If you were in our situation with access to this kind of financing, how would you approach this?