@Kaleb Dutil is appears you used up 45% of your entitlement, which means you have about 55% left. If you were to purchase a 2nd VA loan home, you would be eligible to purchase a home worth $356,200 with 0% down. Anything beyond that will require you to put 25% down of the difference.
Example: Your target property is $400,000 but you have a max 0% down of $356,200
$400,000 - $356,200 = $43,800
25% of $43,800 is $10,950 you would have to pay out of pocket.
Here are some other things:
You will have to purchase 50 miles away from your current primary, unless you have a damn good reason to purchase down the street
The county you move to (if you do) might change your available entitlement. VA loan entitlement fluctuates depending on what county in the US you choose to live in. Los Angeles county would entitle you to more of a 0% down payment purchase price vs where you live where homes are more affordable.
If you depart from this residence and do not have a Long Term Tenant in place, then you cannot use that income to offset your mortgage - in the eyes of a lender. If you are going to do Mid-Term rentals with nurses, you MUST have a lease showing you are renting it to them or at least a start date that is at or around the time of your departure from the home. Now, if you house Long-Term renters, this becomes much easier and your ability to offset that mortgage payment on your departing residence becomes much easier since there are substantially more LT tenants than Mid and Short term tenants.
Also, please make sure you file your taxes on your Schedule E once you rent out your residence. This will open up other income related benefits as your investing career progresses.
Can you make this all work? Yes, of course. Short and Mid term tenants have higher expectations and they are more expensive, however revenue is higher as a result. Ask yourself if you are ready to be a "high touch" landlord. If you are, then sure go do it. If not and you want something a little more passive, do long term tenants.
Using your VA loan when you have little cash is the best way, in my opinion to get started in RE investing. Leverage your benefit and make the most out of it.
P.S. Make sure you purchase correctly. Don't overpay and make sure the deal will cash flow from day 1.
