All Forum Posts by: Mike Allen

Jason, this was incredibly helpful, thank you! I was just told by two different lenders that this was impossible, but now that I know what I am looking for, I suspect that it will be a lot easier to find.

For what it's worth, if I could go back in time to when I separated from the military (U.S. Army), I would tell myself to buy a multi-family unit and rent out the other units while I was going to school and/or working. If you have another year of service you should do your best to save as much a possible of your pay, to give yourself the best start possible. 

I am currently in the process of looking into this as well and was surprised to find out the following:

From what I have been told recently, in order to reset your VA eligibility, you need to pay off the original mortgage. Even if you refinance the VA Mortgage into a more conventional loan (again, based on what I was just told), it still doesn't reset your eligibility.

On the other hand, if you don't need/want the VA benefits for your next home, then that may be fine for you. I had assumed that if I refinanced my loan (I now have greater than 20% of the houses value covered by equity), that I could reset my VA eligibility.

If that is wrong, I would love to be corrected

I’m not familiar with the conventions here for discussing specific deals. I was hoping to find someone I could share the specific details with and get some feedback on the feasibility of the deal. 

The property is over a million dollars, and according to the lender I spoke with earlier, I should be able to qualify for a zero-down loan if I sell my current home to reset my VA eligibility. That would net me ~130k from the equity in my current house, but would leave me with a mortgage payment of almost $6k/month. Can three cabins cover that? Based on my best guess, it looks like they could, but I'm not confident enough at this point. I am hesitant to post too many of the specifics openly, is that being overly paranoid?

Hey there, I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been binge-watching YouTube videos and old BiggerPocket Podcasts for the last month or so and finally decided to pay for a pro account here.

My wife and I both currently work in higher education, own our own home (in NJ) and are looking into getting involved with some real estate investing. Our biggest motivation is to be able to spend more time with our kids and to stop spending so much time commuting every day. I believe I am leaning toward the STR options, and have been especially inspired by a bunch of the stuff I have been hearing from @Avery Carl and her recent guest appearances on a number of YouTube channels.

*** I just read the rules and see that it says no requests for mentors. I am not sure if what I have asked for here counts as that, so please feel free to delete the post if it violates that rule. I AM asking for help from some individual in looking through the specifics of this deal, or someone who can point me toward a calculator of some sort that combines the househacking/STR combo that I am considering with this deal.***

 I have been browsing these forums and binge-watching YouTube and BP Podcasts for the last ~4-6 weeks and my wife and I are both on board to try our hand at real estate investing.

I believe I have found a deal that works for us, but would love the opportunity to talk through it with someone who knows what they are talking about before pulling the trigger, because it seems like it is a bit outside nearly all of the examples I have seen other people describe as their first deals.

The property has a house on two and a half acres that also comes with three rental cabins (they are currently being used as short term rental units). The area is on the NC side of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. 

Our plan would be to sell our current home and move into the primary home and then manage the cabins as short term rentals. At least one of us should be able to continue working remotely (how do others get health insurance without working a normal job?) and I spoke with the bank earlier today and confirmed that we should qualify for a jumbo loan that would allow us to make this work out.

The place I am getting stuck is trying to figure out any kind of realistic estimates for whether the three cabins are actually able to generate enough positive cashflow to allow us to eventually step back from our jobs and/or running the numbers for everything in a way that I would feel confident enough to try commit to something like this.

Would it make better sense to try and start out with something more simple/conservative?

Thanks, in advance, for any thoughts or advice!