All Forum Posts by: Richard Cook

Hey All, 

So I'll be stationed at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX this March. Went out to look at houses and this one looked like our strongest shot. Because I am out of state and the market of newer homes (that would meetmy wife's criteria lol) at SAFB is limited, we were really constrained on what houses we could look at. I ran the numbers on this one, and was wondering what you all thought. I put in a picture of my excel spreadsheet that I used on BP (Link) 

A couple of things:

This house is essentially move in ready - if I were able to flip, I would love to preserve some equity. However, due to our time frame it's just not feasible. I do have a motivated seller and the asking price is down to the tax assessed value of $145. The remainder of costs are my part of closing and "make it mine" costs. 

We will be living in TX at least for a year so we will be getting the equity from that. After leaving, we would be renting it out. Current market rents are at least $1400, possibly higher if we put in a little sweat equity while we were there.

I know it's not cash flowing great, but it is really close to the base which has a good pool of tenants. As such, I expect my repairs cost and vacancy to be lower (will be going with home warranty $500/yr), other portion of repairs will deal with tenants induced repairs and carpet replacements etc... Some of that cost is also absorbed into my CapEx

I'm pretty sure these are all worst case numbers so at the current stage of negotiations, if I accepted, I am going to at least break even, barring no catastrophes. 

Any other military landlords want to chime in on if I'm missing anything or opinions? Thanks in advance! 

@Elizabeth Colegrove @Darrin Carey @Christina Carey 

Thanks for the awesome advice everyone, so what I'm hearing is yes rates may fluctuate between lenders but not so much that it is ever going to be worth going with someone because they're cheaper (due to initial hurdles in VA loan process). Primary decision factor should be quality of service and references. If anyone has any recommendations of lenders, I've already checked out a few but am always looking for more! Anyone have any experience with Veterans United? I'm leaning towards them right now! Thanks!

-Dan

So, we're active duty military and looking at using our VA loan at our next station, Sheppard AFB in Texas. Been looking around at rates and I'm getting rates between 3.6-4% It seems that there are a lot of fees that are fairly standard (I know the VA funding fee is fixed and other costs seem to be similar between a few loan estimates I've received).

Aside from interest rates, is it really worth shopping around different lenders and will I save that much? Is the main difference a few hundred dollars in various closing costs or will rates vary significantly between lenders? If costs are fairly standard, probably best to go with the highest quality lender. Anyone have any recommendations?

Wow, didn't realize there would be such strong support for this! @Joshua Dorkin , I volunteer as moderator as well, workload permitting. I realize I haven't been around long, but it would be unfair for me to propose the idea and then not be willing to help!

Just thought I'd make a suggestion, there's a lot of military people on the site and even more military comments about using VA loan, PM from afar, allowances, and tax situations that are specific to military. Might it be worth it/possible to create a forum under Real Estate Strategies or another area?

I think the last crash was in part largely due to a lot of people getting financing who had no business owning a home or investment property. I feel there's a lot better regulations/underwriting now and while values may not grow as they did post crash, I don't see us in an overweight situation where we'll see a large correction. Smart deals will always be there!

Sorry I guess I left out that the Texas VLB loan is still a VA loan (or can be FHA) so there's just a couple extra hoops to jump through such as selecting TX as my military home of record and can only have one VLB loan at a time. I was mainly curious if anyone knew of any fees that would be on the VLB that would not be on a VA. I've seen a few VA at less than 3.5% so curious if that'd be more advantageous.

Hello, 

I'm looking to purchase a home (I'm active duty Air Force) at my next duty assignment in Texas. My loan officer offered a Texas Veterans Land Board loan. Looks like it offers 3.5% interest rate (as of today). Has anyone had any experience with this product or heard anything good or bad about it? Any specific advantages/disadvantages of doing that as opposed to a traditional VA lender? Thanks in advance!

One of my favorite tactics is looking on CL or Zillow and finding a home that is for rent and has been listed for a while - often it is a landlord who isn't putting the necessary time/money/energy into a property and may be looking to sell. Just a thought that might help lead to a deal!

We're kind of in the same boat as you now, we're getting pre approved through Veteran's United and also a local bank in TX where we're PCSing next. Our mortgage officer in Wichita Falls, TX (@Tim Lockhart 's wife) told us about a TX land board VA loan program where they offer a discount to disabled vets. Perhaps VA has something similar - would be worth talking to a local loan officer because they'll be smart on all the incentives and also may be more apt to negotiate to get seller to assume more of the closing costs.