All Forum Posts by: Steven E.

@Steven Espinal Sorry to hear about your situation. I had the same circumstances (VA loan, house hack, Bergen) and it took me about 8 months from finding my realtor and lender, to moving in. One thing you need to remember is you're going to be looking in spring and summertime. The most competitive time of the year. Good for you as theres more inventory, bad for you as theres more competition. Especially in the areas you're looking. Another downside is our VA loans are sometimes not well received by sellers. But I got in with one this month.Also house hacking is very popular these days.

My advice is you need to find a realtor and lender for a summer 2020 timeline asap. If you're serious, I have a real estate agentg who is also an investor and got me in my awesome HH. I also have a lender who is beyond amazing.

As far as tips and books, read Set for Life by Scott Trench, listen to the BP podcast and read even more RE books. Replace music with podcast like I did. Good luck!

Hi Mark

This is really good information ! Definitely a relief knowing someone else successfully did what I'm looking to do ! I'm definitely serious because this will also be my primary residence. Any connections are greatly appreciated & I'll definitely reach out!

Going to buy that book now !

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Originally posted by @Jerry Padilla:

@Steven E.

Welcome!
VA you are always required to house hack and live in the property for a year - or at least plan too. It is a primary residence loan only.

Are you planning to purchase a Multi-family? With VA, you are required to have 2 years experience as a landlord or you can't count rental income. This means you would have to qualify on your income only for the loan. Other than that VA is a really great product! You can get into a property with very little out of pocket costs and no mortgage insurance! Let me know if you have questions!

Hey Jerry !

Thanks for responding. Yes I do plan to purchase a Multi Family. I honestly didn't even know that you were able to count rental income at all. The properties I was looking at were based on my current salary. This is great information thank you !

1 Vote

Hi BP,

Firstly I'm new to BP and to the idea of house hacking so please forgive me if this is posted in the wrong section.

So I recently got divorced and my ex & I decided to remain in our current rental until the lease is up in July 2020 rather than breaking the lease & we didn't want to put our kids in a new school mid year.

Reason I NEED to house hack

Divorce is expensive.. ran threw my savings and racked up my credit cards on lawyer and court fees.
I currently pay $2300 a month in rent, utilities not included. I'm looking to use my VA loan (taking advantage of 0% down) to house hack on a duplex or better. I currently live in NJ (Bergen county) and would like to stay in the area Rutherford area (not necessarily the city). Not having to pay rent monthly will benefit me tremendously with this new child support bill =D.

What I'm looking for

A realtor who has experience dealing with not only VA loans, but house hacking with a VA loan.

Any tips? Books to read? People to reach out to?

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All Forum Posts by: Steven E.

Steven E. has started 6 posts and replied 13 times.

Post: Veteran, Divorced, Need to house hack in NJ by June 2020

Post: Veteran, Divorced, Need to house hack in NJ by June 2020

Post: Veteran, Divorced, Need to house hack in NJ by June 2020