All Forum Posts by: Travis Hill

Hello everyone!

Newbie here. I am planning on converting my current home to a midterm rental (it's in a small town but a large hospital system nearby). I am confident it will rent well.

I need to move to Milwaukee for a few months. Instead of paying the crazy high rent prices for such a short stay, I was considering using a conventional loan to purchase a condo in the 3rd ward area and furnishing it while i lived there. When I move out, I plan to also convert that to an MTR as I understand there's a lot of med students and travel nurses in the area.

I also want to use my remaining VA loan to purchase a beach vacation home this spring/summer. I know with VA loans I have to use it as a primary residence for at least a year, but was then wanting to convert that into a STR. (Kind of house hacking? )

My questions to you all are:
1. Does this seem like a realistic plan?
2. Will getting a conventional loan now hurt my rate for a VA loan a little later this year?
3. Has anybody done anything similar and have any advice for me?

Thank you!

We work with a lot of OOS investors here in Milwaukee, but we have learned to be picky and have to qualify them.

Our policy is that we want to meet any new investor in person at least once and spend some time understanding the different types of neighborhoods and the typical condition of our inventory. We have to make sure we are on the same page, this prevents issues and surprises later. Classic example is what qualifies for a B or C neighborhood, and what does D look like? And most properties are either 60 or 100 years old. After that we usually take things virtually.

The second issue is that OOS investors have to rely on other people to gauge issues, the first being the condition of the property and future capex. Not understanding the next 10 years of predictable capex based on typical design life is probably the #1 mistake new investors make. And with the wrong property capex will exceed cashflow after a couple years - aka money pit.

On a more philosophical note it is very important to me that OOS investor continue to maintain or ideally renovate properties. We have too many people buying a property in rough shape, do nothing to it until it makes the local evening news and then dump it, that gives investors a bad name. Milwaukee has seen so much improvement over the last decade, we need this positive momentum going!

All of this can be done from out of state, but it is not as easy as some books may suggest. You have to work with the right people and also invest your own time and energy. Ideally everyone should invest in their back yard, but if you live in one of the ultra high value metros and you have no choice, pick one city, learn it, build good relationships and narrow the knowledge gap between local and OOS as much as you can!

Hey Travis - thanks for putting this together.  I am new investor and would love to start attending local meetups here in OC.  I will do my best to make it on the 19th.  Are you looking to make this a monthly thing? 

Hi Travis

Is Jan 19 meet up at the same location?

Thanks