Major cities in Missouri offer affordable housing and varied neighborhoods perfect for house hacking.Good luck!

You are bidding in the blind based on what you can see from the outside of the house, and (if vacant) what you can see sticking you nose up against a window (usually).  

Uses that also target the business incubator residents/visitors and remote workers might work, e.g. many years ago I'd thought about doing a sort of subscription-based co-working space - something of that sort may do well initially, but may be much more successful in about 5 years as the area continues to redevelop.Current resident population within 1/2-mile is lower-income.

Returns are heavily based on how levered you are. 20% down performs better than 30% down in terms of overall return.

Hey Nick 👋 although I’m not an expert on both markets - based on your goal being appreciation another factor you may want to look at is migration trends.Redfin posts data on migration trends by city.

You get a set amount for your entitlement (the amount is based off of where the property is located) and as long as you don’t go over that amount, you can technically get more than one VA loan.  

There is no recorded lien, but that debt is attached to the title of the property and its based on not the sale price but assessed value (because of the passage of time since the death of the owner) and also based on WHO inherited.So, you buy a property at tax sale for $50k thinking you got a nice deal, BUT the heir to the property was a nephew and the assessed value is $200k.

I’m active duty Air Force and ran into the same issue at my last base.

@Ryan Cleary, That's the perfect attitude to go into it with! 

My first property was based on a VA loan.