I do realize that I may have to live in my first property for a couple years, whether it is to pay down the mortgage to achieve 75% LTV, to acquire more savings from my full time job, or both.

So the plan is to acquire private lending to purchase the home and rehab, then turn around and do a cash out refi with a traditional bank to pay back most, if not all, of the higher interest private funding. 

For about 3 years I have diligently made payments and paid taxes with the property gaining over 100k+ in equity.I want to leverage my money to make another acquisition for building a rental portfolio, but i don't know how to approached financing (non-traditional) and acquiring the right property to start my journey.  

As for the HMLs, I haven't ever had any issues with acquiring a bank owned property while using them.Gary

I'm trained as an architect, and will acquire my license in the next year or so.

He helped me acquire my current fix-flip & he has also referred me listings as well.

Could turn a 3bd 2ba into 4br 2ba or 3bd+Den 2ba and sacrifice and move into the addition and rent out the remaining spaces to cover rent + extra.Multis 1-4: Same as SFR with one unit and you can rent out the other units for a premium.They key is to find an undervalued property, due diligence, be skeptical, and be able to acquire and/or add sweat equity to increase value/rents.

But it's a way to acquire more properties.

We want to use VA loans when possible, how will this effect our business structure when acquiring new properties?

If so, then let your realtor do what they normally do and you guys can discuss it to work out the details of price and terms.However, if you're looking to acquire real estate investment properties, then everything depends on such a variety of factors you really need to have a specific strategy and goal in mind.