Oh gosh lets do this, I have been so eager to get the advice I need from a physical group, I'm in whatever I can do to help I will, my wife wants to use our VA home loan for a personal residence, but all I can think of is utilizing the home loan and investing for our future, I neeed a meetup.

My principal residence in Hawaii tripled in price when I sold, and I came back to the Bay Area in 1990 and worked for a couple of non profits while investing in multi family in 1994. 

The only experience I have with real estate is buying my primary residence.

I would like to purchase a foreclosed duplex which is "home path" and reside in one, and rent the other unit.

I have purchased 3 primary residence homes over the past 10 years.  

A different property that I was looking at (personal residence but long term live-in flip or future rental) they would give me a 15 year fixed, 20 year fixed, and 15/1 ARM (amortized over 30 years, but only adjustable in the last 15 years).Ultimately my advice is to get out and talk to some of your local banks.  

We got a normal bank loan/mortgage for a primary residence and fixed the property up, moved in lived for a while and sold.

But if you're not living in the house as your personal residence, then you are stuck with the full appraised value of the home.

I did however buy and sell two primary residences along the way, both at a profit, and both in the UK.

I bought my second property in 2013 with the intention of living in it for a year and renting it out, however I met someone, fell in love, and that home turned into our personal residence, so I didn't get to rent it out.