Please be very careful with the VA.

The view that the "government should take care of me" is a growing movement.

I'd be careful with Brandon Turner's suggestion of a lease/option.

No one can mitigate all risk, but I would rather have a chance at being wealthy earlier in life using debt (its what the FED does, and no matter what you think about it, or how you think it is going to end, if they flame out, I could care less if you own you property free and clear we are all in deep doo doo).If you use debt to no more than 70-75% LTV, in todays market, we could still have a correction and you would have an equity cushion.

The lesson as always, study and compare the GFE and HUD statements carefully and question anything that doesn't feel right.

Also as a side be careful when bidding on houses because not all houses are open to investor bids, so make sure to filter your search for investor property if that is what you want.

However why do you care?

Here's what I know:The city of Corpus Christi has a 3-yr apprciation rate of 5.9%The city of Corpus Christi has a 1-yr apprciation rate of 6.7%Zillow predicts that the neighborhood will appreciate at 7.4% in the next year.The house is on an island, so expansion is limited but has not yet capped as there are still vacant lots scattered in this area.This address is in the best school district of the metro areaThe city experienced 10% net population growth 2000-2010The city's two main college campuses had a combined enrollment of over 22000 students in 2011.The city's top ten employers are in the sectors of military, education, health care, contruction, government, and grocery (local grocery chain headquartered there)The house is a 3 bed 2 bath, which is on the small side of avg for this area.What more what YOU need to know before deciding to invest in this area?

Also, the yearly inspections can drive you nuts as they change inspectors and each inspector has little nit picky preferences, and they stop paying your rent if you don't comply within their time frame, in my case it's a month after the inspection, and they don't care even if your repairman had to reschedule or wait for a part to come in.

You can really do this two ways:option 1Show the loaned money in your bank balance (when you send through a bank statement I imagine this will already be there).Show the the loan as a liability to yourself.Show your 401(k) balance without the loan.option 2Subtract the loaned money from your bank balanceDon't show the loan as a liabilityInclude the loan balance in your 401(k) balanceEither way, your total assets (the bit the bank actually cares about) will add up to the same thing.