U.S Veteran Investors
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Yes there are many Military & Veteran investors. VA loan is an option that many use and can be used up to a 4plex as long as the person resides in 1 unit for 1 yr or more (house hacking). Then you can refinance the loan to conventional or w.e. & buy a new property (VA loan again). Rinse and repeat but remember you can only have 1 existing VA loan at a time so you must refinance to Conventional or pay off mortgage somehow.
FHA is an option very similar but requires 3.5% down I believe.
Hope this helps a little bit.
Mild correction to your post - a person can have two VA home loans at one time. I am a veteran with two current VA home loans.
Thanks David...can you elaborate?...I forgot about that piece but never understood it.
Can you clarify....? Owner wants to sell to you because you are renting it....Does owner plan on selling it as lease option? Seller financing? Or requesting you get your own loan (VA, FHA, conventional)?
VA & FHA require you live in property for 1 yr
Appraisal will be required for VA & FHA ...cant say for sure but think the Appraisal can be financed into the loan on VA. You can request the owner get the appraisal (he pays for it since he wants to sell it).
If my faulty memory serves me correctly, the appraisal would be taken care of as part of the VA loan process and the buyer will pay.
In my case I bought a SFR as a single military person in 2006. Life happened and I got married and started a family a veteran and moved into a larger SFR and rented the first SFR in 2013.
As long as you have a legitimate reason for buying a second property and you stay within the VA lending limits (I believe it's 417K combined) a person can purchase a second property.
I have often thought about refinancing both properties and starting over again with a VA loan but would like to know if others have ever done that.
Also, there are many other options to get in the game without conventional financing. Just search creative financing and you'll see it in the forums.
@Ronald Harris Thank you for your service.
To use your VA loan benefit you have to have the "intent" to occupy the property within 60 days. You can use your benefit of 1-4 unit properties. The benefit amount goes up with the # of units and is also location dependent.
If you relocate (has to be a descent distance away from the current property) due to work or other personal reason, and have left over/unused VA loan benefit, then you can use that towards the new property.
Theoretically you can have multiple properties with VA loan, as long as you meet the VA criteria of relocation and have unused benefit. But usually your benefits get used up in 2 loans.
Hope that was helpful. Please let me know if I can answer additional questions.
Regards,
Upen Patel
Mortgage Banker
-
Lender (#National Lender NMLS 1374243)
- The Federal Savings Bank
- (571) 331-5161
- https://mortgagefinancepros.com
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Thank you all. You have given me a lot of useful info. @Bryan C. My wife moved into the property 2 years ago before we got married. i came 6 months later. Initially she lived in the house behind this one. There was an older lady who owned the house. she ran into some health issues. my wife helped her out until her sons came and moved her out of town. we been renting since. talked to him months ago about possible purchasing it. He called like a week ago saying that his moms expenses been running high and tapping her funds. so he asked us if we wanted to buy. that he was trying to do it soon
@David Willett, you are correct that you can have more than one VA backed loan which is called a 2nd tier entitlement. However, the entitlement is dependent on the county loan limit and the 25% that the VA backs. In my situation, I bought a house in Washington state for $256000 and the VA entitlement on that loan was $64000. Fast forward a few years and we are currently purchasing a house in Virginia. The entitlement in the county I'm moving to is based off of $458500. Therefore, 25% of that is ~$114500 since we used $64000 previously we have $50500 entitlement left. We are purchasing a house for $426000. $426000 x 25%=~$106500-50500=~$56000 which is the down payment the we have to pay to make it a VA loan. A good chunk of change but better than 20% down payment and still no PMI. Hopefully, that makes sense but if it doesn't just google 2nd tier entitlement and there are probably better explanations out there.
Welcome!!
My husband is active duty Navy. We used our VA loan to buy two houses. We lived in them and than turned them into rentals when we left. We self manage them from afar. It has worked out really well for us, even though being a landlord certainly has had lots of moments lol
i would research owner finacing it they are open to that idea. i would also find a local real estate agent who knows veteran loans i used a web site i found online that specializes in veteran loans they will get you prequalified and connect you with an agent in your area that agent will walk you though the process of what the va looks for at a property this will let you know if this property will qualify for va. i just used my va loan and it is great had the seller cover 2% of my closing cost, loan was 172k my cost was 3128.00.
