Updated almost 9 years ago on . Most recent reply
VA loan in expensive area: how would you use it?
I'm a total REI noob so bear with me. My husband and I are looking to make our first investment purchase using the VA loan (0% down up to $575k for our area, a bit more for multi-family). We must live in whatever we buy for at least the next two years and are looking to purchase in the next 3-6 months. We will be long distance landlords in a couple years when we move, and are looking at this house as an equity egg to cash in when we decide to sell 15+ years down the road.
$575k sounds like a lot but for the Monterey (CA coastal town) and desirable Pacific Grove area it's a drop in the bucket. We can get a cheaper deal by going to a neighboring zip code with poorer schools and higher crime (whose houses are on the upswing but have yet to bounce back from the crash), but I'm concerned about being able to find quality renters. Additionally, we will not be in a position to put a lot of sweat equity into the house beyond weekend projects over a span of two years.
If you were in our situation with access to this kind of financing, how would you approach this?