First Time Home Buyer/Investor

[Patrick Bavaro]

Hello everyone, 

I am new to BP, and just as new to real estate. I am a 25 year old living in South Florida (Broward County to be precise), and will be getting ready to purchase my first home in the next 6 months to 14 months. I am currently renting. The reason that timeframe is so broad is due to the fact that I am a Marine Reservist who is schedule to deploy for 6 months in January 2019. I am debating about purchasing before then, but feel that it would be a better decision to wait until after I return from the deployment as I will be able to have saved a decent amount of cash. My ultimate goal over the course of my life is to be successful in real estate investment through flips and rentals. 

Here is my question for the BP community. I am looking into 2 initials loans for my first home. I am either looking at a FHA 203k loan, or the VA loan that I qualify for. My plan is to purchase a home that need works to it, but that I will also be living in. Price range would be somewhere around the $175k-$225k. Once renovations are completed, the goal would be to sell that home for another property, or depending on how much capital I have on hand buy a small duplex to live and rent out. Currently, my savings are about $25k (If I wait until after deployment I'd be looking at closer to 50k). Now this may not seem like a lot to most people, but for the VA and FHA loans I can do a decent amount with that.

Does anyone have any experience with the FHA 203k loan, suggestions, or recommendations that they can offer? I am trying to gather as much information and resources as possible before pulling the trigger.

Thank you for your time in reading this post. 

Patrick