Hello from Okinawa, Japan!

[Carlos Villegas]

Hello my name is Carlos Villegas I am in the United States Navy and have been in the military service for the past 12 years.

My first duty stations include:

Naples Italy,

Everett, Washington,

Bremerton Washington,

Rota Spain,

and am currently stationed in the beautiful island of Okinawa, Japan.

I have a 2-year-old named Liam and a beautiful wife named Jessica.

Even though I have lived in Washington State on two of my duty stations, I was attached to a ship that was predominantly gone from most of my time so in reality, I have lived almost my entire adult life away from the United States.

I have been very interested in real estate investing for the past couple of years but it has been very difficult for me to find out a starting point.

I am at a crossroads in the military and I'm thinking that after 12 years I might get out of the military. I feel doing real estate investing seems like it's right up my alley. However, I would like to see if before I get out, I could start investing (to show as a proof of concept) that this is something that I want to get into.

In the year 2022 I will be going back to the States for short time probably about 30 days and would love to purchase my first investment property (probably multi-family) and I need to figure out exactly what kind of literature I should be focusing on. In order to get this dream to come true. I have started listening to the biggestpodcast and I am currently on episode 30 and I'm planning to listen to ALL of the podcasts!

I also would like to get everybody's opinion on what books I should be currently reading in order for me to better prepare myself and to structure my learning to be a distance investor.

So far, I understand that in investing:

you should invest in what you know,

and invest in where you live.

However, I have been gone for 12 years so to tell your truth I do not know any part of the United States any better than a normal tourist.

If I do get out, I am going to attempt to do my real estate investment wherever the market is best at that moment in time. So geographically, I am not tied to any part of the United States.

However, my family does live in Georgia so if there is any slight preference it would be to be around that geographical location but as you can clearly see I have lived around the world so that might not be the most important thing as long as we secure a good market in order to invest in.

Cheers from Okinawa!!!

-carlos

[Michael Haas]

@Carlos Villegas - wow, sounds like there's a lot of misinformation out there on the VA loan if you're getting different answers. A VA approved lender would be the best source of info on this - I'll message you the info of one I love. A quick rundown though:

1. Owner occupancy requirement is 1 year, but thats flexible if you get deployed or have another change

2. Doesn't have to be your first home. Your "Entitlement" can be recycled infinite times by refinancing the property into conventional, then reusing the VA loan.