Newbie from Brick, New Jersey (Ocean County)

[Francisco Ortiz]

   Hello, Everyone. I'm Frank and I've been following BiggerPockets (BP) for a couple months (mainly YouTube), so I figured it was time to take the plunge and figure out where I want this to go.

   I'm 40 years old and I've been in the Army for 20+ years. I'm married with 3 children (1yo, 2yo, and 12yo).

Ideally, we'll be making our first home purchase after December 2019. Currently, we rent for $1,425/m. We will most likely use my VA Loan for the purchase, but I'm not sure if this is the best route if we want this to be an investment.

   I have two main concerns about buying a property:

    1. Am I getting it at the best possible time/price? (I understand it is nearly impossible to time the market)

    2. Can I successfully choose the right location? I would like for the property to be as liquid as possible, which I assume means buying in an area that has high "re-sellability".

If anyone has experience using the VA loan, I would like to hear it, as well as what investment strategies you used.

I look forward to my time here on BP and getting to know all of you current and future investors!

-Frank Ortiz