Getting started with house hack in Northern Virginia

[Account Closed]

Hi everyone!

My name is Clayton Singer and I am a 27 year old Navy veteran living in Northern Virginia. I have been reading a ton of BP and other books on REI investing and listening to BP podcasts and other YouTube videos and am very interested in starting my investment journey. My wife and I are currently renting in Northern Virginia and are looking to purchase our first home/house hack by the time our lease is up in March of 2021. I will be using the VA home loan for my first purchase and am wondering if there are any real estate agents that are in my area that have both worked with va home loans and investment properties before. If so, I would truly appreciate some guidance and mentoring towards this first purchase and hopefully many more! To get a grasp on what I am thinking is either a multi family property would be my first go to or am also ok with a SFH and renting by room or have an ADU on the property. Thank you for taking the time to read my post today and thank you in advance!

[Stephanie P.]

@Account Closed

Hey Clayton

Before we get started, thanks for your service.  It means a lot to us.

This may sound strange, but I would not recommend using your VA entitlement for your first property.

There are numerous first time home buyer products out there that will give you a similar benefit (low barrier to entry when it comes to down payment and closing costs) and that will support a multi family property. Use those products first (because you can't go backwards and use them later) and then use your VA loan for the single family, be all to end all home, that you're going to live in for a long time. The VA funding fee, financed into some of these transactions is no joke, so use all of the resources available, when available, not just your VA entitlement.

Best of luck and again, thanks for your service.  Let me know if you need a good loan originator.  We don't do Fannie or Freddie originations here at US Commercial (that was for the moderators because I don't want my thread to be constituted as solicitation), but can recommend some good people that do.

Stephanie