All Forum Posts by: Marcus Long

Hey @Rafael Perez. If you want to hear Gabriel Hamel speak (@Leslie F Koenig mentioned him above), he's been on a couple of podcasts recently including Investing For Freedom Episode 55 and Bigger Cash Flow Episode 66. He is a great guy and talks a lot about the flexibility in terms when doing seller financing. 

Cheers, 
Marcus

Hey @Chyler Corona! Congrats on looking into real estate investing. There are a lot of things to consider, but I'll give you a couple of things to think about. Depending on where you are stationed currently or getting ready to move and your family situation, I'd recommend you consider looking at using your VA loan for a primary residence that you can house hack. That could be a single-family house renting out the other rooms or a duplex, triplex, quadplex that you rent out the other units. This can be a really strong strategy to help build some equity and save your housing allowance as the other rents are paying your mortgage.

Depending on the market that you are currently living in and whether or not it makes sense to invest there, I definitely wouldn't rule out an out of state investment. @Stuart Grazier and his partner at Storehouse 3:10 Ventures are both active duty military and a significant number of their customers are military as well. This can be a great option to begin your investing journey and get into a cash flowing property as you continue to educate and identify the market or strategy that you want to pursue further. 

Let me know how I can help! 

Cheers, 

Marcus

@Stephen Lyons Based on your comments it sounds like you are planning to manage the property yourself vice getting property management. It certainly can be useful to have family in the area you are investing to "handle stuff". However, a property manager would typically have a staff or relationships with a plumber, electrician, etc. So unless your family is skilled in those areas, I'd recommend spending some time to research, connect, and build a relationship with some of those experts before you need them so you know who you'll call when something happens.

Regarding tenants, I'd encourage you to spend some time considering what your criteria (credit score, criminal activity, etc) is for a tenant and certainly use some professional tenant screening service to vet them and see that they meet your criteria.

Cheers,
Marcus

Thank you @Ernest Partin!

@Stephen Lyons Investing in real estate long distance is most definitely possible. I'm in the military as well (currently in England) and have been buying in Missouri from other states/countries for the past 10 years or so. Most things can be done electronically now days, so as @Courtney Jones mentioned "your team is most important". If you're not there, you want to make sure that you have a team on the ground that you trust. It might be worth picking up David Greene's book literally titled "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing". 

@Megan Greathouse might be able to provide some insight into some of your questions.

@Kenneth Donaghy That is a great point! @Brian Koons does discuss in his video some of his earlier actions that set him up to qualify for a loan of that amount. I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone would be able to do it for the same amount, but it is a great example of what is possible.

Cheers,
Marcus

@Jordan Bloomingdale You should definitely hit up @Brian Koons. He is 24 and recently bought a $1.2M quad plex in San Diego using his VA loan. He has a video he recently put on YouTube with the numbers as well as one that @David Pere did with him a couple weeks ago. They are both in the San Diego area so would be great resources and think using the VA loan to house hack is a great strategy!

Cheers,
Marcus

Welcome @Felix Perez! Great to have you on here and congratulations are starting your journey! In addition to the great information right here on BP, it's worth checking out @David Pere's From Military to Millionaire as well. He provides a lot of good content specific to military investors.

Cheers,
Marcus

Welcome @Joshua Pfeffer! You should connect with Megan Greathouse and keep an eye out for the monthly St. Louis REI Happy Hour that she coordinates!