All Forum Posts by: Sean Hudgins

One of the best first steps you can take is to go and pick up another property as a primary and rent out that first one. Talk with a lender and the VA about how much eligibility you have left after the first house, and that will give you an idea of how much you can buy with 0 down (the funding fee is higher).

I would be careful when considering an RV; you want to buy more non-depreciating assets, and an RV will likely depreciate more than it will make you. 

If you can find a new primary residence that you can house hack, that would be my next step if I were you. If house hacking is out, find a fixer-upper to put some sweat equity into.

Feel free to reach out. I'm always happy to help!

 With 700 on the market, there are probably more than three that are assumable loans; they are just not being advertised as such. If, in your search, you come across a home you want to live in, but it is not advertised as assumable, you may need to make some calls and help educate the listing agent on the assumption process if it is an assumable loan type. You may have to be the one doing the leg work.

As said previously, even if the loan is assumable, most sellers who are priced right for the market and are getting offers within four weeks of being on the market will not be willing to go through a couple of extra steps for an assumption. If you are willing to pay extra that might get it done or if the home has been on the market for some time (which probably means it's overpriced anyway). If you have access to a dialer like RED-X, you can target cold-calling people who have little equity in the properties or bought in the last couple of years.

@Tony Bryant Jr. congrats on starting down the path. The first step is to get that BAH working for you instead of someone else. If you start looking at properties, look at them with the eye for will this house pay for itself when you move to the next duty station. 

House hacking is tough with a larger family unless there is an abundance of small multifamily homes in your area. 

If you are handy and can put some sweat equity into the home you buy, that can be just as powerful as house hacking. Look for a house that needs some simple updates. 

-Kitchen Cabinets (can you keep them, paint them, and change hardware)

-Bathrooms ( can you replace a vanity or paint it and put a new countertop on it?)

-Flooring (can you replace the ugly carpet with LVP or a new carpet before you leave)

-layout (learn to look for walls that are likely not load-bearing and see if you can change the layout). Just be careful. This type of renovation requires permits and lots of extra steps and isn't always feasible.

I stumbled into my first investment because I bought a great starter home that just so happened to be a great rental. But you can bet every primary home I have purchased after I have planned from day one for that house to be a rental.

I suggest checking out this thread for some good strategies on rent-by-the-room or house hacking in a single-family rental.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/834/topics/1146934-rent...

Welcome to the community! I know everyone here is excited to hear about your journey. I'm sure people would love to hear about the nuances of investing in Puerto Rico.

I wish you all the best!

If you combine the live-in flip strategy you are already talking about with the house hack strategy; you will likely find more and more deals. You can supercharge if you can find an assumable loan on a home that doesn't have too much equity. 

As others have said, find yourself a strong agent in the area familiar with the VA Assumptions. Find some roommates and house hack while you are there. The first deal is the one that gets the momentum moving, and the more strategies you can use in your favor, the sweeter the deals get.

Some sage advice already here. During your deployments, You can also work on building your team wherever you plan to focus your investing. You have time to work out your strategy and continue your self-development. But once you get that strategy worked out and have your clear criteria set out, you can build your team so that when you do get back, you will have laid the groundwork, and you can get things rolling quickly. 

Flipping is probably not the best use of your limited time on active duty. If I were to go back to my active duty time, I would focus hard on buy and hold with an emphasis on increasing equity quickly and buying in the right areas to see the most significant appreciation. Now that I'm off active duty, I focus more on income-generating activities like flipping.
 

 That’s a shame it seems like it could have been a really cool strategy especially for a new construction project. 

I'm working with a client looking to do this same strategy. 

One way to avoid some of those roommate drama issues is to look for a property that can be a little more separated. I would shy away from all those open-concept properties and look for something that has two living spaces, think formal living room and den with a separate kitchen space. This way, you and your roommates don't always have to share space, and you are less likely to be stuck in your room because your roommate is watching something on TV that you don't like.

I came across a property where the primary bedroom was on the first floor, and the secondary bedrooms were upstairs; there was a large empty landing area that would have been perfect for a small kitchenette area. This would provide even more separation, and the house would resemble a traditional duplex. This is the kind of house you could continue to rent by the room even after moving out.

What would the situation look like if you were to LTR the property? Would the property cash flow or break even as LTR? 

Is your STR performing better, worse, or the same as the other local STRs? If it performs at or better than the average, then it's time to change strategy. If it is underperforming, what can you change to increase bookings, average? Daily rate, etc.

I suggest sharing the link to the AirBNB listing and getting some feedback from some of the pros here on what you can improve to increase your revenue. 

I suggest getting all the numbers together for LTR and seeing what you can improve before you jump ship. Try to break down each scenario here as detailed as possible, and I'm sure you will get some sage advice on what to do. Welcome to the forum; hopefully, the great people here can help.