Bought a house 5 months ago, and may be taking a job out of state...Lots of questions...please help!

[kentucky_golfer]

Hi all.  My wife and I just bought a home 5 months ago in Kentucky.  I may be taking a job in Florida, making a lot more money.  It's in the same industry I am now.

I have a few questions:

Ideally, if I do take the job and we move to Florida we would sell the house we just bought and buy another in Florida.  The house we have now I used a VA loan.  Is it possible to get a VA loan on the house in Florida, while having one on the house in Kentucky while we are trying to sell it?

I see people all the time get second mortgages on a new home while they are trying to sell their current house, but I'm not sure how that works with the VA.

I think that's my main question for now...I may have others   FYI, the potential job is in Tampa, FL and we are looking in the Brandon area.

Thanks!

[HoldingOntoHope]

I know VA has a limit on the amount of what they will cover. I guess it will first depend on how much your current mortgage is and how much the FL mortgage would be. Plus you will need to have your income qualify to cover both of the mortgages in the interim until the KY house is sold. Have you considered just renting for a few months in FL while you get settled in your new job and learn about the area? From everything I keep reading the FL real estate market is still unsettled and won't be going anywhere for a while.

[kentucky_golfer]

I think the VA covers up to $400K or something around there.  Our current mortgage balance is $168K, and would be looking at homes in the $180K range in FL, so I think we would be OK under the VA coverage.

My wife and I talked some tonight about options.  We have very little equity in our home now, being that we put 0 down using the VA loan.  So trying to sell the house at the moment may not be a good idea.

The best option we've come up with so far is renting our current home (we would likely use a property management company) and either 1) rent a house down there or 2) try to get a second mortgage in Florida.

Problems with the second option would be quailifying for a second mortgage, and someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you have to have a year of rent payments for our current mortgage to not be counted in debt to income ratio.

[HouseBuyerGuy]

They want to see 2 years of tax returns with rental income. However, I've read that they "can" accept rental income if you are moving beyond a reasonable distance, but the few guys I talked to here in Florida said no.

They are very strict with this stuff now. I am in a similar situation. Moved from Tennessee to Florida (same region you are moving) and they were really strict at only looking at what my tax returns were saying, including not couting my rise in income if it wasn't on a tax return. I decided to rent for two years (will be 2 yrs in January) and take my time. Doesn;t hurt to make sure the new job pans out before buying a house. You wouldn;t want to own 2 houses and then take a job somewhere else again.