Question about VA loans on 1-4 unit homes

[LesPaul59]

I recently received an assignment for a 4 unit property. Here is the catch - it is not one 4 unit home, but rather two 2 unit buildings on one parcel. Basically two apartment buildings of which the borrower plans to live in one of the 4 units. I can't find anything that states anything specific about the orientation of the buildings but everything I have read makes it seem as though this type loan is meant to be for a single building with 1-4 units. Have any of you had any experience with this?

 

[gregb]

One parcel, four units, the number of buildings is irrelevant.

 

[Surf Cat]

I recently received an assignment for a 4 unit property. Here is the catch - it is not one 4 unit home, but rather two 2 unit buildings on one parcel. Basically two apartment buildings of which the borrower plans to live in one of the 4 units. I can't find anything that states anything specific about the orientation of the buildings but everything I have read makes it seem as though this type loan is meant to be for a single building with 1-4 units. Have any of you had any experience with this?

I don't do VA so I don't know what the rules and regulations are for those assignments.

That said, two separate buildings with two units each on one parcel are very common over here. I've appraised units like this where they're two stories as well. One unit on the first floor and one unit on the 2nd floor in two separate buildings on the same parcel. It's still a four-plex.

Most of the time, they're all separately metered. I have run into situations though where there was a Master Meter for each building that the two units shared. In those instances, I believe the landlord covered the utilities.

Due to the lack of four-plex sales, I've included comparables where all four units were in the same building as well as separate. As long as they were of similar construction and configuration with the room count configuration, they were in the report. The rents should be similar for your GRM if the comparables are in the overall market area. Of course I would want the same situation in the comparables, two units into separate buildings. I'd expand the parameters of time and distance to find that.