San Diego, CA
My wife and I used our military benefits to buy a $1M property in San Diego. It kickstarted my real-estate business.
- Erwin Jacob Miciano left the Navy in 2021 to focus on his real estate business full-time.
- Miciano and his wife used VA loans to buy a triplex and start their business, Semi Homes.
- Semi Homes helps homeowners avoid foreclosure and launched Miciano’s real estate career.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Erwin Jacob Miciano, a 27-year-old real-estate investor and the owner of Semi Homes in South El Monte, California. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a dedicated dad, a committed husband, a real-estate investor, and the co-owner of Semi Homes, a real-estate company specializing in direct-to-seller transactions and marketing strategies. I co-own the company with my wife, Theressa.
I don’t have a college degree. I graduated from high school in 2015 and first worked at Wetzel’s Pretzels. I decided to join the Navy to support my family abroad in the Philippines and my mom and brother in the US.
In March 2016, after three months of boot camp, I completed the basic training to become a photojournalist. Until September 2021, I served as a mass communication specialist, with most of my overseas years based in Japan, stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan.
I separated from the military in 2021 to pursue real estate full-time
My Navy job included writing press releases, aerial photography, videography, and printing. In later years, I was stationed at the Naval Hospital Balboa in San Diego, where we covered COVID-19, and I was deployed with USNS Mercy to San Pedro in Los Angeles during the pandemic.
I was presented with an “early out” program because of overmanning in my job, and it allowed me to complete my contract a couple of years early. I had already started my business, but leaving the military allowed me to pursue it full-time.
I also wanted to spend more time with my young family. My eldest was born in January 2020.
My wife and I met on the day I arrived on the USS Ronald Reagan in 2016
We became friends through the first-response/firefighting team, where she worked as an electrician. We also noticed each other at church services, and she invited me to her baptism ceremony, where she was baptized inside an open jet fuel tank.
Early in our relationship, we lived together in a small Japanese apartment. Then, we spent about a year doing long-distance, with me still deploying on the carrier and her based in San Diego.
After a year of dating, we got married, and soon after some vacation in the US, we discovered we were expecting our first child. During most of her pregnancy, Theressa lived alone until I got stationed in San Diego around her seventh month.
That same year, I became deeply interested in personal finance and real-estate investing, inspired by stories of blue-collar workers achieving financial freedom through real estate. I learned the most from the BiggerPockets podcasts.
We were motivated to become first-time homebuyers
We were eager to apply what we had learned and planned to use the VA loan entitlement from our military service. VA entitlement is how much lenders can lend to a veteran or active duty member without providing a down payment.
We aimed to buy a multifamily property — ideally a duplex, triplex, or fourplex — so we could live in one unit and rent the others to offset our mortgage. Today, this strategy is known as house hacking.
Being stationed in San Diego gave us a few key advantages
The housing allowance we received as military members was higher than in most US locations, boosting our household income to about $10,000-$12,000 monthly. This allowance was discontinued once we both left the military. Theressa left the Navy almost a year before I did at the end of 2020.
Second, the VA loan allowed us to buy a multifamily property with zero down payment.
Third, we included 75% of the gross rental income from the property in our loan application, increasing our approved loan amount. On paper, our monthly gross increased to $15,000-$17,000.
Finally, new legislation removed local VA loan limits for first-time users, giving us more purchasing power.
After months of searching, we found a triplex listed for $1.2 million
We offered $1 million and settled at $1.1 million. By March 2020, we had moved into a three-bedroom unit while renting out the other two for about $4,000 a month, reducing our housing costs to less than what one-bedroom rentals were going for at the time. This was the start of Semi Homes.
After living in the triplex for two years, we moved in with my mom and brother in September 2021 in the San Gabriel Valley. The triplex is now fully a rental property generating $1,500 to $2,000 monthly profit.
My day-to-day work involves meeting with homeowners who are looking for support in selling their properties
We now buy properties and resell them for a profit. We also help sellers in deep foreclosure and save them from it. My role is to get my team in front of our target audience and guide clients through the entire process, all the way to the closing table.
There are also late-night administrative hours and business-building, which I work on three to four nights a week. The biggest change from my Navy days is that I’m no longer away from my family for long periods — a small freedom I cherish.
I feel both fulfilled and successful
While Semi Homes started as a way to build wealth and achieve financial freedom for my family, it’s grown into something more.
We stay in this tough business because we truly believe in the value we provide to the individuals we work with. I’m focused on building our online presence and spreading the word that foreclosing is not the only option.
I see myself in real estate for the rest of my life.
Want to share your story about getting on the property ladder? Email Lauryn Haas at lhaas@businessinsider.com.
San Diego, CA
San Diego Iranians are torn over the World Cup as the U.S.-Iran war and a new peace deal collide
SAN DIEGO (KGTV)- For many Iranians, the World Cup is more than a sporting event. It’s about family, culture, and holding on to a sense of home during a time of tensions between Iran and the United States.
As Iran takes the field in the World Cup, the United States and Iran have reached a deal aimed at ending the war. But even as the conflict has stalled, fans like Reza Gharajedaghi say this is a moment that brings back memories.
“I left Iran when I was 10, right before the first World Cup in ’78 when I used to watch it with my dad,” Gharajedaghi said. “Now, with all that’s going on with the war, and the Iranian community is divided, some people support the team, some don’t.”
Gharajedaghi’s love for the game began as a child in Iran, and some of his most treasured memories involve watching matches with his father.
“We used to go to the games, but the best one was when I went to France in ’98, and my dad sponsored me to go to France, and Iran was playing the U.S., and I called my dad at halftime from a phone in France, and I said we’re up 1-0 and we ended up winning 2-1,” Gharajedaghi said.
His father is now 96 years old and living with dementia, but Gharajedaghi says he is grateful to be by his side as they root for Iran — and put politics to the side.
“Just to be able to be with him and uh watch Iran together after all these years, uh, 40, you know, 47 years is pretty amazing,” Gharajedaghi said.
While politics loom over the game, dozens of San Diegans headed to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where Iran played, and vowed to protest the regime and the soccer team.
“We’re not going to cheer for anything that is associated with the regime, including this team. This team will be boycotted,” one protester said.
“All we want to do is just a peaceful protest and be the voice of real Iranian people, not the Islamic regime football team,” another protester said.
Meanwhile, dozens of others gathered to watch and celebrate Iran.
For Gharajedaghi, he will support the team no matter what.
“Win or lose, you know, it’s, it’s just, it’s just national pride,” Gharajedaghi said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, CA — [June 15th, 2026] — Art plus story equals culture. Today, three local groups deeply invested in advancing San Diego arts and culture— San Diego FC Playmakers, Art & Design District, and San Diego Magazine—have joined forces to tell its stories.
The initial project will be a landmark September edition of San Diego Magazine—fully dedicated to the people, ideas, and identities of the city’s creative community. After its release, those stories and more will extend across six months of integrated digital, social, and multi-platform coverage. Art & Design District and SDFC Playmakers will serve as co-publishers of the expanded editorial vision.
The Art & Design District is evolving into San Diego’s first home for the performing arts at iconic downtown venues like the Civic Theatre and Jacobs Music Center alongside research and development programs focused on artist live/work spaces, galleries, studios, and New School of Architecture & Design.
“[The Art & Design District initiative] is a long-term investment in San Diego’s creative life and the creative workforce that powers our cultural experiences and creative industries here at home and across the world,” says Jonathan Glus, Prebys Senior Fellow for Art & Design in Residence at Downtown San Diego Partnership. “But infrastructure alone is not enough. The public needs to see, understand, and participate in what’s being built and why. Joining as co-publisher of this issue means helping ensure that the story of San Diego’s creative community—its artists, its institutions, its future—gets told at the level of ambition the moment requires.”
San Diego has entered a defining chapter in how the region invests in its creative community, with civic and philanthropic leaders working alongside artists, brands, institutions, and people to chart a new model of public-private support for arts and culture.
As digital co-publishers of San Diego Magazine‘s arts and culture coverage, SDFC’s Playmakers partnership will include a six-month integrated collaboration designed to sustain the visibility of San Diego’s creative community well beyond a single issue.
“The Playmakers program was built on the belief that the creative community is essential to what makes San Diego, San Diego,” says Sebastian, San Diego FC’s SVP of Brand and Innovation. “Investing in local media that tells those stories—and reaches the audiences who need to hear them—is one of the most direct ways we can support the artists, organizations, and cultural leaders shaping this city’s future. We’re proud to step in as digital co-publishers of San Diego Magazine‘s arts and culture coverage and the founding partner of this new editorial program.”
Under the partnerships:
- The Art & Design District joins as Co-Publisher of the September 2026 Arts & Culture Issue, undwriting San Diego Magazine‘s most ambitious editorial event of the year.
- SDFC Playmakers joins as Digital Co-Publisher of San Diego Magazine‘s arts and culture coverage, founding a six-month integrated partnership that includes co-publisher presence in the September issue.
The partnership represents a new model for regional media: civic and cultural institutions providing the resources required for sustained, ambitious, local editorial media focused on the neighborhoods it serves.
“For 78 years, the magazine has told the story of arts and culture here,” says Claire Johnson, CEO of San Diego Magazine. “But the fragmentation of traditional media has made it harder than ever to cover this community at the depth and scale it deserves. SDFC Playmakers and the Art & Design District have recognized something critical: Media is not separate from the civic conversation, it’s the stage for the conversation.”
San Diego Magazine retains full editorial control over all reporting, features, and original content produced under both partnerships.
“Our role in this ecosystem is to tell the story of San Diego’s culture and provide context for our readers.” says Johnson. “These partnerships give us the resources to do justice to that responsibility—and to extend that commitment well beyond a single issue. Our readers also deserve to know exactly how this work was funded. I’m grateful to our partners, and to the arts and culture community in San Diego for letting us tell this story.”
The September Arts & Culture Issue will be released early September 2026, with digital, social, video, and podcast coverage rolling out through early 2027.
ABOUT SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE For 78 years, San Diego Magazine has been the region’s leading lifestyle and culture publication, reaching approximately 6 million readers monthly across print, digital, newsletter, and social platforms. Owned and operated locally, the magazine has been the connective tissue of San Diego’s cultural conversation since 1948.
PARTNER CONTENT
A Holistic Approach to Women’s Wellness and Leadership
Elevating an Icon: Inside the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Clu…
ABOUT SDFC PLAYMAKERS The Playmakers program is an ongoing initiative that seeks to identify and showcase the talent of San Diego creatives who are contributing to the culture, substance, and flow of our community. We want to bring the San Diego community together by marrying football and creativity to provide a platform for these Playmakers who are positively impacting our culture by pushing the boundaries through innovative ideas. The goal is to create a program that consistently provides growth and exposure opportunities for San Diego creatives, while shaping an authentic direction for San Diego FC’s brand and community-building process. Through this program we hope to contribute to the creative fabric of our city by providing paid jobs, projects, collaborations, as well as networking opportunities for Playmakers.
ABOUT THE ART & DESIGN DISTRICT The Art & Design District is a Downtown San Diego Partnership initiative, supported by the Prebys Foundation, working to shape a connected, vibrant arts and design district in downtown San Diego. Led by Art and Culture Expert Fellow Jonathan Glus, the initiative convenes artists, cultural leaders, civic stakeholders, and residents in service of a downtown that reflects the creativity, identity, and diversity of the region. Learn more at downtownsandiego.org.
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