Have you been wondering, “Do I qualify for a VA loan?” or “What are the steps I need to take to obtain a VA loan? Today, we’re going to talk about everything you need to know about VA loans.
Juan: If you’re thinking about buying your first investment property, the very first step is actually not speaking with a real estate broker, but rather speaking with a lender. Today, we’re going to talk about VA loans and how you could utilize a VA loan to purchase investment property. The very first step is to find someone who specializes in VA loans, and today we are proud to introduce Jason Wood. Jason Wood is a lender and a specialist when it comes to VA loans. His passion is to help those that are actively serving and veterans receive VA loans and create wealth through real estate. We’re going to cover everything; the basics, how to get started, the benefits, the process, pros, cons, and the misconceptions of VA loans. Jason, for those who don’t know you, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jason: I’m an air force veteran and I served in the air force from 99’ to 05’ and got out as a staff sergeant. I joined the military primarily because of the movie Top gun and my infatuation with being a fighter pilot. Every book report I did as a kid was on the F 14 Tomcat, so I was just a hundred percent in.
I kind of fell into the mortgage business by accident as I started to progress and realize that this had become a career, even though it wasn’t the intended career. I was really trying to define where my language of love was in the industry and I really found that serving my community, the military community, is where I got the most reward.
That’s when I really started to dive in deep to educate myself and get more experienced and better with the VA loan to really market towards that. I just feel like there’s so much education that is missing on both sides. The military does a great job at training us to be warriors and very mission focused, which is their job, but there are a lot of benefits to having served in the military that we don’t get educated about, and one of those things is the VA. I find that educating those who have served is part of my duty, now that I’m out of the military. There’s the other side of the transaction here, which is the real estate agent community. As you know, the majority of real estate agents didn’t serve in the military, so they don’t understand the things military members went through or the benefits. There’s a large gap in knowledge on the VA loan as well, so I find that the education piece is really where I get to give back and really, that’s how I lace up my boots every day without putting the uniform back on.
Juan: Similar in the way that you focused on the VA loan market niche, we here at Sage real estate focused on becoming the fourplex market leaders with the main goal of creating a community to educate apartment owners, show people how to get started, help people retire, and help people set up passive income. One of the reasons why we had you up is that we’ve had previous experience working together and there was something that I learned about those who served in the military which is this: Whether they’re active duty or veteran members of the military, they qualify for a VA loan on a single family home or a small income producing property. Someone could buy a fourplex, a triplex, or a duplex with VA loan financing, which is great.
Today’s show is going to be covering everything to do with buying multi-family utilizing VA loans.
Jason: One of the coolest things about the VA loan is the ability to go multifamily. Common wisdom, and what you hear often, is that the VA loan is for primary home, primary home, primary home. I think in most of our minds, when we hear that, we think of a single family home with a white picket fence and a yard, or a condo. I think that’s naturally what comes to mind, but the VA loan has the opportunity to go multifamily up to four units.
Juan: We don’t commonly see people use VA loans to buy multi-family. Is it that the word hasn’t gotten out, or is it that our veterans are not being told about it? Why is it that people aren’t choosing the VA route more often, which you and I would agree, can in some cases be the better option when buying a residential income or single family home.
Jason: I think that’s a really good question. Part of the reason it’s not used as much is because prior to January, 2020, there were county loan limits. The limits obviously varied by county, but those were a limiting factor for people, because in the past, if you went over that county loan limit, now you had to bring in a down payment equal to 25 cents for every dollar that you went over the county limit. In January, 2020, the rules changed and now there is no limit. So, in theory, with a VA loan, people can buy any price property with zero down, provided you qualify. It is not that multifamily wasn’t available in the past, but it was more scarce because of people’s financial resources to pull it off. Now that veterans or active duty members can get in with zero down, it has really opened up the VA loan options quite a bit.
Juan: That’s interesting. We interview investors and one of the questions that we commonly get from people who want to get started is, “Is it possible to buy real estate investment real estate with zero down,” to which I typically reply, “absolutely not, you always have to come in with something even if you have to partner up with someone or you raise the capital.” In this case, someone could legitimately buy an income producing property.
Jason: Yeah, we’ve been doing it a lot. Multifamily property is probably one of my favorite things to talk about with clients because the opportunity is backed by data and looks so good, provided it works for their family. What is so great about multifamily units in a lot of respects is that the rent that is being paid by the other units usually covers your portion or the majority of your cost on the mortgage. We’ve done quite a few where the rents from the other units are paying for the mortgage completely. With the veteran living in one unit, because it still has to be their primary residence, they still have three units being rented which are paying every month and oftentimes covering the majority of that mortgage for the military member.
Juan: Yeah, it’s incredible. Again, without putting cash down.
Jason: Right, no cash down. The trick with this stuff is doing it when you’re active duty. You probably think, “well, if I’m going to buy a small apartment building, maybe I need to be an entrepreneur,” or, “I need to be out of the military,” or, “I need to be making big bucks.” The reality is that the VA loan is really cool because we can use the rent from the other units to help you qualify. We can use 75% of the rent from the other units to help you qualify to buy that place. Another thing about the VA loan is that a lot of people can qualify in the $800,000, $900,000 range, but to get into multifamily, clearly we are way above that. Therefore, by supplementing your income with the rent of the other units, we use the rent money to help increase their cash flow.
Juan: I think it’s a great program. Let’s start with the basics. Give us a quick overview, what is a VA loan?
Jason: Essentially, the VA loan came to be after world war II. So when they were coming back from world war II, the government wanted to be able to provide them the opportunity to get back into civilization, own a home, and just get back to normal life. So they created the VA loan program, a zero down home purchase program. For those that served at the time, they set the loan limit at 144,000, which back in the 1940s would buy you a palace. I mean, it would buy you something Austrian. Obviously times have progressed, and $144,000 doesn’t get you a bucket of sand at the beach today. But, as things have progressed, the VA loan has grown as far as loan amounts and the ease of use. They also made it flexible as far as criteria such as credit score requirements and debt to income ratios. They made it more flexible so that more military members could qualify.
What the government did to give the banks some security is offer what’s called the VA guarantee. The government guarantees all the banks that they will cover 25% of that loan if ever the loan we’re going to default. So when the bank is looking at a veteran or active duty military member trying to buy a house using the VA loan, it’s as if they have a 25% down payment, because the bank is protected up to that amount. If you’re dealing with someone that’s using conventional financing, they’re coming with a 25% down payment and terms that are usually pretty good. Well, same thing with VA. Even though everyone is coming in with zero down, it’s like they have that same 25%, therefore, their lending terms and interest rates are lower and the banks are more flexible because they don’t require a lot of security.
Juan: For some of our viewers, maybe they’re active military now or maybe they’ve served in the past, What are the things that they’re going to have to have in terms of credit? What type of credit should they have? Should they have any money in the bank? Is there a required reserve where the banks can ask for some of the basic stuff to qualify?
Jason: Depending on what they’re buying for. Multi-family is a little different conversation than just purchasing a single family home. In order to be eligible for your VA loan, you need to have 90 days of active duty service time in a wartime situation. A wartime situation is a designation given by the Department of Defence and the current state of the US since the Golf War. So everybody that’s in the military now and has served 90 days with their unit, is eligible for the VA loan on the active duty side. What that means is that after basic training and your schooling on whatever your job is going to be, you must be at your position for 90 days till you’re actually eligible. If you are an army reserve, it’s six years of service, so much longer. It’s a much longer time and you can’t miss any drills. The army reserves are the weekend guys who come one weekend, a month, two weeks, or a year. So that’s the basic eligibility for a VA loan.
If you’re going to buy a single family home, we have the ability to go down to as low as a 500 credit score. The lower the credit score, the tougher it’s going to be to qualify due to higher interest rates, so yes, credit is important. The higher your credit score, the better benefits you qualify for which allows us to stretch the loan further. If you can qualify for more, you’ll have better interest rates and so forth. If we’re talking about a single family residence in today’s market, we’re sitting here in the spring of 2021, which is probably the peak of the sellers market right now. So in a sellers market, the sellers are the ones that have all the leverage, right? They can kind of dictate what offer they want to accept and which one they don’t, so you need to have some cash since you’re likely going to be paying for your closing costs. Only in the rarest exceptions will you see the seller pay for them in today’s market. Sure, two years ago, it was the opposite where we saw sellers paying for all the buyer’s closing costs.I would say that today, whatever purchase price zone, you’re multiplying that by 2% to get the amount of cash you need to have in the bank. Now, if we go into multifamily, that’s going to be a bit different because now we’re at a different beast.
Oftentimes we’re including rents to help you qualify for multifamily property. For multifamily, credit scores need to be higher, at a minimum of a 680 credit score. If we’re going to do multifamily, and if you’re in a position where you do need the rent to help you qualify, then that adds two more pieces to the puzzle. One piece is that it does have a reserve requirement. What reserve means is the amount of the mortgage, including taxes and insurance. Called PITI, principal, interest taxes, insurance, you will need six months worth in reserves after closing as a combination of things, like the military equivalent to the 401K, the TSP, or an E-trade account. The culmination of which needs to equate to six months if we’re using income from the rentals to help you qualify. The second piece is that in order to use that rental income, you either have to have experience as a landlord or need to contract a licensed property manager, at least while we’re in escrow, that will manage the property for you.
Juan: But even those requirements are not that bad. I think if someone doesn’t have any experience, contracting a property manager and watching how they do with the forms they’re using etc. could be a good learning source for them. In fact, after some time, maybe they realize they could do it on their own and can take the management back over.
Jason: It is a good buffer too, because if you’re in a four unit property, you’re living next to all your tenants. To have someone as the buffer between you and your tenants who will ask the tenants, “Hey, pay your rent,” might be a little more comfortable.
Juan: No, absolutely. Let’s talk about some of the major differences between a VA loan and an FHA loan so the folks watching can understand the differences between the two.
Jason: First thing with FHA is that there is a required down payment which is a minimum of three and a half percent. FHA does however allow you to purchase multifamily. FHA loans have county loan limits which vary based on county and number of units and so forth. The major difference is the down payment. The other thing you’ll find with FHA is what’s called mortgage insurance, which I’m sure isn’t a secret to anybody these days. Mortgage insurance is not a benefit to the buyer, but rather a benefit to the lender. You’re insuring the lender in case you default. The VA gives the bank a 25% guarantee, so if you default the bank, boom, the government just cuts the bank a check. With FHA, you have to pay mortgage insurance which you pay for monthly. It’s added to your monthly payment in addition to an upfront fee for mortgage insurance. So, it’s tacked on in two forms, and you can’t drop them until you have 20% equity on the property.
Juan: Really important to know when we’re talking about property mortgage insurance, because that is a hefty amount. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars every single month added to your mortgage. So, what we’re saying is that in the VA loan, there’s no property mortgage insurance, right? That’s phenomenal.
Jason: It’s a big difference, and when you try to equate that to purchasing power in dollars, $250 in mortgage insurance is worth probably 50 grand in purchase price. So, VA versus FHA… in that example, you instantly got 50 grand more home purchasing power.
Juan: Jason, what you need to know about FHA loans and buying investment property is this: one of the main things that comes up with an FHA loan is what’s called the self-sufficiency test. It’s a requirement where they’re not going to give you credit for all the income that’s being produced. The credit that they do give you has to cover the entire PITI item we spoke about. In Southern California and in Long Beach, where we’re at, when it comes to buying units, that is the one metric that halts the FHA loan.
Jason: But it has something that is a little similar. The VA loan has what’s called the VA residual income calculation. This is something that the lenders have to do and is really transparent to the realtors and the clients. I term it as an affordability test. The VA stipulates, based on the location in the country where you’re buying and your family size, that you have to have X amount of dollars left over after you pay your credit card bills, your auto loan, and your mortgage. After you allocate a bit of money for maintenance and utilities, you have to have so much left over. The beauty of it is the number is not big depending on the size of your family and location. So the VA loan is similar to FHA, but not as deal threatening.
It’s much easier to deal with, but there’s a little bit of magic in it as well. When you pass that residual income test, and you pass it by 120% or more, we on the lending side are able to really stretch those debt to income ratio numbers. When that happens, you’ll hear these crazy stories of someone getting their home where their debt to income ratio was 68%, which sounds unfathomable with any other loan, because it is. I mean, that’s a deal killer anywhere else, but with VA, as long as you know there’s some compensating factors and you pass this test by 120% or more, we’re able to really start stretching things pretty well.
Juan: Thank you for shedding some light on that. When it comes to buying apartment units with a VA loan, the borrower is required to live in one of the units, correct? How long do they have to live in the unit?
Jason: There isn’t a true black and white definition. The VA would like it to be 12 months, but again, the VA is probably the most understanding government entity out there and they understand that life happens, right. So, you might buy into a four unit as a single person, and all of a sudden get married and have a child, and now the studio isn’t going to work. So it’s time to move into something that’s going to fit the family better, or maybe you get a change of duty station, which by the way sometimes happens to people, where they get assigned to a duty station during escrow. Before they even arrived, orders got changed, and now they’re not coming to Southern California, they’re going to Colorado. So, the change happened, and they’re contractually obligated to close on this place, but because of the life circumstances that hit them that were out of their control, the VA’s understand.
Juan: Okay, let’s talk about the benefits of a VA. So, we’ve talked about 0% down which is amazing because no other loan program lets you do that. Talk about interest rates. Is it compatible with conventional interest rates? I know you mentioned that you have to have good credit. Is it less equal or more than what the going rate is for other loans?
Jason: Interest rates on VA loans are always lower than conventional and part of that goes back to that guarantee that we mentioned. The VA’s guarantee is 25%, so the second factor that is helping drive that is the foreclosure rate. VA loans have the lowest rate of foreclosure or default as it’s considered more safe than any other mortgage type out there making VA is the highest performing loan in any lender’s portfolio followed by conventional, and finally FHA. For mortgage lenders, it makes more financial sense for them to lend on VA because there’s less risk exposure. So, if you’re less risky, we’re going to give you better terms. The VA loans are anywhere from a quarter to half a point lower in interest rates than a similar situation with conventional and FHA financing.
Juan: I didn’t notice that it’s the highest performing loan for a bank. So you would imagine that a bank, a lender, wants to do more of these loans because there’s more protection, right?
Jason: There’s way more protection. Also, the guidelines for VA loans are different from guidelines with other loans. You fit in the box or you don’t with VA. The VA says, “hey, we’ll guarantee that loan as long as the underwriter can document their level of comfort with any other concern or issue,” then the VA is fine with it. This gives a lot of comfort to underwriters and banks and a lot of incentive to write more VA loans.
As we talk about how that impacts the market, a lot of listing agents will look at a VA offer coming through with a tainted view, when really, it’s the best loan for the bank to be doing. You know they’re going to perform well on a VA loan because it’s in their interest because it is such a low risk opportunity for them.
Juan: Kind of segues into my next part is about misconceptions. Here’s what I know is true in the real estate world: when a multi-family listing agent, someone who’s selling a property, receives four offers and one of them is VA, it’s almost just thrown in the trash. They don’t look at it as a true contender, and I don’t know why that is. I think there’s a perception that the loan is going to be hard, that the buyer won’t qualify, or that it’s going to take longer. That is the misconception and why they don’t consider it; tell us what is really going on.
Jason: It’s a great point to bring up because there is that misconception, right? There are a lot of real estate agents out there who really just don’t know a lot about the VA loan. I think oftentimes that the resistance to accepting the VA offers is just a lack of understanding of what this thing really is. So the client goes to chat with somebody in their office who has been a really good licensed real estate agent for 35 years. Remember, back in 1992, the VA loan was this hairy, scary beast which has totally evolved. The VA loan is the easiest loan to do compared to all the others on the loan side of things and real estate agents may not understand it that way. It’s actually easier for those of us who are exercised in the VA loan and do it often enough.
Some of the other misconceptions or myths are that a lot of times they feel that zero down means a lower quality buyer. They think that the buyers have a worse credit or low-income or that they are not as polished and pristine as someone who has a down payment, but the statistics would tell you otherwise. The statistics on a national average show that VA borrowers have higher credit scores than the average conventional loan buyer and oftentimes have more assets in reserve than the conventional buyer. Because they’re using this zero down, the agent on the other side doesn’t see that side of the picture. They don’t see that they have amazing credit scores, money in their retirement account etc., but rather are only seeing the dollars down and making a judgment off of that.
Juan: I think it’s important for agents and sellers to know that when they receive a VA loan offer and give strong consideration, it’s an easier loan to do. People don’t know that they have better credit than most other buyers, and it’s important that as a seller or listing agent, to not be so scared of that VA buyer. Let’s give the VA buyer the opportunity to purchase the property.
Jason: One of the other things too is underwriting, right? I mentioned how the underwriters have some latitude and some flexibility compared to some of the other loan types out there, and it really is true. I did a cross qualification for a real estate friend of mine who had a VA offer. They really liked a conventional offer, and when I analyzed both files, the conventional one was putting everything razor thin at the max debt to income ratio which has no wiggle room. They were using overtime income and all this other stuff to qualify, and frankly, if their math was off slightly, that loan was going to blow up in the middle of the transaction. On the contrary, the VA one had all sorts of wiggle room and it was better and more guaranteed to close than the conventional, even though the sellers were a little more excited about the conventional because of the down payment.
Juan: Let’s talk to them about appraisal and any repairs, and any reasons why they think they shouldn’t go down the route of accepting this offer. Is it because of the appraisal? Talk to us about that.
Jason: It is normal and that’s a big fear point for a lot of people. The VA has what are called minimum property requirements where they want to make sure that this military person can move into this house and they don’t go house poor trying to fix it up. Keep in mind the VA loan is designed to be the military person’s primary residence. The appraisers who go out there are the same appraisers who are doing conventional appraisals and FHA appraisals, with an additional VA certification. The way that it works is we request the appraisal from the VA, then the VA reaches out to local appraisers in that area and asks, “Hey, you know, who can take this job?” When the VA appraiser goes out there, they’re tasked with the exact same duties as they would be on a conventional appraisal with an additional eye out to note any safety or health related issues. Common sense would be, well, why aren’t they doing that all the time in theory? As a requirement, those repairs that are put on an appraisal, have to be completed before we can close. The seller is not required to pay any fees or repairs as it is open to either party and really a negotiable piece in the transaction with closing costs included.
Juan: I believe there’s this misconception that if you go with a VA buyer, the loan takes longer. Yeah. I mean, why do people think that?
Jason: Back to just the old school mentality of way back when it was a big, hairy, scary beast, right? Our average turn time right now on a VA purchase is about 21 days and my record is 10. So, they can move as fast or faster than any other loan which of course takes everybody involved doing their best to make it happen and doing a good job.
It certainly doesn’t take any longer. The delays can come from repairs and inspections like any transaction. If we don’t have repair challenges in a transaction and the inspectors are able to get in and out of there quickly, we can move very fast.
Juan: Let me give you guys an example. I had the opportunity to do business with Jason, where Jason was representing a lender. They were getting a VA loan on a 40 unit building that we were selling here in Long Beach at 358 Orange. The loan which was set to close within 30 days that they put on a contract, closed with no problems. I spoke with the buyer during the inspections and said, I can’t believe you’re buying this property. Was there a percent down? There were no fees and all kinds of great stuff. You are real thorough and you’ve certainly earned our business and our respect because of the way that you communicated with us, and everything that was supposed to happen, happened. They got the loan, and the property sold for 1.35 million.
The average fourplex in Long beach is right under 1.2 million, and this property is three blocks to the water and walking distance to downtown. This veteran got this property, a two bedroom/ one bath, with three units that were also two bedroom/ one bath, and it’s a gorgeous building. I’m sure it’s worth way more now than it was back then, and I’m sure that looking back, it was a great rate of return. In our world, it’s always, how much money are you putting in, and what’s the return on that money, right? Try calculating the return on zero down. From an investment perspective, it’s phenomenal.
Jason: Oh, it’s huge. It’s exactly that, the return on investment. That’s why I love talking to people who have the VA loan about buying a multi-family property, because that return on investment is much larger. If they have any inclination to have that investor mindset with real estate, which I think anyone on active duty should have that real estate investor mindset, they will succeed because you get forced to move every three to five years. Buy real estate, and when you fast forward 20 years, look at how many homes you own. The best part is that renters are paying the mortgage for you. When you look at the math on a four unit property, like the one on orange, you know that there’s always going to be strong demand to live there, so even when the owner has to change his/her location and has to go to live somewhere else, he rents out the unit he was in and this will put them in a really, really good position.
Then you just fast forward and look at the appreciation. If you’re going to have a little bit of that investor baseball cap on what, what works better and what’s the better return?
Juan: Question that I had is, is it possible for someone to have received a VA loan 10 years ago on a single-family home? You know, this video wasn’t around to educate them that it might be a better move to buy a fourplex. They originally used the VA loan 10 years ago, can they consider buying units now?
Jason: One of the cool things about the VA loan is that you can use it as many times as you need. There’s no expiration, and there is a kind of a misconception around that. The VA has what are called entitlement calculations which requires a little additional math that we have to do. In your example, if they bought the house 10 years ago on a VA loan, and it’s still on a VA loan, and now they want to go buy units, maybe they sold it or maybe they refinanced it and it’s not on a VA loan anymore. Then all of their entitlement is restored, so yeah, they can go buy units and go zero down at 1.3 million.
Juan: Let’s talk about the situation where it wouldn’t be on a VA loan. So they refinanced out, maybe because the interest rates dropped and now they got a better loan. Now they have the capacity to go do it again, that’s tremendous.
Jason: A lot of times we’ll help people do it just for that reason because they know that they’re going to move somewhere else and they bought it five years ago. Now they have the equity to throw it into a conventional loan because they want that entitlement restored. In this case they can go to VA one more time and go buy a multi unit property with zero down.
Juan: Jason, so today’s video is to kind of cover everything having to do with buying multifamily using VA loans. Is there anything else that you need to cover that folks need to know to be better prepared to take the first steps?
Jason: Have a good handle on your finances and where they are, in addition to having some money saved. Like we mentioned, in today’s environment you need 2% in closing costs. I’ve actually seen recently on some multifamily transactions that we had the seller pay for some costs, but it’s an exception and not the rule in today’s market. You certainly need to have some money in the bank and you need to make sure your credit is tuned up. Especially if you’re going to go multi-family, the credit requirement is tighter than on a single family and depending on income levels versus purchase price, you will need six months of reserves if we need to use the rental income. I would say that if you’re in that prep mode in your active duty, make sure you’re plugging money into your TSP.
Like, that’s a no brainer for retirement sake. Plug money into that TSP because it’s tax-free and save as much as you can. The best thing that you can do is keep costs low and, you know, don’t go get a car payment. A $500 car payment is a hundred grand in purchase price on a home, so even though the Camaro or the pickup is really cool, that’s not going to get you millions of dollars 20 years down the road.
Juan: Hold on, let’s just repeat that. People don’t know this. So you said a $500 car payment versus a $800 car payment in terms of purchasing power is probably about a hundred thousand, is what you’re saying?
Jason: A $500 car payment is worth a hundred grand in mortgage financing.
Juan: There’s just so many people out there who don’t know that. One other question that just came to mind is that typically I would make the assumption that in Long Beach and Southern California, if you’re buying units with 0% down, what happens when it doesn’t break even or when it’s negative? How does a VA loan look at that?
Jason: They’re just going to be looking at your personal cash flow, so you’re going to be responsible for covering whatever that delta is. As long as the qualifying math, you know, debt to income ratios and so forth, works, then yeah. The VA isn’t looking at it through the lens of, are you cash flowing? Remember, the VA’s whole perception is you’re buying it as your primary residence, right? It just so happens that there’s some rent. They’re certainly not looking at it as oh, rental property that you get to live in. They look at it the other way you’re living in it and you happen to benefit from some rent.
Juan: That’s not really a negative, because it’s his housing. He’s got to pay for housing somewhere.
Jason: So he’s investing in himself. At the same rate, he’d be renting a dumpy little place down the street, but now he’s got real estate. That’s got a lot more value to it than renting. What are you seeing on the real estate side when you’re listing these multi-family homes as far as offers? What could you help the veteran be prepared for on the negotiation side of things? How could they best sharpen their pencil so that they’re putting together an offer that’s going to be well-received by a seller who owns a multifamily property.
Juan: By educating the listing agent on all the great things you said. For example, the loan is really easy and the credits are really good, and by mentioning the misconceptions and proving them wrong. Obviously if I’m on the listing side, I know for a fact that if I’m looking at offers I’m absolutely not gonna neglect the VA loan anymore. I’ve done it and we’ve seen it be successful. In that scenario, did the seller make any less money? No. We were able to help a veteran too, and that felt good. On top of all that, they’re buying multi-family units.
Our show here is creating wealth through apartment ownership, and to know that it’s possible and that you can assist and create a path for a veteran is an amazing thing. Again, I think a lot of it starts with people knowing that the misconceptions of the past are long gone and that now it’s possible and very favorable.
Jason: Like you mentioned, in the one that we worked on together, there was no less dollars to your seller. From a business side of things, they were whole. What better way to give back to your country than to let a veteran or a military member own a piece of this country that they raise their right hand to defend. I mean, that’s the ultimate feel good story. You, you made your money as the seller, you also did a good thing because you sold to a veteran, and now you’re helping them and their family to create wealth.
Juan: Who else would you rather help create wealth? What’s your advice on their first steps? Where do they start? What do they do next from today? The first
Jason: Step one is to find a VA loan expert and start talking to them. I think one of the best first steps people can take, even if you’re not looking to buy today, is to work on being pre-approved because the steps that we go through in a full pre-approval will allow us to generate a roadmap for you. Even if today isn’t the day, or maybe six months, or maybe it’s a year plus is when you’re really going to be ready, its better to know exactly what steps to take rather than just shooting in the dark.
Juan: One thing to know is oftentimes people who want to get started call me first. Calling me is great, and I’m here for any help and support, but I’m kind of step two because step one is making sure you’re approved. So starting off with Jason and making sure you’re approved is first, then once Jason let’s you know what you’re qualified for, then that’s when we get involved and me and my team will make sure that we get you into the right property.
Jason: Another thing to note is that step one and step two will cost you zero money
Juan: So that’s the thing that I tell people. Go talk to a lender and do everything that they’re asking you to do, and guess what, outside of your time, it costs you nothing. It costs you nothing to know to get pre approved and they will show you the steps to get to that point. So very important; Step one and step two are at a zero cost. We thank you so much for your time, where can people find you?
Jason: Yeah, I appreciate it. My website is VAloanguy.us and my YouTube channel is VA loan guy. I have a podcast that I host called armed and ready where we talk a lot about military transition into entrepreneurship. We’ve had some really neat guests there. In addition, I also do a weekly series called Tactical Tuesdays where more often than not it’s on the VA loan or something mortgage related. Those are probably the best ways to find me.
Juan: signed up for your Tactical Tuesday email and I love it. I love what you’re doing, you’re doing a great job, and we just appreciate all that you’ve done.
Juan: Thanks. So there you have it. There’s the interview with Jason Wood. Let’s highlight some of the most important features. One, with the VA loan, you don’t have property mortgage insurance which is going to give you tremendous savings and allow you more purchasing power. Super important too is that the VA does not require the self-sufficiency tests that we see FHA requires. You are able to buy an investment property up to four units so long as you live in one and put 0% down, which no other loan program out there will allow you to do. For people who don’t know that a VA loan is actually one of the easier loans to qualify for, the banks are encouraged to do this type of loan. So what were some of your biggest takeaways? Comment down below. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you like and subscribe to stay updated
