How To Pick a Realtor for Veterans Using VA loans

Happy VA Wednesday. So today I want to talk about selecting a real estate agent. So if you're new to the channel, I'm a mortgage lender licensed in 48 States. I've been a mortgage lender for 18 years and I'm ranked the number one VA loan officer in America. So when I say I work with VA loans and VA buyers, I mean it. Okay. Selecting a real estate agent can be a challenge. And you know, one of the things we'll see is someone's like, yeah, a friend of a friend told me to work with this person. The first thing that I want you guys to do is before you commit to working with someone, I want you to interview them. I know. And it always feels uncomfortable. And you know, a lot of people go, well, do I need to make sure they know VA? Look, if they know VA, like legit know it. Is that helpful? Yeah, it is. But is it a requirement? No. And I'm going to tell you why. So it depends on your lender as well. But if you're working with me, which yes, let's do that. 7, 8, 6, 9, 3, 3, 2, 0, 7, 7. If you're working with me, like my team and I can easily tell the agent, Hey, you need to do this, this, and this, right? If you're working with a lender that doesn't really know VA either, then one of them has to know it. But there's certain parts of the country where really good real estate agent may not know much about VA. I think about parts of Northern California, you know, we don't have as big of a military presence in a lot of those areas. So it's not something all of the agents know. Whereas if you're looking in an area that's like really military friendly, most of the agents know about VA. So in an area where it's not super common, you know, would I discount an agent because they don't know about VA? No, no. Like here's the thing. When you're buying a house, what you want is you want an agent that's really going to represent you. I can't stress that enough. You want someone who's a market expert. You want someone that knows how to negotiate. So important. You know, you want someone who's going to educate you and walk you through things. What you don't want is you don't want someone that's like sign this and it's a buyer's agreement, right? And they're not explaining it to or someone that's like, yeah, VA is bad. And you're like, why? And they're like, it's bad, right? Like you don't need that in your life. But like, do they have to know VA inside and out? No, honestly, the lender does. Okay. From a buying a house perspective, it's like, there's a lot of states where you're going to need a termite report. So that will come into play. You know, yes, you're going to need a well report if it has a well, but overall VA is really not, you know, there's like these myths where they're like, Oh, well, it's not going to meet VA. It's not going to meet VA. A lot of times it does meet VA. Or if it doesn't, it's something that can be fixed prior to close. It's like, if you want to know if a house is going to meet VA, call your loan officer. I can look at the pictures and be like, ah, look at this, this, and this maybe, maybe not like, well, okay. Take a picture of this. Like, what about this? Like, eh, we'll have a better idea. Right. Cause I've had agents tell buyers, this isn't going to meet VA. It doesn't have a handrail. Cool. Put in a handrail before close, right? Loan officer's job. So they don't have to know about VA, but you want a market expert, you know, and you want to make sure they're going to work for you and negotiate for you. The big thing I think with negotiating right now is if you ask about the buyer's agreement and you say, Hey, I want to make sure that the seller pays your commission. If they say, well, I'll only show you houses where they're guaranteeing that I wouldn't work with that person. That's not what it's supposed to be. It's a negotiation. So they should show you every house and be confident and comfortable in negotiating. Does that mean they're going to get it all the time? No guys, you could write a full price offer and pay all your closing costs. And the realtors in the seller could still turn it down. Sellers are unpredictable, my friends. Um, but you do want to make sure you're working with a negotiator. So interview the agent. Don't just take blind referrals. If you see something where it's like, Oh, this military online company recommended them. Huh? There's so many, I know I got exasperated. There's so many of those that are literally set up just so that the company that connects you gets a cut of that real estate agent's commission. Like no joke. Like there's also big mortgage lenders in the space, um, that are like, Oh, we'll hook you up with our real estate agent and we'll give you $500 towards closing costs. Yeah. Because through one of their shell companies, they're taking 36% of the agent's commission. Even if you don't go with that lender. Yeah. Do they tell you that? No. Do you see that anywhere? No. Cause it's run through a shell company. Does it exist? Yes. If you get real estate agents like who are in the know and they're ready to spill, will they tell you? Hell yes. You know? Um, so you really want to watch out for that. Okay. And you may be like, well, wait, I went on Zillow and I clicked a no, no, no. Would you go to burrito.com and click a button to order a burrito without knowing like, is it a good burrito? What type of burrito is, how rated is that burrito? No. So don't do that with a real estate agent either. Okay. And look, if you're working with us, we always have the option as well, where we're happy to recommend you to a real estate agent. Let me tell you how works. Let's start with the beginning. Do we take a kickback? No. Do we take presents? No. Do we take anything from the real estate agent for introducing you? No. So why do we do it? People are like, well, wait, you're not getting a kickback. So why would you do that? Super simple. Uh, if you're with a good real estate agent, you're going to be happy. You're going to find a house. I'm going to close your loan. If you're with a bad real estate agent, I'm going to be my time doing counseling. You're never going to find a house or you're going to find a disaster. And I'm going to have to sit there and fight with the agent, you know, and get you involved. And you're going to be in the middle of the fight. If you're a client who's been through this, you know, like, I don't like this. I don't like it. You don't like it. It's not good. Like that's why we started recommending agents about four years ago is because we got fed up. You know, we got fed up of dealing with real estate agents where it's like, they're trying to sell the client a house with a bad foundation. And they're telling me, Oh, well, you don't have the report. So you don't need to know about it. And it's like, but you guys told me it has a bad foundation. They shouldn't buy this house. And they're like, you need to just be a lender and shut up. What? Uh, you know, just putting people in a bad position. Like we're not down with that. So anyways, no, we do not charge a referral fee. We would never take money. We don't take gifts, nothing. Okay. Here's what we look for two different paths. So let's say it's somewhere, somewhere in the country where we've never worked with someone. And it's like, look, I'm in 48 States. I'm kind of everywhere spreading out. So there's, there's lots of places where we haven't worked with a real estate agent. My team's going to be looking at reviews. They're going to be looking at how many houses they've sold. Then Wendy or Sarah is going to be giving them a call. They're going to be interviewing the agent, talking to them, like feeling out their vibe. You know, what's interesting is there's so many agents that just don't even call back and you're like, okay, well, clearly I'm not going to recommend you to someone because you can't call anyone back. So you're going to be bad at this. You know, um, then they talked to CJ on my team, CJ, he manages the backend. He's the one that can tell you how quickly we can close everything else. He has a conversation with them to feel them out. That's right. And he does this because he wants to make sure that they are going to do a good job. And sometimes people will say stuff to us like, yeah, yeah, just send me your client. I'll close them. You don't need to worry about anything. I close everyone fast. That's not who I want working with my clients. Absolutely not. I want someone who cares about them and their future and making the house a benefit and not a burden. I don't want to slick a slick salesperson who's just going to shove them in a house like, no thanks. Um, so they meet with CJ, CJ says yay or nay, and then we introduce you. Um, and if you like them, great. If you don't, no worries. If you want to talk to more people, we'll get a bigger list. You know, the other way we do it is if we have a transaction, meaning like clients come in, they have a realtor. And if we're looking through the notes and the realtor is just doing a really good job, like my team will put in comments. I really like this person. They really care. Like that's what we care the most about. We want to work with people who care. We want to work with people who excuse my French, but give a shit. You know, we don't want to work with people who are just chasing a paycheck. Like we want them to be in it and invested. So if we have that, we see that we'll ask after closing, we'll ask the client, Hey, what'd you think of your real estate agent? And if someone's like, Oh my God, I love them. They did this. They did that. They did this great. Add them to the list, right? That's how we've built out our list over the last few years. And it keeps on growing, you know, and look, sometimes when we put someone on a list and then take them off, yeah, it happens. Um, but overall what we're looking for is we're looking for, you know, people who know what they're doing, who are going to be passionate for the client, who know how to negotiate and who aren't doing scuzzy scammy tricks. Okay. Cannot handle that. So look, as a veteran buying a house, who you choose as your loan officer's important, who you choose as your real estate agent is important. So make sure you're definitely researching an interview. A lot of times people go, well, I don't like, aren't they picking me? No, no, no guys. You have the power in this interview. A couple like there are more real estate agents than houses for sale in America. Okay. You want an agent that is going to explain stuff to you that you are comfortable with. You're worth it. Okay. So don't ever feel like you have to take whatever you can get. That's not how this works. And if you're like, and you're working with us, then of course, just let us know. And after we get you fully underwritten, that's when we would introduce you because I want to make sure that if we're introducing you, you already know the numbers. We're giving good ideas. Like, do you need the seller to pay closing costs? I want to make sure I'm setting you up for success. So questions, comments, as always feel free to reach out. Um, the team and I are here to support you. Thanks for watching.