VAMC Mortgage Update

September 22, 2007 By CJ
Posted in Veteran Benefits, Top Posts

I asked VAMC if I could write about my experience in using their services and they approved. Let me say up front that my agent, Nathan, has been awesome from start to finish. He has quickly answered every question I’ve had. He stays in constant contact with me as things progress and makes sure I have the most updated information reference my loan.

We finally found a home at our new duty station. Thankfully, I have some good friends in the area that have been tremendously helpful because I’ve been apprehensive about purchasing a home I haven’t physically walked through. I like to “kick the tires” before spending more than $100,000 on something. But, I found a home that I am comfortable making an offer on.

I didn’t come to that conclusion easily. For the past two months, Emily and I have been scouring the area online for a possible house. Our Realtor, a wonderful man named Ron Tyra, has gone out of his way for us as well. We’ve sent him all over the city to take photos and ask questions about homes we were interested in. We gave him some parameters and he dutifully informed us anytime a house meeting those parameters came on the market or there were changes to homes we already looked at. When we thought we found a home we may want to live in, we’d ask him to go and take more photos for us. We introduced him to our friends in the area so they could walk through with him.

Ron is an honest man, to best of my knowledge. When he found something wrong with a home we were looking at, he told us up front. He’s always given us the good, the bad, and the ugly about every property we’ve looked at. He responds quickly to requests for pictures of the A/C vent, a closet, the garage and other odd things. He never tried to push his own listings on us either. As a matter of fact, the home that we chose to make an offer on just happened to be his listing. He didn’t try to sell us the home. He made sure it was really what we wanted and even offered some alternatives in the neighborhood we may have been interested in. We ended up choosing his listing.

The loan process has been just as simple. Nathan sends everything we need via email. We look it over, sign what needs to be signed, and scan or fax it back. As things change in the market, like the recent interest rate cut, he was quick to call us and make us aware of anything that may affect our loan. He knows the VA loan process like the back of his hand. He’s never answered a question (that I can think of) with “I don’t know.”

Now that we’ve made an offer on a home, he has “held our hand” as we work towards closing. Because we are leaving very soon, we requested a quick closing pending the results of the home appraisal and inspection we ordered. Closings are not a simple thing. They take time, but Nathan is working feverishly to meet our deadlines. I’m comfortable that things will be closed before I head to the First Sergeants Course.

All we do now is wait. I’ve ordered the inspection and Nathan has ordered the appraisal. I’ve made an offer and it was accepted by the seller. Ron is working with Nathan to make all this happen as expeditiously as possible. Now we hurry up and wait…