Should Zach Bryan utilize the VA loan? What the heck am I talking about?

The other day, I got asked to go to a concert. I live in Wichita, Kansas, and I got to go to a concert for Zach Bryan. Not going to lie, I actually thought it was a Luke Bryan concert from tickets my sister got, and then all of a sudden, we get there. My wife was thinking it’s Zach Brown, never heard of the guy.

We go to this concert, and it was absolutely wonderful. I’ve fallen in love with this guy’s music. Zach Bryan does some fantastic singing, really pulls back out more like almost classic country with rock. It’s just so different than what we hear in most country today, and I had such a wonderful time.

And then I find out he was a Navy vet.

So, he was in the Navy and now is a veteran singing. And not only was he in for like a year or two, he was in for eight or nine years, pretty incredible.

So, the first real question when we get asked, “Hey, should he utilize the VA loan?” Because I got asked after we found out, “Hey, he was in the military, could he use a VA loan?”

Great question. So, number one is, could he?

Well, from as far as I know, from going to the concert, reading some basic background, watching a wonderful Joe Rogan Experience and his conversations on there, Zach Bryan was in the Navy for around 8-9 years, and he actually did some tours overseas.

So he deployed while he was in the Navy. Now, to me, being a VA loan originator, that really proves it. Most likely, he’s got at least 90 days of active duty military service, so yeah, most likely he qualifies for utilizing the VA loan.

Now, the real question though is, should he use it?

I mean, this guy’s concert was phenomenal. He actually sold out our Interest Bank Arena right here in Wichita. He had the biggest sellout crowd that we’ve ever had there, and it’s been here for like 15-20 years or something like that since we’ve built our arena, and he packed it out, the most like 16 some thousand people, incredible show.

Now, I know those tickets also weren’t very cheap, so when you add all that up, there’s some good money that’s flowing through that tour that he has.

So, what I’m really getting at there is, there’s a good chance that he’s making some decent money.

Now, is that always the case? No. I know there’s always a lot of payments. Not all stars end up in a great condition financially.

But let’s just assume that he’s making some decent money. Now, the real question is, should he utilize a VA loan?

Now, my argument, you’ll hear a lot of lenders, they’re going to say, “Of course you should always use a VA loan, take that money and go invest it somewhere else, make 10-20% elsewhere and take that lower interest rate loan.”

But I’m not necessarily in that camp. In reality, having your primary residence paid for and not having a mortgage on can be really satisfying.

And in fact, that’s something that we always want to help our clients with. We work with a lot of active duty and veteran military members, and the whole goal is to help make sure they can get to a paid for or near paid for home by the time they get out of the military and go into retirement. And the reason being is because once you have that, there’s just a certain peace to having your home paid for.

Now, there definitely is some reality that if you can go invest your money in something else that’s a lot more profitable, I understand that.

However, today interest rates have risen significantly. So, unless Zach Bryan really has a place where he can put his money away for more than 10%, I would argue it really necessarily doesn’t make sense to take out even a VA loan.

Why?

Because interest rates right now are well above 5%. They’re in the 6s and 8s, depending on when you’re watching this video.

Just know that around October of 2023, interest rates right now on conventional loans, you’re in the 8 percentage range. On VA, for us, high sixes, low sevens, pretty wild considering just a few years ago we were down in the twos and threes.

So back then, you could really make the argument, “Hey, Zach Bryan, if you’ve got a lot of money, go ahead, take that VA loan out on maybe that really nice mansion that you want for a few million dollars.”

Or, seems like honestly a really down-to-earth dude, he might just go buy your classic Oklahoma $200,000-$300,000 house, just like what we have in Kansas, and enjoy it.

Point being, back then, yeah, maybe you did want to utilize a VA loan because you could take those funds and go invest it at 6, 7, 10% somewhere else.

But today, with mortgage interest rates so high, I would argue that there’s a good chance that maybe Zach Bryan, if he wanted to, should not take out a VA loan.

And if he could buy it in cash, absolutely, absolutely wonderful.

But if he’s really dying to get that VA loan, hey, Evan Kaufman here, we focus on VA loans and would love to have the opportunity. But we recognize it not all the time is it right to necessarily use it. If you have the ability to buy things in cash, absolutely wonderful. In today’s environment, that can really be helpful with interest rates as high as they are.

So, should Zach Bryan utilize a VA loan?

I would say that kind of depends.

If his financial position is really strong and based on his tours, I hope that he is killing it, because it’s absolutely wonderful music. If that is the case, then maybe not, and that’s okay.

But if, in the case, that all of a sudden he sees there’s other ways to invest that money, if you’re listening Zach, if there’s ways, you invest that money otherwise and you want to try to keep it, you can utilize that VA loan, you can go all the way 0% down if you so choose without any penalty on the mortgage insurance.

But personally, man, I would argue if it’s going well for you, keep it up, buy the things in cash, and make sure you just got a good financial backing behind you and foundation, and appreciate all that you are doing for seeing it.

Hope this helps answer that question of should Zach Bryan utilize a VA loan and if he even could in the first place. My name’s Evan Kaufman, your VA loan originator. Take care.