Well, most of my videos are really focused on actual steps to help you go win a home with a VA loan, two to five minutes, good pointers and such. Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about our company vision and what we have that sets us apart, I believe at least, from everyone else. My name is Evan Kaufman, your VA loan originator with WeVett Home Loans.

So, the Three Uniques that I see us really set ourselves apart from other lenders are:

Number one – we have what we like to call a 20-year client vision.

Number two – we focus specifically on active duty.

That’s our niche. We’ll work for veterans as well too, but active duty is our niche.

And then number three – we like to say we have a 360-degree view.

With experience – having sold real estate, having been in the military, and doing mortgage loans – makes a big difference when it’s looking at the whole picture when you’re PCSing.

So, looking back to number one, that 20-year client vision – this is something that I came up with that I think is very unique in the industry as a whole.

Our mission is really to help folks.

So, while they’re active duty – to get to the point to where when they get out of the military, they have a paid-for or near paid-for home by the time they get out.

That’s very unique, and not something that I’ve heard from anyone – especially within the real estate mortgage world.

You may hear it from some outside sources, financial gurus, folks that say, “Hey, you should pay off things and stuff,” which is wonderful. And I agree with a lot of those things.

So as a mortgage lender, I believe that you should get to a point by the time you get out of the military, you should have that home paid for or nearly paid for.

And what is the reason for that?

The reason is, because when I even transitioned out myself, I realized the impact that being in that situation made on my decisions when getting out.

What I mean by that is – if you have a paid-for or near paid-for home by the time you get out of the military, be it in five or 20 years, it allows you to make different decisions.

So, if you were wanting to get out and start that new job or that new career, you can usually do so if you don’t have the debt of a home pulling you back.

Because I’ve seen from so many clients mortgage debt being the largest debt that keeps people from doing what they want to do.

You say, “hey, I’m going to get out and I want to go start that new company on my own.”

But there’s some risks to that. Maybe even a big pay cut.

If you have a mortgage, you might be tempted to maybe go take that other job that you had to – that contractor role, that government job that you didn’t necessarily want to take – but now you need to go take it to help support the mortgage.

So, the whole point is how can we get you in the position when you’re getting out of the military to have that home, not be such a burden on your future decision?

And that’s where that really comes from. My personal experience of getting out and seeing that.

And for the hundreds of clients I’ve had the opportunity of working for before to help make that decision.

So, the 20-year client vision. Something I have heard from nowhere else within the mortgage business.

You might listen to some financial experts, folks like Dave Ramsey, a couple of other really good folks like Larry Burkett that have some good thoughts on the same kind of thing, but it’s in the finance space.

You’re just not usually going to hear that though in mortgage and real estate specific.

And why is that?

Because it’s kind of another sub-nuance to that.

Think about this: whenever you’re a PCS and you’re making a move to a new location and you decide you’re going to work with a particular lender or particular real estate agent, most likely they’re only licensed in that state or maybe a couple of states around it, and that’s typically it.

One other unique thing about WeVett is, our whole goal has been not only ‘we’d like to think that we have your best interest in mind’, but we’ve tried to align our interest to truly work for your best interest as well.

Meaning that if you’re moving to that location and you’re working with someone who’s only licensed there and you are wondering, “Hey, is this the right place that I should buy? Should I buy or should I rent or something?”

Because rent is sometimes a taboo word in the real estate world. Why? Because it doesn’t result in a sale.

If the person there, it’s binary – “I’m either going to make money off you buy or I’m making nothing.”

And if you decide to rent, what do you think the common answer is going to be?

I think there’s a lot of folks that really mean well, and I’ve met so many good real estate agents, so many good lenders that mean well for it, including myself. I know what that can be like.

Hey, you have an inherent bias, generally though, that can still make so that you give advice that might not still be in the best interest, even though you believe it, but it’s because of the inherent bias of that’s the only way you make a living will make sense.

Meaning that if you ask me, “hey, should I buy or, should I rent?” – and that’s the only time that I’m ever going to get a chance to do a deal with you – most likely you’re going to hear that you should probably buy or lean towards it.

Whereas we try to align ourselves being licensed in so many different states, being able to help you at every PCS, knowing that our whole goal is to work with our clients through their whole career, be that for anywhere from three to seven moves.

We know that if we mess up this next move, it limits our chance to work for you for multiple ones in the future.

So, there’s times where – if you watch like our buy vs rent decision video that we have – we’ll actually say, “Hey, it’s not that bad. It’s not crazy to consider renting a home and it shouldn’t be looked at as the worst thing ever either.”

And I strongly believe that.

Because if you’re at a place for not long enough to make sure that you pay down or gain enough appreciation, you can be underwater on that home.

When I started selling real estate – when I was a real estate agent, nearly a decade ago now – I remember sitting across the table from people telling them they had to bring money to the table.

Something we haven’t heard of for years.

That’s why we have our 20-year client vision – and within our company too – if you watch some of those videos, you’ll hear of our timing recommendation, where we actually have scenarios where we say, “Hey, Sometimes it’s not crazy to actually rent a home versus buy a home, especially when you are active duty and your PCSing all the time and very quickly.”

So, that’s one thing that really sets us apart – the 20-year client vision and our whole goal of trying to be as honest as possible.

When you ask us, “should I buy or rent?” – working through the scenarios.

Obviously, we’re still making sure we’re still lenders – we only make money when a deal is done.

However, since we try to align that interest to work with you for your whole career, we try to make sure we give you the best advice possible, something that really means a lot to us.

The number two was that active duty focus.

There are a lot of companies out there that do fantastic jobs with VA loans.

So, think of it this way: Here’s the whole mortgage market. VA loans represent about 10 percent of that, in previous years it was less than 10. So somewhere in here of that whole market, that’s VA loans.

So, getting someone that understands it is important.

Now, even within VA loans, let’s take that.

There’s a lot of lenders that say, “Hey, we work with VA loans all the time, specialize in it,” – and there are, and there are a bunch of very good ones, I’ll be happy to admit that.

However, those that work with active-duty military, which is this own sub-niche within that.

Because active-duty military have their own nuances that they have to deal with.

Coming from out of country, out of state, things such as that.

Dealing with orders.

How do we handle BAH?

How are we handling transitioning out of the military?

That’s like, you know, sub-niche in a sub-niche. That 10 percent of the market is even smaller. You’re around 10, 15 percent of that. So, it’s a very small market in itself.

So, we’ve made sure that we’re focusing on a very, very small sub-niche, essentially sub-niche of a sub-niche.

And the benefit that this gives you is that it has someone that really understands the nuances and details to make you have a smooth experience.

And also, to make sure that we’re really competitive on pricing, on speed to close, and all of those other really good things that you need to make sure you get a home.

That’s a little bit unique.

We focus on a sub-niche of sub-niche, not just VA loans as a whole, but we focus on active-duty families utilizing the VA loan.

Now, if you’re a veteran getting out, of course, we’ll still help you and work for you.

But if you notice our material and what we put out, that’s not really what we target, and that’s not the kind of folks that we help work for the most.

It’s active-duty military.

So, knowing that we have a 20-year client vision, which also again ties that active-duty concept, right? – to have paid for and your paid-for home by the time you get out of the military – it’s our active-duty focus, right? Because that’s what it ties to.

The last thing is our 360-degree view.

There’s really no one that I know that has that 20-year client vision necessarily, again – unless you’re talking about like finance saving people, debt-free kind of folks.

So, having that 20-year client vision, but number two, active-duty focus, there’s some out there for sure that are active-duty focus too.

But number three, having the what I call 360-degree view. We don’t know too many of those that really have touched all points.

There’s a lot of companies that might have two of the three things, but all three is pretty rare.

And what do I mean by that?

Well, number one is having true real estate experience – real estate sales and mortgage experience.

So, from that, like myself, I was a real estate broker, had a brokerage. I’ve done a lot of deals with selling 50, 60+ homes a year. Active-duty military, a lot of clients working VA loans, doing investment loans, all that good kind of stuff.

Selling real estate as a real estate agent, loved it.

Saw that side, understood it well.

The past couple of years now, it’s been the mortgage side.

Working the loans, making sure we understand the nuances of the VA.

And it’s blown my mind how I sold real estate for so many years and how many nuances there are to the VA loan.

And before where I might’ve been cautious or critical sometimes of a VA loan, now I realize where the real benefits are.

It’s not that we’re paid any differently on a VA loan than a conventional loan.

The pay is the same for the lender side so long as rates are set accordingly, because VA loans should be more competitive on their rates.

But it’s really, there’s just more nuance and detail there than I ever fully understood.

I’ve come to appreciate that and realize how strong of a loan product the VA loan can be.

It’s the right situation for you.

So there, we have the experience of being a real estate agent and also having that background experience in the mortgage world.

And so, there’s some folks out there that have some of that, but there’s a third thing and that’s actually having served before and worked for so many clients who have served.

Our company is full of either past veterans like myself, or current military spouses. We’ve got some of them. We’ve also got past military spouses and then also some folks who had some connection to the military via family members, etc. Everyone’s got some connection there.

And that’s really important because when you combine all three of those and have that, what we like to now call 360-degree view, it really allows us to try to take into account your whole picture and give you the best advice, again, possible that we can kind of link them back to that client 20-year vision.

And that’s where I like to say, there’s a lot of folks out there that might have two of those three things, but all three is pretty rare.

And then throw on top of that, that focus on active-duty military, and then throw on top of that, having a 20-year client vision, that means a lot to us.

And that’s being a cornerstone of what we see for our folks in the long run.

And that’s pretty unique.

That’s what you get working with WeVett Home Loans or our sister company, WeVett Realty, just working with me in general and helping you making sure your financing is taken care of.

That’s just what we do.

I hope this video gives you a little bit of background about our vision, one of the three major things that we see kind of setting us apart from other lenders, from your PCS and moving experience, how we can work for you a little bit differently than anyone else.

My name is Evan Kaufman again, and I hope to be your VA loan originator. Take care.