Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Cup O'Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and if you're watching on YouTube then you know what I'm about to say. If you're listening, I'll describe it for you. I am in front of someone's dream home. Might as well be mine. It's a mansion with a pool in the front yard, and we're kind of weird.Kind of want, usually you want the pool in the backyard so people aren't, you know, watching you, but it looks like we've got no neighbors. Sometimes that's the best kind of community to move into, either high fences or no neighbors at all. But that's because we're going to be talking about real estate today, and specifically, it's going to be more of the VA loan side.But ladies and gentlemen, if you are A military spouse or a parent of someone in the military. This is great information for you to have to help out the significant other wherever they may be in their military career. This is for both veterans and active duty. We're going to address both sides of it.We're going to talk about the positive And a negative, the VA loan, like anything else, depending on how you use it can either really benefit you or really hurt you. So we're going to talk about that today. In fact, we have a military spouse here, Ms. Amelia Meisenheimer, a real estate guru, specifically as well for the VA loan side of it.So Ms. Meisenheimer, would you please introduce yourself for us? Hi, thank you so much for having me, Mr. Whiskey. I am so excited to be here. So, as you said, my name is Amelia. I am originally from New Mexico. I've been a realtor since 2012. We grew, I grew up around Cannon Air Force Base. If you're in the Air Force, everybody knows Cannon and everybody loves it and has lots of really great things to say about it.That is 100 percent sarcasm. But since it's my home, I get a little sensitive to it. So, I started helping military families, obviously, when they moved to or got stationed there, you know, finding home. So I really I spent. Over a decade as a both property manager where we managed over 400 some properties and then as a realtor helping people buy sell homes and so throughout that process and really over the last decade it's just been so interesting seeing what a fabulous tool the VA loan can be and also how so many people for lack of a better term got screwed by it and you know are stuck with these houses they don't want anymore and can't afford to do anything else with it.So nobody really talks about that. Negative side, and I think it's something that everybody needs to be aware of, but I thought I was going to live in New Mexico forever. So then I ended up marrying a military man. And of course, within a month of marriage, and we ship out to England where we're living in England.And that's kind of where I took my experience to this online platform, being able to help people from different areas, because it's also really hard to sell houses. In New Mexico from England, so this online platform has really allowed me to kind of just help help a variety of people because it's all the same.The VA loan is the same, regardless of your state, regardless of your personal situation. It's the same approach over and over and over again. And once you kind of have figured out it's easy. Yeah, for sure. I think kind of what you're saying earlier with people being stuck with homes, it's not just a VA loan thing in general, just because you can buy something doesn't mean you have to, and people get this concept whether veteran or active duty, they're like, I had the VA home loan.I can get any house I want and, and it's going to be easy. So I'm going to get this property and I'm going to either rent it out or own it and then, you know, they just think because they can, they have to or because other people in the service have done the same or are going to do the same that they have to.So definitely a great concept there. Same thing, civilian side, you know, just because you can buy something doesn't mean you have to. And I know when. You know, you're fresh in the service or fresh getting out, you're like, owning my own, you know, first home. This is like, a huge moment. So that's why I encourage you not to rush it and just be patient.You know, you want to be the first one of your buddies to own a home or whatever it may be, make sure it's a property that you're actually truly invested in, both financially and then just emotionally. You know, and that's a great point because first of all, if you are the first of your buddies to buy a home, guess what?Rent out your extra rooms to them and get them to pay off your mortgage. Cause that's really the way to go about it, but you know, people get pre approved for these huge amounts, which is super exciting. I mean, yeah. Who like, Oh my God, I was pre approved for, you know, 500, 000, 600, 000, 300, 000, whatever it is, that's great.But that does not at all mean that you have to use that entire pre approval. So one of the things that I like to recommend to people whenever they start looking at houses, it's like, what is our plan after, right? What is our plan? Because everybody PCS is like, especially if you're active duty, you're going to be moving and whether that's a 3 year cycle or 2 year cycle or 6 year cycle, you know, whatever that is, you're going to be moving.So what's your plan when that happens? And your plan can change, right? You can say, I'm going to sell this house and then you're You know, 6 years later, you're like, actually make a really good rental like your plan can change, but going into it with kind of a plan up front is going to really also change the way you buy it.Because if I'm buying a house for like a rental property that I know I'm going to rent out, you know, when we PCS, my husband's on. A three year cycle everywhere is three years which comes a lot faster than I would like to admit. But, you know, so it's just what, like, what's our plan. So I am an investor.I've been investing in real estate myself. I own properties, both in New Mexico. We actually ended up buying a home in England. So we, I've got rentals all over. So, you know, that, and that's kind of the approach, like our house in England, I didn't love it, but guess what? It makes a great rental property.Right. And I think, you know, if you want to Rent your house when you leave and start building that equity because buying real estate is the best way to build true wealth. Andrew Carnegie said it, you know, 200 years ago, and he's like 90 percent of millionaires did made their money through real estate.And that's still basically true today. And with the VA loan, it's such a unique opportunity because you can buy so cheaply with essentially. Nothing down. You do have to come out of pocket a little bit, but you know, to buy strategically. And if you like started, you know, 18, 20 years old and bought and held and bought and held, you know, by the end of your career, you could have two or three paid off properties and a very lucrative real estate portfolio.Yeah. And so let's take a step back for everyone. Who's not familiar with the VA loan. We keep using that word. Let's define it for everyone. So they understand what exactly we're talking about and what makes it different You know, the civilian side of things. Yeah, no, that's great. Way to reel me in.Sometimes I need it. I get so excited. So, the VA loan is a specific loan type that the VA backs. So, because this loan is essentially, like, guaranteed by the government, which means if you stop making your payments and you default on it, the government will pay off your mortgage. And not technically all of your mortgage, but for intense purposes, we're going to say the VA will pay off your mortgage to the bank.So the bank is not left holding the bag because you defaulted. So because of that, it's a lower interest rate. It's lower risk for the, you know, for the individual lenders to have. So that's really how it's able to be Typically lower and more competitive interest rates than a lot of other loan types.But also the big thing about it is your ability to basically buy with nothing down. So the VA loan does not technically per the VA have any credit requirements, down payment requirements, anything like that. Different lenders you speak to can add requirements. So a lot of lenders will say like a minimum 580 credit score, but really it's 640 or higher is going to get you better interest rates, right?So things like that are all based on your lender and your lender could also offer different interest rates, which is also why I always say, talk to different lenders because lenders are going to have different fees. They're going to have different interest rates and it's all the same VA loan. Like they all funnel back to the same source.It's just. I like to compare it to car shopping. You know, you're going to go buy a car and they all have four wheels. They all have a steering wheel. They're going to get you from point A to point B, but the bells and whistles are different depending on who you work with. Yeah, for sure. I totally get that.And we talked in a prior episode about real estate, the importance of finding a realtor or lender who works with you, who understands what you're after and what you're doing. And You know, as of right now I know there are some laws and, and things being talked about locking in realtors with a contract now.I don't know when that's going to happen and if it's going to be a state, I know there's been talk about that, some, some good sides to it, some bad sides to it. But as of right now even if there is a contract set up in the future before you sign that, you can still talk to several different realtors and find the one that works for you.We caution, don't just grab the first one you see and be like, all right, this is it. And if for some reason you can't get a property, you're like, all right, well, then I'm just going to get a different realtor because maybe they can do it. You know, I mean, there's a reason that something is being held up.So trust your realtors. They know what they're doing. You know, they do this for a living. Most of them have been doing it for a long time. So yeah. And I would, and I want to kind of piggyback on that. You're right. So, August 17th, I think is when all of these law changes went into effect from this big lawsuit that happened.And it is like you, they, Realtors should be, you know, it's just still so new. So everybody's still trying to figure it out. So, you know, different offices are doing it differently. Different states are doing it differently. But theoretically, before a Realtor shows you homes, you were supposed to sign a Broker agreement, which means you, the buyer are working with that realtor and you are going to pay that realtor X dollars for their services.And that X dollars is completely negotiable. It can be, I will pay you 50 to go show me this house, or I will pay you X percentage, you know, upon completion when I buy this house. And a lot of the ways it hasn't really changed how. The home buying process works like the sellers are typically still paying the commissions.It's still being shared between the 2 builders. So it hasn't totally changed the way things are going, but it's starting to and a lot of it was to empower the buyer to realize, you know, like. You're essentially paying the seller because on the flip side, you're, you're paying the broke your broker because, you know, when you're buying a house, the seller's paying it, but they're just building that commission into the price of the home that you're buying with your loan.So you're kind of paying it anyways, but now it's just a much more formal and kind of empowering the buyer on that front on the front end of it. Yeah, for sure. That a lot of changes going on, but as we said, an episode it's never the wrong time to buy necessarily. We talked about how. This year in particular can be a nerve wracking for people not knowing what's going to happen with the, you know, the election and how that's going to affect all of that.But like we said, we've seldom seen the value of properties go down, you know, drastically. And so can we talk a little bit about how, if, if we're active duty or a veteran. How do we go about, you know, getting the VA loan and working with someone to use it? Yeah, so the best way to go about it is typically people find a realtor first, right?Because you start on Zillow or Realtor. com. I prefer Realtor. com over Zillow, but Zillow is very user friendly. You know, you start looking at these houses and then you're like, Oh my gosh, I love this house. I want it. So then you contact the realtor and then the realtor says, Are you pre approved? And you're like, Oh no, I'm not.So. Then you go to the lender and get pre approved. Typically, I recommend starting with the lender because starting with the lender, even if you, even if you don't even want to buy now, but you're like, Hey, you know, within the next year, I want to buy, get a pre approval because up to 20 percent of people have errors on their credit reports.And that they don't know about. So if you're able to get that pre approval and fill out that application early, and the lender comes back and says, Hey, did you know you've got this, you know, 10, 000 medical charge on your credit? And you're like, what? You know, it's going to allow you time to fix that and go because that doesn't happen overnight to get it fixed either.Right? So I always recommend. Get your preapproval earlier. The interest rate they quote you won't be the same. The fees could change. Like, it's not going to be set in stone, you know, for a year whenever you want to buy, but it gives you such an advantage to one, know how much you're theoretically going to qualify for because there's nothing worse than sitting on Zillow and finding a house, like your backdrop that's beautiful with a pool that you're like, yes, this is it.Oh, I only qualify for 150, 000. Like that changes the ball game. You know, if you know that going into it, you don't set yourself up for the heartbreak of finding your dream house and you can't buy it. And that, which is the worst. So I always recommend starting with realtor. You can always Google realtors.I always recommend like an independent mortgage broker over like a USA or Navy federal. Yes. They will get you mortgages. I, I don't have anything nice to say about USA and the home buying process. I really do not recommend them. They are, they streamline everything, which is great, but they're not great for mortgages and how they can get into signing a lender.And it's just, it's just a messy deal. So, I actually read a statistic the other day that an independent mortgage broker can save you almost 10, 000 on your loan versus some of the big guys, because they're going to have the ability to shop around different interest rates, different lenders, because who you work with on the front end for your loan is really just Like your car salesman, if you will, like they're, they're just your point of contact and your loan on the back end is a totally different beast because you might get your loan with, you know, ABC financial and you're happy, but then all of a sudden, six months later, your loan has been sold to Wells Fargo or to bank of America or whatever.And then they're going to send you a letter to start making your payments here. So it's really just finding somebody you like to work with on the front end that's going to service this underwriting process, because that's the most difficult, you know, when you need to submit your documents, you need that call, and if you want to go in and ask questions, like, find somebody local that you can show up on their doorstep and say, Hey, if you want to work online, find somebody who's got, you know, a really great online document submission.It's just making sure you find someone you like to work with. And I know I've heard about the VA inspection process, the properties being a lot stricter and better than civilian side. Is that something that we schedule or is that something done automatically? How does that whole process work? So, that's a really good question.The, the quality of the home is regulated by the VA. So there can't be things like peeling paint holes and walls or ceilings, cracked windows, things like that. The house has to be livable, suitable for living and accessible. So, you have to have like an established driveway to the road. You can't buy a house in the back of a field somewhere.It has to be on 10 acres or less. So those restrictions are put in by the VA and that is unique to the VA loan. So if you want to do like a fixed repper, you're not going to use your VA loan, but you can still call. There are other loan types where you could qualify for, and the VA basically has these restrictions because if they have to go foreclose on your loan, they want to make sure that they have a good asset in their hands, not right.You know, a track sheep. So those requirements are actually put on and verified by the appraiser, but the appraiser is not a home inspector. So if you are buying a home, I always recommend a home inspection and in a crazy market. We were just in people were waving their home inspections and that's fine. I mean, if you want to, that's fine.Just. Be aware. But the home inspector is going to be kind of a neutral third party that's going to go in and they will get on the roof. They're going to check every outlet. They're going to make sure your appliances work. They're going to make sure the AC works. Like they're the ones that really do that fine tooth comb.Your appraiser is just going to go in there. I'm like, Yep. Yep. House looks good. The house needs VA standards and sign off on it. And they're not going to do that real thorough protection check. And that's something a lot of people get confused about because They're aware that the VA has these special requirements, but as long as it's suitable and meets, you know, the minimal VA requirements, the inspector is not going to go or the appraiser is not going to look any deeper.Yeah, for sure. And the biggest question I think that might be on everyone's mind right now is we talked about the VA loan and all this and that if we purchase a property, you know, using that and then we want to get another property because we're moving maybe because we're active duty or we're just moving because that's how life is.And we're looking at getting another property. Can we get another VA loan? Or is this a one and done kind of deal? So there's actually no limit to how many properties you can have with a VA loan. However, there are limits about how much you can borrow and that's called your entitlement amount. So they, whenever you get your Certificate of eligibility, which your lender will do for you.Or you can also do it yourself. I cover a lot of these things. I have a custom program called the VA loan accelerator that kind of walks everybody through this. And this is one of the things like your lender can do this certification for you, or you can go online to the VA website and get it. It's not, it's literally like three clicks of the button.It's not a big deal, but that's going to give you kind of your eligibility amount. So, and there's a formula, but you can use up to your amount of your eligibility. So if your first house is a an 80, 000, you know, simple little house since your first base kind of thing, you know, obviously you're not using very much of it, but there's a unique requirement that your second VA loan has to be over 144, 000, some markets, that's a no brainer.Some markets. You can get hit by that. I learned about that by a client who wanted to buy something under that. And we didn't learn about that requirement until like two days before closing. I'm like, if this was an obvious requirement, why didn't the lender know about this up front? But we got that surprise.So, you know, there's some of these like little requirements, but usually to use typically speaking, this is not always a truth because it depends on, you know, who's kind of underwriting, but typically speaking to use. A second or third or fourth VA, you need a reason. So that reason is often PCS, moving changing of family sizes.You could be adding family members. You could be subtracting family members you know, things like that. So kind of those changes in life that would need you to grow your family or grow your house or move your house if you're, you know, getting stationed somewhere else.How much we've paid off a previous VA loan affect that eligibility at all? No, so actually it doesn't. And this was something that I kind of recently learned in a lot of my deep diving is that once you use that entitlement amount and you still own the property, it like takes up that entitlement amount.So if you sell the property and you are no longer It's sold and done, then it reinstates your entitlement amount. So then you don't have to worry about that. But I was even reading that if you own a property with a VA loan and you refinance it to another loan type, say conventional loan or, you know, something like that, it's as long as you own that property, it does not free up your entitlement.I have not put that to the test, but that is what I was reading and learning. And I thought that was very interesting. Yeah, for sure. And then I want to go back to the beginning of the episode. You said something that I want to make sure people don't misinterpret and try to abuse. You had talked about how it's backed by the VA.So if we stop making our payments, the bank's not going to get screwed over because the VA is going to swoop in. And make sure they get paid. But where does that lie now with us being able to get to the VA or how does that work? So really technically you're going to be in debt to whoever holds your loan.So if you go to say ABC financial, which is your local lender, they're oftentimes going to sell your loan to somebody else. There are certain lenders and it's called servicing their loans. There are certain lenders who will initiate the loan and service their loan throughout the life of their loan.Throughout the life of the loan. Most lenders don't. Most lenders will sell it. They call it the secondary market. They'll sell it to say a Wells Fargo or B of A or a hedge fund, you know, because they'll put a bunch of mortgages together and then they sell them as a package. And then that's when you get your letters.So. You're, you're going to be left holding the bag if you default on your loan. You know, so the VA will save the bank, but nobody's saving you with this. And that's something to remember too, is because, so the VA charges you a funding fee up front when you close your house. A lot of people are here about like the mortgage insurance premium, which is a monthly fee for like an FHA loan.And that's usually how other government backed loans work. But with the VA, they charge you a one time VA funding fee up front. They allow you to finance it into your loan, so you don't necessarily have to come cash out of pocket, but you're still paying that amount. And if you finance it, You're paying it, but you're also paying interest on it, the life of the loan.So I would love to kind of dive into that here in a minute. But so you're paying that VA funding fee and that's going to the VA and that's basically the fee that kind of keeps this program running. It can be as low as I think it's like 1. 3%. It can get up to like 3. 3%. Average for your first VA loan is around 1.5%. And if you buy a second VA loan, So if you keep your first house and buy a second house, your fee for the second one is going to be upwards towards that 3. 3%. Yeah. So when you're saying like 1. 5%, that's of the total price of the home that you're purchasing. Is that correct? That's correct. It's the total purchase price.So if you're buying, you know, a hundred thousand dollar house, it'd be a thousand dollars. Right. So the little to no down payment comes with that caveat of. That funding fee being kind of like your down payment if you're not gonna, you know, put it out on a plan to You know, pay less now rather than pay more later.So really that little to no down is basically your cash out of pocket, but you're still having all those fees. The unique thing about the VA loan is that it allows you to finance those fees into your loan. But like I said you know, if you're, if you've got 10, 000 worth of fees, which most fees are 10 to 20, 000 as an average, And that includes like your VA funding fee.That includes, you know, your first year's homeowners insurance. That includes like everything that goes to buying a home. If you paid that off at the time, say, we're just going to say you're buying a 100, 000 house, like your loan will be 100, 000 and you paid all of this out of pocket, like easy. But when you start financing all of that stuff in, all of a sudden your home, that's 100, 000.That's the market rate, right? That's the rate you agreed to buy it at. Is now, now you're paying a loan that's 110, 000 and when you have a 30 year note, which is what the VA, you can do a shorter note term with a VA loan, but when you've got a 30 year note with all of those fees on top of it, you're essentially paying interest on all of those.Fees for the life of the loan. And if you're one of those people that has to, you know, move in three years and you wanna resell your house, well you better be in a market that's going to ensure your house value goes from a hundred thousand to say 120,000 in three years to cover that cost of selling, right?But what so many people get stuck with is they go to sell their house in three years and their house went from a hundred thousand to 105,000, but they still owe 109,000. And then they're upset and I'm like, well, that's how this works, which is a shame because they didn't know that nobody told them. Yeah.And you talk about, you know, this 30 year plan. So are you saying that most of the time when you get a home with the VA loan, you're going to be on a mortgage plan that is 30 years of payments? Is that correct? That is the standard. Yes. Now, how does that work in terms of, so you have your monthly. Payments, but let's say, I don't know, however, you're doing your finances.You're like, you know what this month we can pay off like triple the amount this month, or will that then shorten that just like a regular debt of any kind? Yeah, no, absolutely. So whenever, if you do that and say, you like, Hey, it's a good month. I got my bonus or whatever. I'm going to 5, 000 check towards it.The key thing is to one, make sure you market for principal because a lot of banks will automatically apply that extra payment to escrows. And your escrows are basically like a side cushion account for your property taxes and your homeowner's insurance. So when they come due every year, your lender has a little side pocket of money that is going to go to pay those.And that's why when you have a mortgage, your payment changes every month or every year because your insurance might go up your property. They never seem to go down. They all just seem to go up, you know, so you're because of your insurance going up or especially with all the, like the natural disasters, I'm sure everybody across the country is going to see insurance prices rising.You know, so that's why your payment will change every year, but they call it your principal and interest and then that stay same regardless. So if you do a 30 year and it's called amortization, so they take the value of the home times the interest rate times, you know, 30 years or 25 years or whatever it is, and that gives you the amortization and that amortization is what sets your principal and interest payment.And then that will never change, but your insurance and taxes will change. And then obviously, because these change, your whole payment will change every month, if that makes sense. For sure. Yeah. And so for everyone listening, if they want to work with you, you know, what do you kind of do with individuals you know, as far as home buying, as far as lending, as far as, you know, information on all of this, what exactly is your role in all of this?Yeah. So right now, because obviously as a military spouse and moving every three years and, you know, trying to figure out this new life of mine it's more, I work with people more as a consultant, which would be I've got, like I said, the VA loan accelerator, and it's a course that just walks you step by step by step through how to buy a home with a VA loan, including like You know, doing those homeowner, those inspections when you, when you're under contract, what inspections do you need?How do you navigate it? You know, what happens if your inspection says your foundation's cracking, like all of those different things, you know, we cover in this program. I also have a free, it's a VA loan prep checklist that I would love to offer everybody. It's meisenheimer. com slash checklist, but this is what you're going to need.And this kind of gives you the heads. Start and heads up of what to prepare to get the VA loan. What documents you're going to need to start saving. Cause some of that, if you just start now and like you need a couple of months of your LES and you need a couple of months of this and you need your last two years, all of those annoying little things.But I also work with people one on one I can do, you know, a simple. One hour consultant call and say, Hey, let's you know, this is my unique situation. Please, you know, help me through it. What do you recommend? And then, you know, that's kind of nice to to really brainstorm and look at your unique situation and what we can do about it.Awesome. Yeah. So ladies and gentlemen, you'll have all that available to you in the description below. So be sure to check that out as well as share this with whoever may need to hear it. Whether they're active duty or veteran or just related to or married into the military. It's great information to have a lot of people just think all right VA home loan I'm just gonna go get that and then go buy a house, but like we're saying here.There's a lot of preparation for it Both with the VA loan and then just civilian side too. There's a lot of stuff That we've mentioned, you know, credit checks, increasing your buying power, getting all this paperwork ready and maybe taking care of issues that we didn't even know we had. So there's a lot more that goes into it.And again, you know, just because you can use it doesn't mean you have to right now. Definitely look for the right time and the right property. And so, Ms. Eisenheimer, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of this information. Like we said, everyone, you can find her information in the description below, so be sure to Go reach out to her and check out what she has to offer.But thank you again for coming on the show. I appreciate having you. Thank you for having me. It's been great conversation. I appreciate it.
