Using a Texas Vet loan to buy a San Antonio house?

A home purchase is likely the biggest transaction you will ever make and picking the wrong lender can cost you big. If you are a Texas Veteran you are most likely eligible for a Texas Vet loan. A Texas Vet loan is a great option because the interest rate is not contingent on your credit score and you still get all the benefits of a traditional VA loan. If you are VA Eligible that you should strongly consider using Texas Vet loan to buy a San Antonio House. If you Qualify for a VA Loan and are a Texas Vet than you will almost certainly be eligible for a Texas Vet loan. Qualifying is easy, you can qualify with a short period of active duty or with six years of reserve duty. 

 

 

Not all loans are created equally, know what your VA financing options are before you commit.

 

I personally used a Tex Vet loan to purchase our home and we got an interest rate a full 1% below what we could have gotten with a VA or Conventional loan. The great thing about using a Tex Vet loan is that you get the lowest possible interest rate regardless of your credit score. All you have to do is qualify and you automatically get the lowest possible rate. You will also avoid the mortgage insurance that comes with Conventional and FHA financing. If you are planning on using a VA loan but don't have 20% down and stellar credit score than you should strongly consider trying to get a Tex Vet loan. 

 

 

If you are thinking of using a VA loan you will hear the term funding fee thrown around. This is the fee that you pay to use a VA loan however it is typically waived if you have a disability rating from the VA. A Texas Vet Loan has a slightly higher funding fee than a traditional VA loan, but in many cases it is more than made up for by the reduction in the interest rate that you receive. 

 

I had a client that wanted to use a VA loan but she went with an online lender that is based out-of-state. The out-of-state lender while licensed to do business in Texas did not offer her the option of using a Texas Vet loan. They approved her for a traditional VA loan which had an interest rate 0.75% higher than what she could have gotten with a Tex Vet loan. This is not to say that all online lenders are not going to offer state specific loans but this is where it pays to know your stuff. At the end of the day you and your real estate agent need to advocate for your interest. With Internet-based lenders you will never meet in person and most of your communication will likely be electronic. There is no personal touch with this, for me when I am making the biggest purchase of my life I want to be able to do business face to face. 

 

 

Whatever your communication preference whether face to face or electronic it pays to fact check what your’e being told. Know your options before you make a decision, at the very least if you do go with an online lender sit down with someone local and get a second opinion. It is not going to cost you anything and it could potentially save you big money in the long run. 

The moral of the story is Expectations are real

What kind of experience is your client expecting you to deliver? Are they expecting you to find them a home in a matter of day, weeks or months? Is your client expecting you to sell their home for over market value in a matter of a week? These are all things that the client is likely expecting whether or not you bother to find out. So do yourself a favor and find out the clients expectations from the start so you can manage them effectively. Ask yourself, what kind of experience is the client looking for me to deliver? Failing to know the answer to that question could cost you in a big way. I will share my personal experience of how I personally failed to manage my own expectations and paid the price.

• My wife and I are in the process of buying a home. We knew going into it that it was an active market but we thought our situation would be different since I was our realtor. As you can imagine we did not manage our expectations going into the house hunt. I had failed to manage the expectations of my client (my wife) and it led to unnecessary anxiety and stress. 

• Managing expectations is important with buyers but it is equally if not more important to do when working with sellers as well. I have clients in this market that regularly feel they can price their house high because there is shortage of houses out there. This is not the case, houses that are overpriced tend to sit for a while and only after dropping the price do they get serious interest. 

• At the end of the day all you can do is advise your clients what the best route to go is. What route they choose to take is up to them, but it is important to manage expectations from the get go regardless. Failing to do so could result in it negatively impacting you and your clients relationship. A seller that overprices their house with the expectation that it will sell quickly is not going to take kindly to the reality that it hasn’t sold after a month or more on the market. If you don’t clearly define the expectation the seller is likely to blame you for less than desirable result. 

The moral of the story is that you can’t control what people will or will not do. You can to some degree control how they will or will not react to a given situation. Managing expectations ensure that you and the client are on the same page. A good rule of thumb is under promise and over deliver. No one is going to get mad at you because you delivered exactly what they expected. People will quickly get upset if you under deliver though. This goes back to managing expectations, what kind if experience is your client expecting you to deliver? Answer that clearly from the outset and you will be much better of for it.  

Real estate teams vs. Individual Agents and what consumers need to know.

Real Estate Teams vs. Individual Agents

I had my first experience with a real estate team when I sold my first home about a year before I got into real estate myself. I had no idea what a team was and I the agent that was selling our house didn't explain it at all. I left feeling like I did not get what I signed up for.

There are two obvious differences between a team and an individual agent. As the name implies a team is composed of multiple agents and/or support staff. An agent is singular and therefore solo mostly without a team of support staff. The less obvious difference is that with a team you will rarely deal with the same person for any two portions of the process.

Team structure-

Teams are structured in various ways but the typical team has at least three components: a listing agent, a buyers agent and an assistant. The listing agent and buyers agent are pretty self explanatory however the assistant is the one varies. Most of the time the assistant handles all the paperwork, contracts, phone calls and all the behind the scenes stuff. This allows the listing agent and the buyers agent to focus on getting new buyer and sellers.

Single agent structure-

With a single agent there is only one agent therefore the agent has to handle everything on their own. This means that the agent will be the one showing the buyers houses as well as the one going on listing appointments. They will also be the one doing the paperwork and giving clients the update as the process goes along.

The difference to you the consumer- 

The difference between working with a team and working with an individual agent as a consumer can be pretty dramatic. When you are working with a team you will likely have very little contact with the lead agent that you initially spoke to/met with. They are the “face” of the operation and are most of the time hands off for the majority of the transaction once it gets started. This means that you agree to list the house with them and from that point on someone else takes over. Most if not all updates will come from one of the support staff and not the agent that you started working with. 

With an individual agent you have the same agent from the start to the finish, there is no one to delegate the tasks to. The individual agent is going to have much more of a personal touch and will be involved in every step of the transaction. They in a sense have more at stake than an agent with a team, because they are more personally invested in the deal. 

Conclusion- 

In concluding there is nothing wrong with either option you choose to use. Most teams provide great service but you will lose much of the personal feel that you get with an individual agent. Both should run equally smooth it just becomes a preference of what your’e comfortable with. 

Communication, money and the heartache that both can cause

The two biggest issues that can plague even the best marriages are communication and finances. I will cover three aspects of both that can save you endless trouble.

If you have ever heard of the book "men are from Mars women are from Venus" then you know that while the name sounds wacky there is a lot of truth in it. The fact that Men and women don't operate the same way goes without saying, but guys often wonder what makes women tick? While the answer to that is going to vary, it has been my experience that women thrive on stability. A lack of stability or a perceived lack of stability is going to be an issue in any marriage. 

Common Goal

• As Men it is our duty to be the provider for our families. If asked most men would say that being able to provide for their family is one of the single most important things they can do. That being said the needs of women for stability and the needs for the man to be able to provide are actually much more closely related than they might otherwise appear. This is a point I never understood until I got married and one that took many arguments to truly sink in. 

Communication is key

• I as the leader of my family was in control of the finances. I had things in control a majority of the time but I didn’t always keep my wife in the loop. We had large amounts of debt when we first got married and while we got by every month there were many fight over money. I did not take the time to explain our situation to my wife and involve her in the weekly and monthly budgets. It was not that I was trying to keep things from her I honestly didn’t think she cared and I didn't want to stress her out. My intentions, good as they were, completely backfired on me and left my wife feeling neglected and controlled. 

What is a budget if not a plan for your money? 

• I am a spender by nature and saving does not come easy to me. My idea of budgeting was spend money till it’s gone then go without till I got paid again. It was my responsibility as the leader to manage the budget. Unfortunately this was something that I never bothered to do when I was single so naturally it didn't happen easily when I got married. 

If you are single then start living on a budget now because the longer you wait the harder it will be. If you are married and don’t live on a budget then sit down with your wife and go over the budget together. Create a weekly or bi-weekly budget depending on how often you get paid and keep each other accountable. My wife and I have budget meeting every week to go over how we are doing and see where we stand. I manage the budget but by communicating with her she knows where we stand every week and can take solace in that fact.