As title professionals, we have the opportunity and privilege of serving veterans and active duty military, and it’s our job to understand the unique aspects these home buyers and sellers face throughout their transaction. As the Originating Manager from Guaranteed Rate Affinity in South Carolina, Todd McDonald discusses his “why” for serving the military families in his community and how title and real estate professionals can continue to provide specialized service to those who serve our country and their loved ones. 

“Because South Carolina is a strong military community…the thought of a military family living in a hotel room is just nauseous to me. On my team, our passion is to get those military families into homes as quickly as possible,” McDonald says in his opening comments. 

In the video below, he clears up some common misconceptions about VA Loans, and explains more about how to assist military buyers:

Key Takeaways

What’s the difference between the inspection the buyer will typically do and the inspection that the VA lender will do?
Todd: There's the appraisal inspection that the VA requires and then there's a home inspection… and you know I always tell folks there's a good and bad in the home inspection - the good is the home inspector will tell you everything that's wrong with the house the bad is the home inspector will tell you everything is wrong with the house. And that is not something that's required by the VA.

The VA inspections typically require two main components:
Todd:
1. The appraisal - The VA actually puts that out on the VA portal and assigns it to appraisers who will go out there and do the full appraisal using comps…they almost kind of do a home inspection but not like a detailed home inspector would they take a look at the roof they take a look underneath the house they look for any type of paint chipping. I mean I actually had a house where it had a horse barn and the horse barn had chipping paint on it, and the VA required them for the appraisal to have the entire Barn scraped and painted, so pretty strict appraisal requirements.

2. They require a CL-100 (Inspection) or a termite letter to make sure that that's solid.

What is the timing of the VA appraisal?
Todd: We start processing the loan we get it ready for underwriting and in that process we ordered title work and Appraisal at the same time Realtors I mean I always tell folks then I would I would say the same thing if you're a realtor I would never want to buy a house without a home inspection an appraisal in a survey. Now I know a lot of people don't require surveys anymore and the VA doesn't require but that's just me personally. But usually the home inspection is done right up front between the agent and the buyer trying to cover that due diligence period.

Once that appraisal is done, if something happens and this particular transaction were to fall through can the VA appraisal be transferred from one lender to another?
Todd: It can be transferred from one lender to another with if the veteran is still wanting to or to buy the house, but the VA appraisal gets a case number that is assigned to the veteran. For example…things let's say somebody is getting a VA loan with Bank of America and that veteran says you know what I want to transfer Todd at Guaranteed Rate you can transfer the appraisal then. But if let's say that I'm the veteran I'm buying and I walk away from the deal that that appraisal cannot be transferred because it's assigned to that.

How long the does the appraisal process take and how long does the entire VA loan process take?
Todd: Okay so there was a time especially last year when it was just you know really crazy we would say the VA says that the appraiser has up to 10 business days from the date the appraisal is accepted right it would. This time last year it took easily 15 days -- 15 business days, to get the appraisal back and you know I didn't have a problem picking up the phone and calling me appraiser, said hey listen I'm not asking for value I'm just asking for an update how we’re looking.

I got a military family in a hotel come on man you got to help me out here those appraisers are really good they just got backlogged. Right now I'm seeing you the average turn time about you know seven to eight business days okay but if the VA gives them 10 full business days before you can complain to the VA right after 10 business days you can file a follow-up complaint with the VA.

I can do any VA loan in under 30 days my average is probably 21 to 24. I've done something as fast as 10 days. that takes you know what I tell folks hey we're going to move Heaven and Earth and we're going to shoot for 10 days it's me having everybody on board the veteran both agents somebody called the appraiser said hey man they're in a hotel we need some love here me telling my team hey we're not going to slow down on this but it takes great communication between all parties to make that happen. But I would think that any lender should be able to do a VA loan from beginning to end it's application contract to the very closing date in less than 30 days.

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Melanie Dawn Molina Wood

Melanie Dawn Molina Wood is the Educational Program Coordinator for Real Source University for Anywhere Integrated Services. Melanie Dawn has worked in the real estate industry since 1985; and brings her experience and engaging teaching style to you with a series of high energy, educational real estate classes designed to boost your real estate knowledge and grow your business.

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