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Only 13 percent of the nearly 20 million eligible veterans and active duty service members in this country have ever used their VA home loan benefit, according to a 2026 NewDay USA survey of more than 1,200 veterans and service members that also found nearly 1 in 3 received little to no education about the benefit during or after their military service.
No down payment. No private mortgage insurance. Competitive rates. For veterans with a service-connected disability, the VA funding fee is waived entirely. It is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools available to any American, earned through military service.
As real estate professionals, that number should stop us cold. Because a significant part of why that percentage stays so low traces directly back to our industry.
I know this because it happened to me
In 2004, I bought my first house in Newport News, Virginia, as an E-5, Petty Officer Second Class, in the Navy. Young, excited and completely clueless, I trusted my real estate agent. That was my first mistake.
He had no idea how VA loans worked. Instead of putting me in the zero-down, fixed-rate product I was fully eligible for, he steered me toward an interest-only adjustable-rate mortgage. My payment was $400 a month. I thought I was winning.
What he never explained was the one-year rate lock. When it adjusted, my payment nearly tripled. The extra $800 a month hit our family like a gut punch.
Orders came in 2006. I sold just before the real estate bubble burst. My neighbors, fellow service members, watched their home values drop 50 percent to 60 percent. Many were stuck. Some lost everything.
I was not saved by good advice. I was saved by luck. And I spent the next two decades asking myself how many others were not.
What most agents do not see
Military families are not a niche market with minor differences from civilian clients. They arrive at your listing appointment operating in an entirely different financial reality, one most agents have never been trained to understand.
A PCS, or Permanent Change of Station, move costs military families thousands of dollars in unreimbursed expenses per relocation, according to research from the Military Family Advisory Network.
Many are qualifying for a mortgage on a single income because military spouses face an unemployment rate five to seven times the national average, driven by the relentless cycle of relocations that makes sustained careers nearly impossible to build.
Their pay structure adds another layer that most agents miss. BAH, or Basic Allowance for Housing, is non-taxable income that varies by rank, dependency status and duty station. Agents and lenders who do not understand how it factors into loan qualification cannot effectively advocate for their clients through underwriting.
There is also a financial vulnerability in this community that our industry needs to reckon with honestly. According to the Department of Defense’s 2006 Report on Predatory Lending Practices Directed at Members of the Armed Forces and Their Dependents, submitted to Congress as the basis for the Military Lending Act, service members are up to four times more likely to be targeted by high-interest lenders than their civilian counterparts.
During my 24 years in the Navy, serving as both a military police officer and a senior enlisted leader, I lost count of how many formal letters of indebtedness from creditors I processed for service members under my command. I watched debt revoke security clearances and stall promotions.
For this community, a bad real estate transaction is not just a financial setback. It can end a career.
What earning this client’s trust actually looks like
About two years ago, I sat at a listing appointment with a veteran and his family. Before I touched the price or strategy, I asked why they were selling. He said their son had been accepted to UC Berkeley. Tuition was expensive. Selling felt like their only option.
I asked one question: Are you a service-connected disabled veteran? He said yes. I told him that in California, children of service-connected disabled veterans may be eligible to attend any California State University or University of California campus with tuition and fees fully waived, and encouraged him to verify through the California Department of Veterans Affairs.
They started crying right there in their living room. Nobody had told them. Not their Veterans Service Officer (VSO). Not their lender. Not a single agent before me.
They kept their house. Their son went to UC Berkeley. That is the difference between an agent who works with military clients and one who actually serves them.
That kind of awareness does not come from a weekend course. It comes from doing the work. Here is where to start.
5 things every agent serving this community needs to know
1. VA loans have no limit for buyers with full entitlement
Under the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, which took effect Jan. 1, 2020, Congress eliminated VA loan limits for borrowers with full entitlement that fit the criteria of this Act.
Most agents still believe VA loans are capped and steer military buyers toward conventional products they do not need. That belief is costing your clients money and costing you credibility with a community that talks to each other constantly.
2. The funding fee exemption is worth thousands, and most agents never mention it
Any veteran with a service-connected disability rating is fully exempt from the VA funding fee at closing. This can save a buyer thousands of dollars. If you have to look this up mid-transaction, your client is already at a disadvantage.
3. The VA loan stigma is costing your listing clients deals
Many listing agents advise sellers to avoid VA offers based on outdated myths about slow timelines and difficult appraisals. Military buyers are highly motivated, fully qualified, and often paying at or above the asking price. Agents who perpetuate that bias are actively working against their own sellers and turning away one of the strongest buyer pools in the market.
4. POA transactions and SCRA protections are not edge cases. They are standard
Power of attorney transactions, where a deployed spouse signs on behalf of the service member, happen regularly in military real estate. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, also provides legal and financial protections that affect active contracts and timelines. Errors in either area create legal exposure. If you have never navigated one, learn before you need to.
5. VA loan assumptions are one of the most powerful selling tools in a high-rate market, and most agents have never used one
A VA loan assumption allows a buyer, including a non-veteran, to take over the seller’s existing VA loan at the original interest rate. In a high-rate environment, a seller with a low-rate VA loan sitting on the asset has a significant competitive advantage. Agents who know how to market and facilitate assumptions are delivering real value that most of their competitors cannot.
The professional this community deserves
Military families are one of the most loyal, referral-driven client bases in real estate. They move constantly, they talk to each other constantly, and when they find a professional who genuinely understands their world, they never stop sending business that person’s way.
But loyalty has to be earned. This community has spent decades navigating a financial system that too often saw a steady paycheck before it saw a person.
Military families have learned to read the difference between an agent who has put in the work and one who has simply added a military specialization line to their bio. Earned expertise looks different from claimed expertise, and this community will feel the difference in the first five minutes of a conversation.
The agents who will build lasting businesses in this market are the ones who have genuinely prepared, who have pursued real training, who understand the benefits deeply enough to apply them without prompting, and who walk into every appointment knowing that for this family, this move is not a transaction. It is a mission.
That 13 percent VA loan utilization number is not a statistic. It is a gap. And it is an invitation. The question is not whether military families deserve better. They do. The question is whether you have done the work to earn the right to serve them.
Travis Winfield is a retired 24-year Navy Command Senior Chief, Founder and CEO of Military Operated Real Estate (MORE), a national network of military-affiliated real estate professionals, and author of Military Money and MORE. He is a national speaker on veteran financial literacy and VP of the Enlisted Leadership Foundation. Learn more at traviswinfield.com.
