There's never been a better time to be a VA homebuyer! The market is shifting in your favor, and there are some great hidden benefits to taking advantage of this opportunity. Watch Kyle Whissel and learn more about the exciting possibilities available to you as a VA buyer!
If you are looking to buy a home with a VA loan, today is the best time in a long time to be a VA buyer. My name is Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty Group, and today I want to talk to you about how this shift in the real estate market has positioned you as a VA buyer to buy that home you've been waiting for. Because now, you have so much less competition out there.
A lot of the other buyers out there, the buyers who are too picky, too choosy, they're gone. And it's creating so much more opportunity for you as a VA buyer. The market that we've been in for the last, I don't know how many years, I feel like I was giving these market updates and it was the same thing over and over again, we finally have this shift, which is exactly what you needed as a VA buyer. Because what was happening, especially in the tail end of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 is, there were so many buyers out there that a lot of homes were seeing 10, 20, 30 offers on them.
A lot of times, you had people coming in with all cash or you had people coming in with huge down payments, and if you were putting offers in on these properties, you were getting beat out again and again and again. And you probably got really frustrated, saying, "Screw this, I served my country, and I'm getting put in the back of the line. This isn't right." Well, now the time is right because a lot of that competition is gone. We're seeing maybe one or two offers on a property where we maybe saw 10 or 20 offers six months ago. And that's opportunity for you. Now you're not going up against all these cash buyers. You're not going up against these people with 50% down.
Now, you become the more attractive buyer. So here's what's great is, months ago, if you came in and wrote an offer on a property and told the seller that you needed some credit to cover your closing costs, they laughed at you. That was why they were putting you at the back of the line. They were like, "Screw this, I got all cash buyers asking for no credits and I got this VA buyer coming in asking for some credits to help with their closing costs." Well, guess what? Now you can come in, you can ask for those closing costs. And not only can you ask to have your closing costs covered, if you have some debts, maybe you have a car loan that you need to pay off or credit cards or something along those lines, we can not only ask for credit to get rid of your closing costs, but we could also ask for a credit to pay off some of those debts. And when we pay off some of those debts, it allows you to qualify for a bigger home.
So that is now an opportunity that really didn't exist six months ago. Another thing that's opened itself up is the opportunity to request a pest clearance on a home. You probably learned as you've been out there shopping that when you buy a loan with a VA loan, they're going to require a pest clearance. A lot of people call it a termite clearance, but it's a pest clearance because it doesn't just cover termites. It covers wood-destroying organisms and dry rot and other things. So the real term is a pest clearance. So, a lot of times, if you wrote an offer and you said, "I need a pest clearance," sellers laughed at you. Not anymore. Sellers are like, "Cool, pest clearance, no problem."
They're much more willing to provide that for you. Another thing that's going to be important and one of the reasons that VA buyers a lot of time get put at the back of the list is the appraisal that gets done on a VA loan is a little bit more stringent than the appraisal that gets done on a conventional loan with 10, 20-plus percent down. On a VA loan, they're going to do not a full inspection of the home, but they're definitely going to look at it a little bit closer than they are on a conventional loan. They're going to look for things like peeling paint. They're going to look for things like dry rot, termite damage. They're going to look for some of these issues and they're going to call them out on an appraisal.
And now those repairs are going to be required. So a lot of times, sellers would avoid VA buyers because they didn't want to get stuck having to make repairs. Well, now they're more willing to make those repairs. Not only are they going to be more willing to make the repairs required for the appraisal, but if you find other issues with the home, plumbing, electrical, basically anything that's kind of health and safety related or anything that deals with the major components of the home, plumbing, electrical, roof, foundation, that kind of stuff, sellers are much more open to negotiating on those repairs, where they weren't open to that months ago. They wouldn't even take your offer 'cause they didn't want to have to deal with that. Now, they don't have 20 offers to pick from. Now they're more open to working with you.
It's kind of fun, right? "Hey, seller, remember that?" And here's the best part. Another reason that VA buyers were struggling months ago is, homes were selling for five to 10% above what they were listed for, which also means they were five to 10% above what the last home sold for in the neighborhood or what we refer to as comps, the last comparable home sale. You were having to pay five or 10% above that. Well, that's tough, especially if you're coming in, you're doing no money down on your VA loan. Well, the seller's like, "Well, if you're going to pay this much above the value, what if it appraises too low?
Do you have money in the bank to cover that?" Well, now you're not having to come in and pay 5% or even 10% above what a home's listed at. A lot of times, you're able to come in and pay right at the list price. And if the home's been sitting on the market for awhile or maybe it's fallen out of an escrow or two, you could actually come in a little bit below the list price. So now having to worry about appraisals becomes a lot less of a concern. So there's a bunch of reasons why today, for the first time in a long time, it's a great day to be a VA buyer. And so, if you want to talk with our team, we've got multiple former military members on our team, I'd love to get you connected with one of them to help you explore buying a home here in San Diego.
Give us a call, shoot us a text at the number down below. That'll connect you with my team. We can learn a little bit about you, your goals, and put a plan in place to help you accomplish them. I'm Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty Group. Thanks for tuning in.
