A VA buyer advantage guide For veterans, active duty & eligible buyers
For Buyers Using a VA Loan
The VA loan is a beautiful loan. One name on both sides of your offer gets it accepted.
I’m Erik Walbot — your realtor, and your lender. Zero down, earned by service, and built to close when one experienced person handles the offer and the loan together. If you’re qualified and you have your DD-214, this is one of the strongest ways to buy a home in America. Here’s why — and here’s how I get VA buyers across the finish line.
$0 downThe signature VA benefit
No PMINo monthly mortgage insurance
25 yrsIn Valley real estate
635Homes sold
01
Why the VA loan is great
Ten reasons a qualified VA buyer walks in stronger than most buyers at the table — in plain English:
$0 down.The signature benefit: qualified veterans buy with no down payment at all — your cash stays in your pocket for moving, reserves, and life.
No monthly mortgage insurance. No PMI, ever — a monthly savings that conventional low-down-payment buyers simply don’t get.
Competitive rates. VA loans typically price at or below conventional rates — a lower rate on top of zero down.
Your DD-214 starts it. Bring your discharge papers — I pull your Certificate of Eligibility and confirm your entitlement before we shop. As your lender, that’s my desk.
One funding fee — not a monthly one. A one-time VA funding fee that can be financed into the loan, and many disabled veterans are exempt from it entirely.
Seller concessions up to 4% beyond closing costs. A VA-only lever — and I know how to ask for it so it actually lands in your deal.
Assumable. A future buyer can take over your VA rate — which can make your home easier to sell when rates are higher than yours.
No prepayment penalty, ever. Pay extra, pay it off early, refinance when it makes sense — no penalty for getting ahead.
Reusable. The benefit doesn’t expire after one home — your entitlement can be used again on the next one.
Built-in protections. The VA appraisal and property standards exist to protect you, the buyer — and I price and write the offer so they never become a surprise.
02
Zero down makes some sellers nervous. One name on both sides of your offer is the fix.
Here’s the honest truth about VA offers: the loan is excellent, but some sellers and listing agents who don’t know the program misread it. What the listing side is really worried about is certainty — will this file actually close? That misread is an information problem, and it gets solved before your offer is ever judged on price.
The fix is one phone call — and I make it myself, wearing both hats.
Before the seller side decides, I call the listing agent personally. I present the offer as your realtor — and I answer the financing questions as your lender, firsthand: your COE is pulled, your entitlement is confirmed, your file is verified, and here’s a closing timeline I control on both ends. There’s no telephone game between an agent and a loan officer who have never spoken — because I’m both.
That’s why experienced representation matters more for a VA buyer than for almost any other buyer. The product is excellent. My job is making the other side see it. One name — 25 years of closings and his own lending files behind it — attached to both sides of the deal, and the same offer gets read as certainty instead of risk.
03
Structured for the highest net benefit
I structure every VA offer for the highest net benefit to you — short term and long term.
Getting the offer accepted is the start, not the finish. The VA benefit has value built into it on both horizons — and because I sit at both desks, I see both sides of the math before your offer is written:
Short term — at the table & at closing
✓Cash preserved. Zero down means your savings stay yours — not handed to the seller as a down payment.
✓Every concession captured. The VA 4%-beyond-closing-costs lever, asked for properly and put in writing.
✓Credit vs. price, run honestly. Where a seller credit toward a buydown nets you more than the same dollars off the price, I show you the math — and structure it that way.
✓Funding fee handled right. Financed vs. paid, decided deliberately — and I check your exemption before anything is signed, because many disabled veterans owe none.
Long term — over the life of the loan
✓No PMI, for the life of the loan. A monthly drag VA buyers simply never pay — month after month, year after year.
✓Total-cost view before the offer. As your lender, I model the real cost of the loan over the years you expect to hold the home — not just the payment in month one.
✓Assumability kept valuable. Today’s VA rate can become tomorrow’s selling point when a future buyer assumes it.
✓Entitlement strategy. Using the benefit now without burning its future — it can be used again on the next home.
04
Interviewing realtors? Ask these first.
Before you hire anyone to write your VA offer, ask them these eight questions — exactly as written, and watch how they answer. A VA specialist answers every one of these in seconds, without notes. If you hear hedging, “we’ll figure it out,” or a subject change — that’s information. Then ask me the same questions.
1
“How does my Certificate of Eligibility work — and how much entitlement do I actually have?”
A confident answer sounds like: the COE explained in plain English — I pull it as your lender from your DD-214 and confirm your exact entitlement before we shop.
2
“What’s the VA funding fee on my purchase — and is there a chance I’m exempt?”
A confident answer sounds like: it varies by use and down payment and is usually financed — and veterans with a service-connected disability rating are typically exempt.
3
“How much can a seller concede on a VA loan beyond my closing costs?”
A confident answer sounds like: up to 4% — a VA-only lever most agents have never heard of.
4
“How do VA property requirements change which homes we should write offers on?”
A confident answer sounds like: the condition standards named specifically, and how they steer the search and the offer price from day one.
5
“If the VA appraisal comes in low, what exactly happens — and what are my options?”
A confident answer sounds like: the Tidewater process and the Notice of Value, walked through step by step — with a plan, not a panic.
6
“Which of my closing costs is a seller or lender not allowed to charge me on a VA loan?”
A confident answer sounds like: VA’s non-allowable fees, known cold — no looking it up.
7
“Can a future buyer assume my VA loan — and why should I care today?”
A confident answer sounds like: yes — and in a higher-rate world, an assumable low rate can be a selling advantage worth real money.
8
“How will you present my zero-down offer so the seller takes it as seriously as a cash-heavy one?”
A confident answer sounds like: a specific plan — the call to the listing agent, made by the man who wrote the offer and holds the loan file, so the financing story comes firsthand.
Eight questions. Two minutes. You’ll know.
If the answers come back slow, vague, or confident-but-wrong, that pause is telling you something — it’s exactly why VA buyers choose Erik Walbot as their realtor and their lender. Ask me the same eight, any time. I’ll answer them the same way I work: fast, specific, and straight.
Getting a VA offer accepted is half the job. Getting it closed — appraisal, entitlement, funding fee, timeline — is the other half. On my deals, both halves live at the same desk:
Erik Walbot
RealtorREALTOR®, The Walbot Group · Realty ONE Group
25 years selling homes across the Valley. On a VA offer, my job is the part most agents skip: the call to the listing agent, the seller-side education on how strong a VA buyer really is, and an offer structured so zero down reads as strength — the right price, the right concessions, the right timeline.
The VA file — as your lender
VA underwriting done right, up front: Certificate of Eligibility pulled, entitlement confirmed, funding fee handled, appraisal expectations set — before your offer ever goes in. That’s what makes a VA file a seller can trust, and a closing that happens on schedule.
25 yrsIn the Valley
635Homes sold (Zillow)
5.0★Across 54 team reviews
“Your realtor and your lender are the same man. Nothing gets lost between two offices, because there aren’t two offices.”
— Erik Walbot
Earned the benefit? Let’s use it properly.
Send me your DD-214 and the homes you’re looking at. I’ll confirm your eligibility and build the file as your lender — then write the offer and make the call as your realtor. One point of contact, start to finish.
