Volly’s Grant Moon on challenges facing veterans

This week, HousingWire’s editor in chief Sarah Wheeler interviews Grant Moon, the chief revenue officer at Volly and the founder of Home Captain. In this episode, Moon discusses the difficulties veterans face during the home-buying process and misconceptions about VA loans.  

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Sarah Wheeler: What are some of the challenges veterans face when trying to access the VA benefit?

Grant Moon: Through happenstance, I sold two different homes in the past eight months and due to the heat of the market, they both had multiple bids and offer scenarios. When looking at the types of offers that were coming in and also being in the business, I was aware that we’re in a historically low inventory environment and instinctively knew that any offers showing up with a pre-qual that is VA was likely being pushed aside. I think it’s just the nature of the beast right now. There’s a lot of things to unpack. You have the listing agent that has a fiduciary responsibility to their client, in terms of getting them the best and strongest offer, and in my opinion, you also have an agent community that may have some misconceptions around VA loans. When you’re looking at an environment where you have more buyers or real estate agents than you actually have homes for sale, people become choosy, right? So really, we’re looking at a scenario where the demand exceeds the supply, which has largely driven up prices, and a low-interest rate environment that is resulting in multiple offer scenarios. So, if you take all of those things it creates an environment where homeowners and real estate agents are being incredibly picky. And by virtue of them being incredibly picky, they’re probably tapping into some myths they’ve come across over their years in the industry, and that ultimately, in my opinion, is harmful. From my perspective, I think whatever can be done to educate agents and sellers will be the most impactful, as I believe veterans should have a shot at the American dream as well.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Sarah Wheeler and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.