Chicagoland · VA Loans · USMC Veteran

You served. Now let someone fight for you.

I'm a Marine. I'm also a licensed Illinois broker who knows exactly what a VA offer is worth — and how to explain that to the listing agent who's about to hand your file back. Zero down, no PMI, and a negotiator who has read the guaranty rules.

Start Your VA Home Search → Get the VA Offer One-Pager →
Served
United States Marine Corps
Licensed
Illinois broker · Chicagoland
Specialty
VA purchase offers & appraisal defense
Outside 606/607/608
Matched to a vet-friendly agent
A VA offer is not a weak offer. It's a federally guaranteed loan with a residual-income test on top of DTI. I'll put that in writing for the other side.
VA Offer Strength Calculator · Free, nothing saved

Know your numbers before the listing agent asks.

Funding fee, monthly principal and interest, and the cash you actually bring to the table. Runs in your browser — no email, no account, nothing sent anywhere until you decide to talk to me.

Your situation
A subsequent use raises the funding fee from 2.3% to 3.6% at the under-5%-down tier.
Veterans receiving VA disability compensation (and certain surviving spouses) pay no funding fee at all. Your Certificate of Eligibility states it.
Used only to check whether I can represent you directly.
VA allows $0. Leave it at zero unless you have a reason — 5% and 10% down each cut the funding fee.
Your estimate
Monthly payment · P&I only
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30-year fixed at 6.5%, funding fee financed
VA funding fee
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Total cash to close
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Down payment, with the funding fee rolled into the loan
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Estimate only, for conversation — not a loan estimate, a pre-approval, or a quote. 6.5% is a fixed illustrative rate, not today's market. Excludes taxes, insurance, HOA dues, escrows, prepaids, and third-party closing costs, which are real money and vary by property. Funding fee tiers follow current VA purchase rules: under 5% down, 2.3% first use / 3.6% subsequent; 5%–9.99% down, 1.65%; 10%+ down, 1.4%; exempt, 0%. Verify your entitlement, exemption, and any remaining loan limit against your Certificate of Eligibility and your lender.

For veterans, service members & surviving spouses

The benefit you earned is better than most people tell you.

Most agents have closed one or two VA deals and treat the loan as a complication. It isn't. It's the single best financing available to a residential buyer in this country, and it was written for you specifically.

Down payment

Zero, and that's the design

The VA guaranty stands in for the down payment. With full entitlement there's no VA loan limit either — the cap you may have heard about only returns when entitlement is partially used or wasn't restored after a prior VA loan.

Mortgage insurance

None. Ever.

No PMI, no MIP, no dropping-off-at-80% math to track. On a $450,000 purchase that's typically a few hundred dollars a month that never appears on your statement in the first place.

Funding fee

Waived with a rating

If you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, the funding fee is 0%. If you were owed a refund because your rating came through after closing, that's recoverable — ask.

Underwriting

Residual income, not just DTI

VA underwrites the cash left in your pocket after the mortgage and obligations, by family size and region. It's a stricter test than conventional applies — and it's why VA files perform.

Fees you can't be charged

A short unallowable list

Certain lender fees are simply not chargeable to a VA borrower, and origination is capped at 1%. I read the closing disclosure line by line, because that's where the benefit gets quietly clawed back.

Resale leverage

Your loan is assumable

A VA loan can be assumed by a qualified buyer — including a non-veteran, though your entitlement stays tied up unless it's a veteran substituting theirs. In a higher-rate market that's a genuine selling feature later.

For listing agents · Read before you counter

Six reasons agents reject VA offers. All six are wrong.

No hard feelings — most of this is repeated at office meetings until it sounds true. But if you're advising a seller to take a conventional offer over a VA offer at the same price, you should be able to say why, and these aren't the reasons.

Myth 01
Zero down means they're barely qualified.
Backwards. The down payment is replaced by a federal guaranty to the lender — it isn't a measure of the borrower's file. On top of standard debt-to-income, VA applies a residual income test: verified income left over after the housing payment and all obligations, by household size and region. Conventional has no equivalent requirement. A VA borrower cleared both.
Myth 02
The VA appraisal will come in low and blow up my deal.
The VA appraiser is assigned from a VA panel, so neither side picks them — that's the real difference, not a downward bias. And VA gives you something conventional doesn't: Tidewater. If the appraiser is heading below the contract price, the lender is notified and comps can be submitted before the Notice of Value is issued. A Reconsideration of Value is available after. You get two documented chances to defend your price.
Myth 03
I'll end up paying the buyer's closing costs.
Nothing in the VA program obligates a seller to pay a buyer's costs. Seller-paid concessions are capped at 4% of value — a ceiling on what you can give, not a floor on what you must. Unallowable fees are handled by the lender, commonly inside the 1% origination cap. If a VA buyer asks for credits, that's a negotiation, exactly like every other offer on your desk.
Myth 04
VA loans take forever to close.
VA purchase timelines track conventional closely — the gap is measured in days, not weeks, and it's driven by the appraisal order, not the guaranty. What actually delays a VA file is a lender who rarely writes them. Ask my buyer's lender how many VA loans they closed last year; if the answer is a real number, put your seller's timeline concern away.
Myth 05
Minimum Property Requirements will force repairs my seller won't make.
MPRs are safety, soundness, and sanitation — working mechanicals, no exposed wiring, remaining roof life, water in and out, no active infestation. Cosmetics are not on the list; dated finishes, worn carpet, and old cabinets don't fail. The two that surprise people are chipping paint on pre-1978 homes and access issues. On a home that would pass an FHA appraisal, you're already there.
Myth 06
The VA escape clause lets the buyer walk whenever they want.
The amendatory/escape clause is narrow: the buyer may withdraw without forfeiting the earnest money if the VA-established value comes in below the contract price. That's it. Functionally it's an appraisal contingency — the same one sitting in the conventional offer you were about to accept — and it's mandatory language, not something my buyer chose to add.
Get the VA Offer One-Pager → Talk to me about a live offer

“Why Your Listing Should Accept This VA Offer”

The one-pager I attach to my own offers. Plain language, no jargon, written to be handed to a seller who is looking at two offers and doesn't know why one says “VA.” Drop your email and it opens right here — print it, or send the link.

Veterans and agents both — same document. I'll email you when it's updated, and nothing else unless you ask.

Start your VA home search.

Name, email, and ZIP. If you're in Chicagoland, you're working with me directly. If you're not, I'll find you someone who takes the benefit as seriously as I do — and you'll hear back either way.

No spam and no lead-selling. If you'd rather just talk: hello@negotiatorsondemand.com. Dan Cruz is a licensed real estate broker in Illinois — not a lender, and not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.