Brittany Chaney served her country aboard the U.S.S. Tarawa for 3 years from 2000 to 2003, yet the very VA home loan benefits she earned in the Navy have been impossible to use.
“It’s disturbing, she told News 6 investigator Mike Holfeld, “because it almost makes you feel like you’re not going to be able to buy a home.”
Chaney said her search for a dream home in central Florida had been successful several times over, but when she asked her real estate agents to put a bid on a home they would try to convince her to use a conventional home mortgage instead of the VA loan she had already been approved for.
“I would say it’s definitely discrimination,” Chaney said, “The sellers don’t want to sell to veterans not because we’re veterans but because they don’t want to go through the hassle.”
Sean Johnson, a Marine turned mortgage broker for local vets, told WKMG-TV it is all about the additional red tape.
“They (VA loan division) have a specific amount of requirements to follow to make sure that the property is up to code and good to go.”
Johnson’s Booyah Mortgage.com has provided 600 veterans with mortgages since the Lake Mary company was established in 2014.
But while his company has given hope to local vets, Brittany Chaney said her story is just one of hundreds.
“We deserve our benefits, we deserve to use them," she said.
Keith Jackson of the Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals said only one third of the available homes in Orlando are eligible for VA loans.
Jackson told WKMG that there is a lack of education when it comes to understanding the VA loan process and once realtors understand it, "They are on board.”
“The appraisal process is more stringent, Jackson said, but it is there to protect the veteran, this is the number one loan product in the nation.”
Jackson who is president of Eureka Real Estate, said veterans deserve a chance to own a home and in his view the VA loan makes that possible.
”I would tell every homeowner if you have a house listed for sale and you are not accepting VA home loan change that listing…a portion of it is guaranteed so that makes it easier for the lender to offer (the vet) more favorable terms.