At Ross Mortgage, we’re proud to honor military service members who sacrifice their lives defending our freedom. To honor their service to our country, we feel a sense of duty to help these deserving members of our community leverage the VA benefits they’ve so rightfully earned to buy a home.

Since 2015, our team of VA loan experts has helped nearly 600 Veterans exercise their VA benefits and it’s no surprise that many of our top lending moments involve working with these individuals.

Here are just a few of their stories, and some lessons you can learn from their home buying experiences!

Lesson #1: Remember to mention your service to the country!

The only thing better than helping one Veteran utilize their VA loan benefits is the opportunity to help two at the same time—and not just any two: a father and a son!

Prior to coming to Ross Mortgage, this father-son duo was unsure about their ability to buy a house and didn’t think they had many options available to them. Little did they know at the time that a simple phone call to our VA lending team would open the door of opportunity they had both been looking for.

As fate would have it, we actually met the son first. He was newly married and looking to buy a house his family could grow in. When he reached out to our team for guidance, we asked him a series of questions to help us better understand how we could be of greatest assistance based on his unique circumstances—an approach we take with every hopeful homebuyer we work with.

It was during this conversation we learned he came from a military family and that he himself was injured during boot camp. While his injuries prevented him from continuing his service to our country, we worked with the VA to verify whether he was eligible for a VA home loan. When we told him he qualified for a zero-down VA loan, he was speechless. He went from thinking he’d have to spend several years saving up enough money for a substantial down payment to having more than enough funds to close on a home, which soon thereafter he did.

Shortly after that, he proceeded to tell his father, David (a Veteran who had served several tours in Iraq), about what we were able to do for him in hopes there might be some way we could help his dad in his home search, as well.

As a disabled Veteran, David had been through a lot and wasn’t sure he would be able to get a mortgage. However, he and his wife were hoping to move back to Michigan to be closer to their family. After working closely with David, our team was able to get him approved for a VA loan and into a home.

The lesson: At Ross Mortgage, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we factor your life journey into the lending equation, taking into account your priorities and personal circumstances. This means, we won’t just find the right loan, we’ll find the right loan for you. As part of our initial consultation, we’ll find out whether any applicant is in a position to utilize VA benefits to buy a home—a simple thing that’s often overlooked, but when approached correctly opens the doors for so many people who otherwise thought homeownership was out of the realm of possibility. 

Lesson #2: Find a lender that cares about your best interest!

When Army Captain Chase Huggins reached out to us for help relocating from Colorado to Michigan so his daughter could receive the specialized medical care she needed, our team felt a profound sense of duty to serve his family during this critical time in their life.

Moving across the country is a lot more complicated than moving across town. And on top of it all, the Huggins family was saddled with the additional stress of moving in a remarkably compressed timeframe—and at a time when accumulating medical expenses made coming up with a significant down payment challenging.

Despite the unique challenges and circumstances Cpt. Huggins and his family faced, our team helped them navigate their options and overcome every obstacle that arose throughout the mortgage process. As a result, they were able to relocate and make the move into their new home in less than 6 weeks, and with no money down.

But most importantly, we were able to work together to make that happen while allowing Cpt. Huggins and his wife to devote the time and attention they needed to ensure that their daughter got the care and support she required.

The lesson: To us, no mortgage loan is just merely another transaction. Underneath every application is a larger story, and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to support these significant moments in our customers’ lives. We take great pride giving our customers the choice, clarity and confidence they need to navigate what is oftentimes the biggest financial decision they’ll make in their life.

Lesson #3: Buying a home is an experience, getting a mortgage should be one too.

As a mortgage lender, closing day is one of the most exciting parts of our job. Helping our clients  navigate the complexities of the mortgage process with ease and seeing the smiles on their faces when they receive the keys to their new home makes all the long hours we put in behind the scenes worth it. It’s why we get out of bed and come to work every day.

No two loans are alike, and while every loan we service comes with its own special requirements we’ll never forget the time our team found a way to save a military couple $3,000 on closing day!

Their mortgage was not a cookie cutter VA loan, and due to various circumstances came with its own challenges. Despite the obstacles our team faced, we found a way to save them nearly $3,000 just days before closing. While doing extra work to put our clients into a better financial position wasn’t a simple task, everyone the team sprang into action to ensure our customers were satisfied and well taken care of. Being able to exceed the expectations of two people who served our country was the extra hours we spent preparing their loan for closing.

The lesson: At Ross Mortgage, we always make it a priority to do what’s right and best for our clients. Turning obstacles into positive outcomes is what we strive to do for our customers every day. You can count on our team to come to the table with solutions, not excuses. After all, buying a home is an experience and we believe getting a mortgage should be one too. That’s why we take an all-hands-on-deck approach to mortgage lending and leverage our team’s collective areas of expertise, from processing and underwriting to closing, to ensure every client receives the best possible experience.

If you’d like to learn more about our work with Veterans and our VA loan options, send us a message. We’d be happy to put you in touch with one of our VA loan experts. 

Click here to read more amazing stories from our customers and their journey to homeownership.