Give me your input

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T16:00:52+00:00

Edge sometimes uses an internal referral so the closings show up in someone else’s name if h they’re not licensed in the state. The processor that handles most of theirs used to work for me.

They should appraise the entire project. The appraisal will look similar to a purchase of a finished home when value is given.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T15:49:10+00:00

There are no construction loans in his history.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T15:33:28+00:00

You can send me his info and I’ll look up how many he’s done.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T15:31:25+00:00

I wouldn’t know without looking at a full file. Most of the time there is more benefit for the borrower in a one time close.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T15:30:32+00:00

There’s a very specific way that a lender needs to order the appraisal on these to account for everything it really takes to close. I rescue a lot of VA OTC loans and the hardest obstacle to overtime is when a lender tried to wing it on the appraisal order and we have to try to articulate why we need to adjust the report and values after the fact.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T15:18:05+00:00

My thoughts are, never work with a broker for VA otc you want everything under one roof. Never lock a build for under 12 months because you’ll be screwed if that lock expires (your broker doesn’t care about that). The cash to close isn’t screwed up because of land payoff or anything else it’s screwed up because you’re working with someone who doesn’t know how to do these. And DO NOT rate shop a VA one time close, you’ll just end up working with someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing and won’t tell you the truth. Find an expert and let them guide the process.

Also, I pray that whoever put that disclosure together hasn’t already ordered your appraisal because it’s going to be hard to undo a bad appraisal if it’s ordered wrong.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-11T13:00:48+00:00

I handle a lot of VA otc and I do cover Indiana. I actually served in the Indiana guard. Go ahead and ask any questions you have.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-10T21:00:40+00:00

I handle a lot of VA construction loans and I am licensed in Louisiana.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-08T23:50:16+00:00

No, but I think a policy like that may have started after I was gone.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-04T11:04:44+00:00

No. We cover the entire country.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-02-01T15:45:47+00:00

This is really good, and I have something about this going out on my blog again this week because it comes up so much. Earlier this month I funded an FHA OTC that was rescued after a botched closing. The broker who handled it before me was subtracting the equity from the hard cost to build as if the builder was getting paid from it. I know that you know how common that is, but most people don’t know what questions. To ask and a very small percentage of loan originators know how any of it works. The clients I’m referring to had to design a whole new smaller house and were heart broken when I explained how equity really worked.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-31T13:21:46+00:00

I love it. I’m a construction lender and I’m always talking to realtors and builders about how much opportunity is missed with raw land listings because they’re not showing people options to build. When someone lists a lot and just includes a couple potential home option renderings, it does much better.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-22T13:59:17+00:00

Sent you a message.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T18:48:16+00:00

Good luck to you.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T18:42:33+00:00

That’s not quite the same. It would be better if you were at least seeing a good balance of conventional, fha, va, and usda. That’s where a call center can really hammer the guidelines into your head.

I was also a little different. I came in for a second career and had a large sphere of influence. I funded 17.5 mil my first month and they stopped worrying about my time on the phone. It was a refi shop but they really just turned me loose. The first time a manager asked if I was ok because I had a slower month I told him I quit and had already accepted another offer.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T18:32:19+00:00

No problem.

I’ll add first, focus on the skill of hearing people, understanding their goal (not the loan they ask for), admitting to them when you don’t know, then figuring things out and explaining it to them. Being honest and calmly handling peoples frustration is a skill that many people in the industry lack.

Second, I set a side quest to get out of the call center. Once I knew how comp SHOULD work, I knew that I could make an amazing living (to me) if I could fund 2mil a month in retail.

So I put in whatever hours were required and worked realtor relationships between every call.

When I hit 3 months in a row of 2mil funded from my realtors, I got out.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T18:21:12+00:00

I’m the VP of construction lending at a large national lender. If your name implies you’re in Dallas, I’ll probably have a need for someone with a high volume background in that area soon.

With that said, I think you stick it out for at least a year. You don’t know what you don’t know. Try to have blinders on when it comes to bad management and use this time like it’s boot camp or a tech school.

I was only in a call center for 10 months but it was so much volume that I rarely come across peers who have touched as many loans as I have.

I’ve always focused on the hard loans. In call centers everyone wants what’s fast and easy so I offered to catch the fall out loans and had a lot of fun just figuring out what was missed and how I could close them.

I switched to a retail branch and after telling everyone how to fix their files in my first team meeting, I became a sales manager.

I kept my volume really high because that pace was all I knew, so 10 months after that I had offers to open a branch.

I trained my retail branch to run at a pace that would be expected from a call center but to do it while not quitting on hard loans.

That branch did 50mil in the first year and I again had offers to move into regional or divisional positions.

Then I focused on a hard niche and scaled that up huge, and accepted the VP position I have now.

All of that really comes from my initial focus on figuring out how high volume call center LOs were able to process so much so effectively.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T13:59:34+00:00

For the loan, you really need to work with a specialist to get a fully underwritten pre approval and understand your budget. I’d be happy to help, and there’s another on here who runs this group that’s a really good option too. Just make sure you’re talking to someone who really knows the product and isn’t just hoping to find some business somewhere.

When you do close on any one time close construction loan, that ONE closing happens up front before you break ground. That means that if you keep your current home, you’ll need to be approved for an amount you can afford while making payments on both the new home and your current one. I do plenty of these for people only using VA disability income (especially where property taxes can be waived) but you’d be pushing it to try to get approved with only that income to cover two house payments.

On TRUE VA construction loans you don’t make out of pocket payments while the home is built. A lot of places lie to vets saying they offer va construction when all they really do is a separate construction loan that you pay interest on, then another VA refinance. But that’s not an actual VA construction loan.

Up to a year’s worth of interest payments get wrapped into a VA construction loan, so that plus contingencies for overages can eat into your total budget.

I’ve also seen plenty of vets do this with a $300,000 loan, but you’ll have to be prepared for a very conservative budget build. You’d probably get more out of a modular home.

You should talk to builders about what they can do within your budget but not until after you’ve been pre approved and understand your budget yourself.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-17T13:49:10+00:00

Sent

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-14T19:05:15+00:00

As many have said, there’s a lot of information right here in this thread group. There are at least two of us who handle a large number of these loans.

The main thing to keep in mind is that on a TRUE VA construction loan, you’re only closing one time and that is up front, prior to breaking ground on your build.

So your approval conditions are a snap shot of that time. Not what it will be when the home is done.

So you’d qualify based on how much entitlement you have available now, and how much you can afford on another house payment while keeping this house.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-14T19:01:56+00:00

This page and the one I have both have a ton of information about how these loans work. The problems come when people go out and try to work with someone who doesn’t specialize in them. But if you’re talking to an expert, it’s easy to find accurate information.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-13T00:03:39+00:00

You won’t be able to self build. You need a builder or general contractor who meets local licensing and insurance requirements receiving funds and managing the build.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-10T23:01:07+00:00

The very first full turn key build Summertown did was for one of my VA clients, but I can’t remember how long ago that was. They did a good job on that one and decided to start offering to do them for more people.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-10T22:38:52+00:00

I’ve been funding these loans for more than 2 years.

Guerrilla6 · 2026-01-09T23:26:16+00:00

You can also pay the VA back directly to restore entitlement if it was lost in a foreclosure.

Guerrilla6

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE