Navigating VA Loans: Essential Tips for Home Buying Veterans

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.656)
Welcome to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs It’s your host Stephen Schmidt and I’m back at it like a bad habit and I got a special treat for you guys here in the studio today I’m with Mike Ritrovato, Mike had a 22 year military career in the Marines where he was something to do with amphibious vehicles Which I’m sure he’ll clarify on that once I get through this intro But glad you guys are joining us again if it’s your second third or hundredth time welcome back if it’s your first time where you’ve been at

You’re about to find the show that you’ll never stop listening to. We hope to aim to provide a ton of value to you guys. Mike’s been in the real estate space for over four years now, focuses on veterans as he himself is a veteran and helping them get into their homes and live the lives of their dreams. So we’re going to get right into it. But before we do, just remember here at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers and real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their businesses so they can build the businesses they’ve always wanted.

in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed up. That being said, Mike, welcome to the show today.

Mike Ritrovato (01:05.634)
Thank you very much for having me.

Stephen Schmidt (01:07.828)
Glad to have you on, man. You might want to clarify that one piece about the amphibious vehicle thing I said. What exactly was the official title?

Mike Ritrovato (01:15.118)
So it’s an amphibious assault vehicle, an AAV. And I came into the Marine Corps in June of 2000. And the kind of acronym for it is an Amtrak. And when me coming in, I heard Amtrak. I’m like, I’m going to be on a train? I had no clue what it was. So it’s essentially an amphibious assault vehicle to where

Stephen Schmidt (01:31.69)
Okay.

Stephen Schmidt (01:37.383)
Right.

Mike Ritrovato (01:44.576)
It’s like an armored personnel carrier that’s a little over 26 tons and it transported the infantry from point A to point B, essentially from ship to shore and follow on missions throughout.

Stephen Schmidt (01:59.402)
That’s awesome, man. I missed the keyword in there, assault. That was the keyword I missed. Well, Mike, let me ask you this. for our listeners sake, I know we got to chat a little bit pre-show, but what made you decide you’re getting out of the military nine months prior to getting out, you decide, I’m going to get my real estate license. And that’s what I’m going to do when I get back. So what made you decide to do that? And how did you get to where you’re at now today?

Mike Ritrovato (02:02.9)
Yeah

Mike Ritrovato (02:25.791)
So I’ve kind of always been an entrepreneur throughout my whole life.

Roughly in about 2018, 2019, I started a business where I was doing food. And then I had like my own food truck. I was on the base there and then COVID hit and it pretty much killed everything. COVID and then after that, I was like, well, you know what? Everyone always needs a place to live.

Stephen Schmidt (02:47.293)
No kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (02:50.847)
Hmm.

Mike Ritrovato (02:57.481)
And then I kind of noticed throughout my time in the Marine Corps that a lot of veterans didn’t actually know how to utilize their VA home loan. So I kind of transitioned into helping active duty service members at the time transition and be able to utilize their VA home loan actually while in the service. Because I mean, there are service members that have went

done what’s called a PCS, a permanent change of station, where they’ll move to a different unit every three years or so, a different state, and they’ll purchase a home at every state. So throughout 20 years, they end up owning seven to 10 properties.

Stephen Schmidt (03:28.457)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (03:41.415)
Yeah, so now do you remember your first dealer client?

Mike Ritrovato (03:46.772)
I do. Yeah. It was confusing yet amazing at the same time. It was, one of my Marines that, you know, came to me and was like, Hey, you know, I’m looking to purchase a home. So I guided him through and walked him through the process and actually ended up buying a home that like,

Stephen Schmidt (03:48.393)
What was that like?

Mike Ritrovato (04:11.047)
unbeknownst to me, ended up being five minutes from where I lived. So it was just coincidence that, you know, I helped that fellow service member purchase his first condo and he lived five minutes from me.

Stephen Schmidt (04:25.779)
Yeah, no kidding, that’s pretty special. obviously you have a long military career. So I think it’s a natural transition of, I’m getting out of the military. This is who I want to focus on. But is there any specific things that you really enjoy about being able to help other, know, active duty or veterans to be able to get into homes? What is it that made you decide to focus on that one niche other than the obvious?

Mike Ritrovato (04:27.693)
Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (04:54.771)
you know i was in the service for as long as you were

Mike Ritrovato (04:58.153)
It’s so much easier to click with another fellow service member. So it just makes it a lot easier. Now, granted, I help just about anyone get into homes, but it definitely helps being with a fellow service member because you just have a certain.

Stephen Schmidt (05:03.295)
Sure.

Mike Ritrovato (05:21.533)
Lingo a certain verbiage that you just connect with that service member, you know, whether it be boot camp whether it be Job schooling or whatever it is. You have a certain language and us, you know You understand the shoes that they’ve walked in and they also understand that you Being me that we have both been through the same thing

Stephen Schmidt (05:46.686)
Yeah, there’s something to be said about the familiarity of knowing you’re dealing with somebody that has very different, but also similar experiences. Same, same, but different. You kind of know what to expect. There’s kind of a standard that’s there that otherwise with just jacked down the street, you know, that you don’t necessarily have that level of connection with. Would you agree with that?

Mike Ritrovato (05:59.438)
Exactly, yeah.

Mike Ritrovato (06:10.401)
I do. Yeah, I actually had one real estate agent. won’t mention any names or company or anything, but the real estate agent, I was representing the buyer.

And, you know, of course, on the listing side, the agent had it in the MLS or multiple listing service that they were only going to accept conventional and FHA and cash loans. And I was like, well, what about VA loans? And there’s a common misconception that a VA loan is harder to get approved when actually that’s the opposite of the truth. A VA loan has less strict guidelines and a lot of

sellers.

job of the listing agent to educate that seller. And a lot of sellers think that, well, one of the hard things to get is a what’s called a section one clearance. So it’s it’s a wood destroying insect or termite inspection. And the way I alleviate that is I essentially go into the transaction and the deal with telling the listing agent like, hey, don’t even worry about the section one clearance. I will cover it out of my

And that’s one of the things that I do for service members is I pay for that termite clearance and that termite inspection out of my own commission.

Stephen Schmidt (07:33.151)
Yeah, that’s one of the ways that you differentiate yourself, right? Now, are there any, I know that’s kind of one of them, but are there any other common misconceptions about?

Mike Ritrovato (07:38.123)
Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (07:48.896)
I want to make sure I phrase this question right. Are there any common misconceptions about somebody that’s coming in to purchase with a VA loan other than just that, that sellers and buyers kind of have misconstrued in their head?

Mike Ritrovato (08:01.453)
I would say another misconception would be that the service member or the loan won’t

Process through or the service member, you know, they have bad credit. That’s why they’re using the VA loan or they don’t have money That’s typically what I hear when I’m representing the buyer from the listing side Oh, well, you know, I I don’t we don’t we may not want to go through with this because they have bad credit or we may not want to do this because they may not follow through with the loan and I guarantee them because on the lending side what I do the lender that I

with, we actually get them pre-approved and fully underwritten prior to actually even going out shopping. So we can literally close as short as 10 days and my lender can guarantee that. So that’s definitely a reassurance that helps win deals and close transactions is getting them pre-approved and fully underwritten prior to actually even submitting an offer.

Stephen Schmidt (09:09.127)
Yeah, what are you seeing in the market right now that others might be missing?

Mike Ritrovato (09:15.757)
Really the negotiation piece, being able to have a savvy real estate agent that can negotiate depending on if the property has been on market for a while and being able to analyze the whole deal from start to finish.

and getting closing costs paid for, know, if I’m representing the buyer rep, you know, getting closing costs paid for getting what’s called a three, two, one buy down, getting that paid for it really just, there’s a lot of different variables that it takes and communicating with that listing agent. Really communication is the best thing. And

being able to negotiate on that buyer’s have because a lot of 90 % of them, this is like their first home. So they don’t know the transaction. So that’s what I’m here for is to be able to negotiate for them and get them the best deal possible.

Stephen Schmidt (10:12.671)
Have you ever had a deal that’s fell apart last minute?

Mike Ritrovato (10:17.211)
yeah, a lot of times things happen last minute where it’s like, and I’ve learned from that. And a lot of times at the end, they’re like verifying employment or they’re verifying income or they’re verifying rental history. They’re doing this stuff last minute. And I transitioned to different lender where

Everything is done up front. They verify employment. They verify income. They literally verify everything up front to where we’re going into the transaction already knowing it’s it’s what’s been referred to me as a TBD or to be determined where they’re literally just waiting on an address and the appraisal.

to eliminate all of those issues and hiccups and things that can come up last minute that end up, you know, sometimes breaking a deal. Probably the worst thing that I had that we ended up overcoming it because the, the family’s family had some income, but during the transaction, during what’s called escrow,

while you’re in escrow, you’re not supposed to purchase anything or run your have anything that runs your credit. But the service member went out and bought a car because he needed one. And I’m like, my God, what did you what are you doing? And then luckily, the the service members dad or uncle or something, I can’t remember, ended up paying off the car. So we were able to close that transaction. But if had it not been for that uncle or the I forget if it was the uncle

Stephen Schmidt (11:36.638)
Right.

Mike Ritrovato (11:59.652)
or the dad paying off that car that we would have lost that transaction.

Stephen Schmidt (12:05.341)
Yeah, that’s always the worst nightmare of a realtor is for somebody to come to them and be like, man, we’re closing the house. And I’m so excited. I went and bought a new car. It’s always the worst nightmare.

Mike Ritrovato (12:16.689)
Yeah, or I already purchased furniture. I measured it out and you know, I only had to pay like seven thousand for all of the furniture in the house and I financed it and I’m like, my God. Now I have to go tell the lender that you just bought seven thousand in furniture and we have to cancel.

Stephen Schmidt (12:20.979)
Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (12:26.835)
Yeah. Right.

Stephen Schmidt (12:34.719)
What does growth look like for you in the next 12 to 18 months?

Mike Ritrovato (12:41.159)
I would definitely like to assist more service members getting into homes and we’re actually planning a VA home buying seminar seminar here in Burleson, Texas for next month in July. And then we’re going to try and do one either once a quarter or once a month to get more service members in homes.

Stephen Schmidt (13:06.719)
So what’s like a tangible, that’s kind of a potpourri, non-specific answer. mean, obviously, like if I said, hey man, I got 500 service members I’m gonna send you tomorrow, like that would fulfill that goal. But like what’s like a real tangible goal that you’re working towards in terms of your business growth? Like if you were to hit it, what would that goal be where you’re like, we did all right this year?

Mike Ritrovato (13:31.821)
I would say closing 50 transactions in a year.

Stephen Schmidt (13:38.078)
Bye.

Mike Ritrovato (13:40.59)
Cause I mean, on average, I typically have about 20 in a year, which I mean, I’ve heard real estate agents, they’re like, oh yeah, I easily do like 30 to 60 transactions a year. And I’m like, I don’t know how you do it, but good on you.

Stephen Schmidt (14:01.501)
What are the systems and processes you’re gonna put in place to scale to that?

Mike Ritrovato (14:06.143)
So right now I have and the systems with compass.

are amazing. There’s this thing on their platform called Compass One where you can engage and interact with your client on the dashboard. So that’s like super amazing. And then I also have a transactions manager that essentially manage the manages the transaction from start to finish essentially from opening escrow to closing escrow. He’s there in the middle.

getting documents, getting disclosures, getting signatures while I’m out actually face to face with the client, you know, doing inspections or doing market analysis is with the next client. So I get them in the home and then the transactions manager is the one facilitating the actual transaction, making sure that it’s a smooth transactions and the clients know what’s going on from start to finish.

Stephen Schmidt (15:09.919)
Do you, as far as like generating your leads, because obviously you’re focused on a very specific niche within the realty side of things. So do you rely more on digital or word of mouth marketing? How do most people find you?

Mike Ritrovato (15:28.021)
A little bit of both. Word of mouth definitely carries a lot more weight.

than digital because word of mouth, it’s literally someone who you have worked with in the past that is referring you a client that is like, hey, Mike is solid. Like he knows what he’s doing and here you go. Here’s his contact info. And then that person reaches out to you. you know, cause they almost already know, like, and trust you because they’re friends with that person that has referred you.

And they almost feel like they already know you. Whereas with digital marketing, it’s more of like this lovely face on, you know, a billboard, which I actually have one right down the street and I haven’t gotten anything from it. So digital marketing and.

Compared to word of mouth where the mouth referrals definitely works a lot better but we do get a lot of traction on of course the VA seminars where I’ve done like a little snippet video and we’re gonna push that out with marketing and Hopefully fill that fill the room

Stephen Schmidt (16:41.737)
What’s something unconventional you’ve tried or done to get attention?

Mike Ritrovato (16:48.717)
Um, I had never before done a billboard. So that I don’t know if that’s unconventional, but I tried it and, it didn’t work. um, that’s really, what’s that?

Stephen Schmidt (16:59.795)
How did you track it? How do you track a billboard?

Mike Ritrovato (17:03.821)
You can’t. I mean, I guess I could have put a QR code and, your eyes always better. Eyesight’s always better in hindsight. You know, hindsight’s 2020. Had I thought about that before, I would have put a QR code up there that way. I just put my phone number up there. I put it’s got like my photo and then a couple of different catchphrases and then my phone.

Stephen Schmidt (17:05.875)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (17:14.847)
Sure.

Mike Ritrovato (17:32.651)
my phone number had I thought I would have put a QR code up there as well. That way driving by, you know, the passenger or whatever can scan the QR code and I can then capture that information and, you know, be able to analyze how many people have scanned, how many people, I don’t know.

Stephen Schmidt (17:56.096)
Sure. What’s your approach to building long-term relationships in the business?

Mike Ritrovato (18:03.901)
long-term would be not treating every transaction as just another transaction. It’s not the transaction. It’s the client and making sure the client gets their needs met throughout the whole transaction that they’re alone will ensure.

And I always tell my clients, like even whenever I turn over keys to them, I’m like, Hey, this isn’t over. This isn’t done. This wasn’t just a transaction. Cause people as first time homeowners or even second, third time homeowners, they don’t know like drainage or sprinkler systems or plumbing or roofing things come up as a homeowner. So

I let them know like, hey, I’m literally just a phone call away, an email away, a text away. And majority of the clients that I help get in homes are within 30, 45 minutes from me. So it’s a quick drive. I tell them, like, I will literally drive here and help you with whatever you need. I had a client that we closed last week.

And they were like, yeah, we’re not moving in until like August. I was like, that’s like two months. You guys and they live five minutes from me. I’m like, if you want, I can drive by the house. can, you know, I’ll mow the grass if you need. Like I’ll do whatever. And I think that’s kind of what keeps that long lasting relationship of instead of, hey, here’s your key. See you later.

Stephen Schmidt (19:50.74)
Yeah, totally. Coming from a military background, you obviously had to have spent some time with some really good leaders. Who was the best leader that you have ran into, whether military or not, that you’ve taken some principles from that you now instill into your own daily routines or into your business?

Mike Ritrovato (20:14.925)
Um, I would say the best one was whenever I was, and you know, there may have been others prior to this, but the one that stuck out to me the most was one of the first sergeants that I worked with when I was a company master sergeant. He genuinely cared about the Marines under his charge. He was a true, there’s kind of a term of

leaders eat last. He is a true, you know, leaders eat last type of Marine. He literally put everyone before him and there were, there was a company commander one time that told me like, Hey, can you have this guy tone it down a little bit? I’m like, that’s I’ll ask him, but that’s just how he is. He’s, he was all about the Marine Corps and just all about the Marines under his charge.

Stephen Schmidt (21:14.035)
And so what did you take from him that you now have adopted in your own processes, building a team? I’m sure that’ll come in time as well. What are some of those things that you’re gonna take and then implement yourself?

Mike Ritrovato (21:27.733)
So I’m actually not really actively trying to build a team, but when and if I do get agents that are under me, I’ll kind of mentor them and treat them the same way, essentially mentoring them and letting them know like, hey, I’m here for you for whatever you need. Letting them know that like, hey, you come before me because whether it’s a new agent, a seasoned agent, you can always learn.

from someone else.

Stephen Schmidt (21:58.687)
Yeah, I agree. Well Mike, we appreciate you coming on the show today. Where can people connect with you for more? Where can they learn more about you and what you’re working on?

Mike Ritrovato (22:07.287)
So the YouTube channel that I’m currently building is the Living in Burleson, Texas. That’s the handle for it. And then you can pretty much search my name, Mike Retrovato on just about any platform and you’ll be able to.

Stephen Schmidt (22:24.032)
There you go folks, go connect with him for more. him some love from the real estate pros and the investor fuel community. We appreciate Mike coming on, sharing some nuggets and talking about his business and we’ll see y’all in the next episode.

Mike Ritrovato (22:34.072)
Thank you very much.