VA Loans & Building a Future with Army Combat Veteran Robert Tolan

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Have you ever wondered what it truly takes for veterans to transition from military life to civilian society? Join us as we uncover the emotional and practical challenges faced by veterans like Robert Tolan, an Afghanistan war veteran who found his calling in helping others navigate the complexities of civilian life. This episode paints a vivid picture of Robert’s journey, from battling the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal to leading multiple nonprofits that provide essential support to fellow veterans. His story is not just about overcoming personal struggles but also about finding fulfillment and healing through community engagement and advocacy.

Discover the underutilized benefits at veterans' disposal in today's digital age. Highlighting the power of social media in 2025, we explore how platforms are revolutionizing the way veterans understand and access their benefits. Robert shares valuable insights into the nuances of VA loans, debunking myths about credit scores and illustrating the flexibility these loans offer. With heartwarming anecdotes and expert advice, we aim to empower veterans with the knowledge needed to confidently pursue homeownership and financial stability, emphasizing the critical role of VA loan specialists in this journey.

In this compelling exploration of veterans' post-service opportunities, we discuss the broader implications of homeownership and financial planning. Robert dives into the world of real estate investment and career diversification, offering strategies for financial growth and career advancement in trades and skilled work. Through his involvement with organizations like Honor Flight Central Coast, Robert shows the transformative power of community support, emphasizing the importance of leveraging available resources to build prosperous futures. Tune in to learn how veterans can transform their lives by embracing the support systems around them and turning challenges into opportunities for growth and success.

Follow Robert on IG: https://www.instagram.com/from_war_to_va_loans/profilecard/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D

All Roberts links on LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/roberttolan

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is powered by ActNow Education.
Go to wwwactnoweducationcom forfree, comprehensive educational
resources and opportunities foractive duty veterans, military
spouses and children.
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
So today I'm going to betalking about VA loans and the

(00:23):
importance behind VA loans.
And I've got an expert with metoday, mr Robert Tolan, who is
an Afghanistan war veteranstationed down at Fort Hood as a
Cav Scout and had deployed toAfghanistan.
So he's a combat war veteran,but today he now focuses his
entire energy on helpingveterans utilize the VA home

(00:43):
loan.
So, robert, I really appreciateyou joining me on the morning
formation today.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, thank you no.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I'm super happy to be here.
Listen, man, it's, it's, it'sthe honors all on this end of
the mic and camera.
You know, I just want to startout by talking about your
transition to the civilian life,which.
I think for some folk can bethe most challenging part.
But in your, in your opinion,in your opinion and in your
experiences, what was the mostchallenging part of

(01:10):
transitioning out of themilitary to the civilian life
and how did you overcome that?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I think you know my transition was probably
a little bit different than most, and what I mean by that is it
was probably a little bit easier, because I started a nonprofit
when I was 16, a veterannonprofit and so when I was
transitioning out I had thesupport of that nonprofit but we
still had the struggle or Istill had the struggles of going

(01:38):
from that very disciplinedwaking up doingt in the morning
and you know people justfollowing orders properly, and
you're going to the civilianworld and having a job where
people you know just don'treally respect higher-ups, um,
you know, like managers andstuff like that.
So I feel like that's kind ofmy transition.

(01:58):
I also refused to think thatanything was ever wrong with me.
I I was just like oh, I haveplenty of support, I don't need
help, I'm going to focus onhelping others.
And you know that's a wholedifferent story.
But we had, when the wholeAfghanistan withdrawal happened,
I had a major episode takeplace and I finally had to seek
help.
But we're talking years andyears later of finally going to

(02:19):
do that.
I think one of my big issueswith my transitioning out is
everyone kind of saw me as theleader of a venture non-profit,
and so everyone, when they hadissues, was coming to me and
asking for help and I wassending them to get the help,
but then I was refusing to gobecause I had that mindset that

(02:42):
I'm not going to take someoneelse's spot.
I wouldn't get that filled withanother veteran, and it took me
until 2023.
I got out of active duty in2015.
So it took till 2023 for me tofinally go.
You know what I need to finallyget to these programs, get to
this retreat.
That was one of the bestretreats I've ever been on and

(03:04):
actually focus on myself for alittle bit.
And so there was this like thatlong transition period where I
thought everything was fine andthen, boom, it just struck
pretty hard.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, man, I think we all go through that process.
At least most of us do.
I know I did.
When I got out, I took all mygear, anything that reminded me
of the military, and I just likeshoved it in a tote and shoved
it as far back in the attic as Icould.
As a matter of fact, when Iwent through a divorce, I took
my class A's and my deserts andeverything and just literally

(03:39):
threw them in a dumpster becauseI just wanted to move on, man
and you know, and I wanted notto be looked at differently than
everybody else.
But at the end of the day, hereI am, you know, back at the
table again looking to helpothers, you know, and I think it
helps me cope.
Do you feel like that's kind ofyour case too?
Like helping, reaching back andhelping veterans sort of gives
you a little bit of soulfulfillment, a little bit of

(04:00):
coping mechanism.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, I tell people that the reason I do so much
because I'm I think I'm I'm nowrunning for non-profits right
now and they're always likeasking me, like, why do you do
all this plus your day job, andI'm always like, well, it's
because I'm the most selflessperson in the world.
It helps me.
It really does, and it's it'ssomething that I'm going to

(04:23):
always continue to do, even if Iscale back on the amount of
work I want to do.
I'm never going to give it upall the way if that makes sense.
And it's because it does helpme.
It helps me cope when I see theemotions of these veterans or I
see them get to the other sideLike we just had our big Veteran
Angel Tree program and seeingthose veterans' faces who are

(04:43):
not doing well program andseeing those veterans faces who
are not doing well but we'reable to go in there and and give
them, you know, grocery giftcards for so they can buy
christmas dinner or we boughtgifts for their kids and that's
going to be the only gifts thatthose kids get like that makes
me feel good.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know, I love seeing the reactions on their
face and it you know it just ithelps you know and, with that
being said, robert, uh, what,what overall would you say
specifically inspired you tostart focusing on helping
veterans with, specifically, valoans like?
Can you walk us through yourjourney into into this space

(05:17):
here right now?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
yeah.
So when I got out of of activeduty, I actually was, uh, a
winemaker.
I made, made wine.
I I operated a vineyard for alocal mom pop shop.
I loved it.
Uh, it was a very hard-working,laborious job but very
rewarding, um, especially whenit comes to, you know, on the
money side as well.
And of course it's alcohol.

(05:39):
So you know when the va alwaysasks like, do you drink?
And and I'm like, well, yeah,but I get paid to do it.
So is it really drinking, likeyou know?
So what happened was is I wentto go purchase my first home and
I will name the company, butit's one of the largest VA
companies out there that we allprobably have heard of.
They sponsor, you know, a fewstadiums on bases and stuff.

(06:01):
But totally got screwed overand I started to study the VA
loan at that point.
And so I studied and studied,because then people were coming
to me asking questions becauseof the nonprofits, because my
first nonprofit it's calledWelcome Home, military Heroes.
So sometimes people think thatwe're doing stuff to get

(06:22):
veterans to purchase homes,which we're't we're not.
But people were coming to askme questions.
So I studied it, studied.
It was continuing to makingwine.
And then this company learnedabout me doing this and so they
actually started sending someoneto really just try to get me.
And at first I was like, no,you guys are just trying to
profit off veterans.
I can't stand that.
Like, how dare you make moneyoff vets to profit off veterans?

(06:46):
I can't stand that.
How dare you make money offvets.
It's just a huge scam.
Well, finally, I just startedlistening to him, realized that
he was an army combat vet and hestarted showing up to all my
nonprofit stuff, and so Ifinally was like you know what,
I'll make the jump because mymom's in title and escrow, so
she's kind of in the real estateside of things, and I'm like,
well, if I need help, my mom canbe there to help guide me in a

(07:09):
certain direction.
And so I just jumped full forceinto it.
And April 2021, I am with adifferent company now but I've
realized that there's a major,major lack of education when it
comes to, in my opinion, one ofthe best benefits that we get.
Yes, getting a disabilityrating is great.

(07:29):
Yes, going to healthcare isgreat, but none of those really
set you up for great financialsuccess in the future.
Yeah, a disability rating,especially if you're 100%, it's
going to help.
But we're talking like buildingequity over time and starting
real estate investing.
If that's the route you want totake, you can do all of that,

(07:49):
and I wish I was taught thatwhile I was in the military so I
could take advantage of the VAloan while I was in.
And so to me, it's abouteducation.
That's my number one focus.
Yes, I can do the loan, but mymain concern is that you're not
getting screwed over by anotherlender.
You know someone who's justtrying to make money, or they
tell you that you're denied whenin reality you shouldn't be

(08:10):
denied because there's extrarules on top of VA loans.
So it's like, yeah, they addedextra rules, but you actually
still qualify.
You just need to go to someonewho actually specializes in VA,
because we're going to tell youif you qualify, you know,
because of, or if you don'tqualify because that's what the
VA is telling you or that's whatthe individual company is

(08:31):
telling you.
So it's just education andthat's what it comes down to.
I teach it once a month and inperson, and another one also
over Zoom, and I just love it.
I just love helping and theother reason I got out of the
wine side too is because I waslike I need to do more with

(08:52):
veterans.
There's not a lot of veteransin the wine community, like very
, very little.
There's a little bit more inthe last five years, at least
locally.
Uh, to me, like EOD sellers,you know, I'll say by name
without you know that's veteran,but other than that there's
really no one one, and so I kindof didn't feel I need to move
over to the veteran side is whatI want to do.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I just want to focus on on bets.
So let me get this straight.
So someone goes to a lender,they go, uh, and utilize the va
loan and then just to checkeverything off to make sure, um,
that there's quality assurance,quality control.
They would take thatinformation to you and then you
would make sure that there'squality assurance, quality
control.
They would take thatinformation to you and then you
would make sure that everythingis, I guess, optimal and
maximized to its fullest.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Correct.
I always so, even in my classes.
I tell veterans and theirfamilies I say, even if I can't
do this, so I'm only licensed inCalifornia right now but my
Zoom class I get people from allover the country.
I tell them I can still be athird party.
I'm not charging you a dime,nothing.
I want to make sure that you'renot getting screwed over.
I'll look over your loanestimate.

(09:52):
I'll make sure there's not junkfees in there.
If there is, I want to let youknow about it.
If you think it's a junk fee, Icould probably tell you no,
that's normal.
That's going to be on everyloan application.
That that's part of the buyingprocess.
I will still be there for you.
I'm not going to charge you adime.
I don't charge a dime for theclasses.
The only time I ever make moneyis if the loan closes and the

(10:13):
veterans don't pay me at all.
I broker out loans, so theindividual lending company that
we end up sending that to willpay me.
So the actual veterans don'tpay me.
Pay me a dime and, like I said,I don't care if I get paid or
not.
I I'm 100 va, disability,wife's workings, uh, you know,
all I care about is that youachieve the american dream of

(10:34):
home ownership and doesn't meanI need to get paid for not as
long as you get a home, I'mhappy that's huge man.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
So the years, would you say?
Approximately how many folkshave you helped out within the
community?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Just estimate.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, on my education side, I'm probably over a
thousand veterans that I'vetaught.
That doesn't include theirfamily members and stuff that
I've done as well.
My first company I worked forit was a national organization,
a newer, up-and-coming nationalorganization, so I was able to
do loans in all 50 states at thetime.
I am with a mom and pop shopnow and this company is only

(11:14):
licensed in California.
But actual loan-wise I thinkI've closed probably over 40-ish
or something like that, whichmost of that's come in the last
year or two.
It's really hard to get, butmost of my business actually
comes from real estate agentsand any lender is going to tell
you that it's the agents.
And when I first started on theloan side, I only focused on

(11:38):
TikTok.
And so because I was like, oh,I'm 50 states, I want to do
education on TikTok, I blew up.
So most of my leads were comingthrough TikTok, but then when I
switched companies, it was onlyavailable in California.
Almost none of my leads camefrom here and no real estate
agents really knew me because Iwould sit literally behind a
camera like this and make videos.
And so the last year reallyNovember of 2023 is when I

(12:03):
really started hitting it hardlocally and I worked with
vandenberg space force base, um,with the commander and all that
, and a lot of them are startingto send, uh, these, you know,
people pcsing to vandenberg tome, which is really cool to
build that relationship, youknow yeah, I'd say the best part
of my job is that I get anopportunity to speak to folks

(12:24):
like you, man that are you're aninspiration to me and and I
can't think of how much time,energy and sacrifice you've done
for our community.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
So I just want to reiterate again, man, I want to
thank you for being on thepodcast today.
Your online presence is awesomeis awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Um, thank you.
Yes, I, you know, and it's tome it's not.
You know, nowadays people arelike, oh, I'm trying to be an
influencer because I want asmany followers, blah, blah.
In my mindset I'm like I'm justtrying to get the word out
about benefits to veterans.
And the one thing I'm changingin 2025 when it comes to social
media is I want to start having,you know, our vso off, you know
on or whatever.
Like I'm gonna start actuallyhaving short little clips about
how to file for disabilityclaims and I want to start
having our VSO on or whatever.

(13:07):
I want to start actually havingshort little clips about how to
file for disability claims orfuneral stuff.
I get calls about that all thetime, because my first nonprofit
, my baby nonprofit, I call itis we do funerals, and so it's
like all right, how do you getthe free American flag?
How do you contact the militaryif they have earned that right
to have the military come in?
Or how do I contact a nonprofitto come in and do the honors if

(13:29):
the military doesn't come in?
You know, it's just like littlestuff like that that I want to
make sure we're getting to worryabout, and not just California.
But you know I'll be mostlyfocused probably around the
Central Coast because that'swhere I'm at, but a lot of this
stuff is also the same acrossthe country.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
So it's just educating veterans on stuff.
Some of the stuff that veteransdon't understand, like as far
as how to something as simple ashow to get my DD-214, are
questions I get asked all thetime, Just simple stuff like
that.
I'm like really, Like that'snot, that's a piece of cake,

(14:09):
Like just call this number andyou know, and they'll, they'll
send it to you.
But to go even two or threetiers deep into that and start
talking about, like funerals, uh, burial rights, uh, you know,
VA loans and things like that,that's, that's a huge asset to
our community as far as gettingthat knowledge and as far as the
VA loan stuff, and what wouldyou say over the years that
you've encountered as commonlike misconceptions that
veterans have about the VA loans, that you could clear up for us

(14:30):
?

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, so the number one, like just right off the top
of my head, is it's the creditscore.
The VA does not have a minimumcredit score.
Now, if you have a 400, you'remore likely not going to get a
home loan, right, okay, but myrecord is 517.
What we look for is, or whatthe VA is looking for, is the
last 12 to 24 months.

(14:52):
Have you been on time?
Have you maybe only had one 30day late, or are you like seven
months into not paying something?
That's what we're looking for,and so I'm actually going to
tell the story, because it's avery heartwarming story, and
this is a great example of whythe VA does not set a minimum
credit score.

(15:13):
We had a veteran came home fromdeployment Wife.
He was probably 30 or maybe 29at the time, and so was his wife
.
She just didn't wake up one day, right next to him.
I mean, he's only been home forlike three or four days and
died from natural cause.
I forget the end of being.
It wasn't natural cause, it wassomething.
Anyways, something happened.

(15:35):
She passed, he did what, Ithink, what any of us would do
Buried his head in the sands andhe stopped making payments, he
stopped working, he was grievingand they were high school
sweethearts, so all he knew washer, and then to be gone for
nine months and come home andshe passes in a few days, I
can't even imagine.
Well, he finally startedgetting back up on his feet and

(15:58):
he was a year.
His old job hired him back andhe started making payments.
He started getting on a planand a year later his credit
score never recovered.
But he showed a history ofmaking his payments back and
then we just documented why hestopped making payments and the
underwriters came back and saiddeal, we're giving him a house

(16:20):
like that.
He went through hell.
We understand he.
He's back on his feet.
He deserves to be in a houseand not to be homeless.
Um, and there's a lot ofstories like that right, like
you get wounded, oh you, you'renot focused on your credit card
payment or your card payment orwe've all heard the stories
about you know, john doe, right,like cheating and and taking

(16:42):
all the money and then maxingout the credit cards.
Like the VA knows.
Like you know, the VA is run byveterans, the people who do
care, especially on the loanside of things.
It's people who really do care,and so that's why there's no
minimum credit score.
Some of the other misconceptionsis that there is no down
payment.
You can make a down payment ifyou want, but you don't have to,

(17:03):
and usually I kind of steeraway.
Even if you have the money fromdown payment, I usually talk to
you about buying your interestrate down instead, because it
goes a lot farther.
But there is closing cost.
I always get the comment well,my dad, when he bought his home,
didn't have to pay closingcosts.
I'm like well, that might betrue, that just means the seller
covered it.
Someone paid it.

(17:25):
So either the seller came inand covered that or like, if you
bought a brand new home,sometimes builders, if you're
buying directly from the builder, sometimes they cover those
fees, or they gave you a lothigher interest rate to cover
those fees.
There's ways around it.
But no matter what, there'sclosing costs on a loan.
You have escrow, titleappraisal, company, property
taxes.
You have all of these fees thatall these people want paid, so

(17:47):
that, no matter what, there'sclosing costs.
And so I think that's always.
My next question is and I try tohit that up front too, when I'm
doing my initial phone calllike hey, do you have the money
for closing costs, and if theydon't, it doesn't mean you can't
get into a loan.
I have people all the time whoget closing costs covered by
sellers or we try to work aroundit, and so sometimes they're

(18:09):
moving into a home withoutspending a single dime, which is
amazing.
Well, they might pay for a homeinspection, which is usually a
few hundred dollars, but otherthan that, there's sometimes
veterans getting into a homewithout spending a dime.
That's what I did.
We got a seller to coverclosing costs and no down
payment.
We moved in.
The only expenses I had wasputting gas in my truck to move

(18:32):
from.
We were living in a trailer, sowe had to move our stuff from
that trailer into the home.
So that's all I spent.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
That was in California.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
That was in California, yes, and that was in
2019.
And so it was right before thehousing market went insanely
crazy.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Right, you know, and speaking of that, the housing
market going extremely crazy.
I'm sure that you hear thatquestion all the time Like, well
, now is not the right time, nowis not the right time, I'm
going to wait until interestrates time.
I'm going to wait untilinterest rates fall.
I'm going to wait until I mean,I've known guys that have that

(19:08):
have and and and gals that havesold their houses and have lived
in like RVs, just waiting forthe right time.
What do you ever tackle that?
That question, like well, nowis not the right time where I'm
going to do this or I'm going todo that.
Like, do you ever have toencounter that?

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, all the time, literally every day, comments on
my social media when I make apost or in classes or just
walking down the street.
People always tell meespecially when they learn I'm
in mortgage they always go ah, Iwent a terrible time to buy,
what a crappy time to be alender, which, honestly, it's
not the greatest time to be alender.
The market is not the greatestin the housing community, but
there's a few ways to look atthat.

(19:42):
If you're trying to be a realestate investor, yeah, it's
probably not the greatest timeto buy.
Rates are high, all of that.
But if you're trying to moveinto a home, this is going to be
your home long-term.
Yes, it's expensive to get in,but look at a few years ago,
when rates are in the 2% range.
People then were telling me no,home prices are going up too

(20:05):
high.
I'm going to wait till homevalue come down.
Well, guess what?
Home values aren't going down,they're still going up.
They're just not going up asfast.
But now rates are 5%, 6%, 7%.
I mean, some companies on VAwere hitting 8% earlier this
year.
Now, you definitely can'tafford it because rates are so
high.
So I also tell them I was likeyou need to go back and look at

(20:25):
the history of this countryOther than 08 and then one other
occasion made in the 80s.
Home prices are going tocontinue to go up.
There's really not a bad timeto buy.
We always have a saying in themortgage industry date the rate,
marry the home.
We always have a saying in themortgage industry date the rate,
marry the home, get into thehome.
Because, especially here inCalifornia, my house from 2019

(20:48):
to 2022 went up $150,000.
And I bought that home at$395,000.
So we went and took that money,we cashed it out and I paid off
all my debt.
I paid off all my credit cardsmy wife's medical, because we
were having kids at times.
We paid, took that money, wecashed it out.
I paid off all my debt.
I paid off all my credit cardsmy wife's medical, because we

(21:09):
were having kids at times.
We paid off that stuff,remodeled this out of our home
and then was a little selfishand went on vacation.
We had that extra equity to dothat.
Yes, I went with a little bithigher rate, but now I don't
have any debts.
We were paying $2,000 a monthin credit card debt.
I had a brand new truck.
That was like almost $1,000 amonth.
We got rid of all that, so nowI'm pocketing that extra money.
Getting into a home is veryimportant to not throw your

(21:35):
money away.
I mean, especially here inCalifornia.
If you're paying $30,000 amonth, you're literally you
might as well just burn themoney You're paying someone
else's mortgage.
So you might as well go get ina home and start building the
equity for yourself, becauseit's going to help not just you,
it's going to help your nextgeneration as well.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, it can be kind of a cumbersome event to buy a
home, like everything you'retalking about, like going
through all the process and allthe headaches and understanding
the ins and outs and everythingbut the long term.
I mean even where I live athere in los angeles, there are
people in my neighborhood whoseparents bought their houses for,
you know, around fifty thousanddollars back in like 1960, 1970

(22:20):
, and those houses today are arewell over a million dollar
homes and they're passing it onto their kids and, in a sense,
when folks talk about lifeinsurance, like that is your
life insurance, like that's yourwhole term life insurance that
you hand off to your nextgeneration, to your kids, and
not only that, but you live init your whole life, like the

(22:41):
memories and everything, and soit's yes raise their kids in it.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
yeah, my grandfather lives uh, we're not too far from
santa barbara and that's wherehe's living at, and he bought
his home after he got off theair force for sixteen thousand
dollars and I bet you if it gota praise we're probably, he's
probably sitting at.
If he's not at at 2 million,he's pretty dang close at that,
at $2 million, which is insane.
I mean, it's Santa Barbara, youknow it is.

(23:06):
I mean, it's just like a lot ofplaces down in LA area, you
know Orange County, home pricesare through the roof and it is a
scary process.
It doesn't matter where youlive.
More likely it's going to bethe most expensive purchase you
ever do.
And you're talking about a30-year mortgage.
I mean, yeah, there's othermortgages, but most people are
going with 30-year, especiallyon the VA side.

(23:26):
It's nerve wracking because yougot the set payment.
You think you're stuck.
You have the mindset that, well, if the market just tanks and I
always have to tell them well,if the market tanks, it doesn't
matter.
I mean, unless you plan onselling right then, and there
you're going to be on a fixedrate anyways, because I don't
recommend an adjustable rate.
So I'm like you're on a fixedrate, your mortgage payment's

(23:51):
not staying so as long as youdon't sell, if the market does
go into the trash and thehousing market.
But it's scary and that's whatI'm here for.
I'm helping to guide you allthe way through, even if you're
not on, even if I'm not yourpersonal lender, even if you're
going through a big bank oranother big company.
Instead, I want to make sure Ihelp you, guide you.
I'm going to tell you theprocess and that's what I teach
in my class.
I teach you the process, what'sgoing on.

(24:12):
If you're having issues withyour real estate agent, give me
a call, I can help with that,and then so, and then just even
putting out offers out there isscary as well.
So I understand, because I didit before I got in this industry
.
But I always like to tell peopleyes, because, like your
question about you know how doyou talk to people?
People I already know will comeback and say, well, he's a

(24:33):
salesman, of course he's goingto say buy a home now.
No, I'm not a salesman.
I hate salesmen.
I think most of us vets hatesalesmen as well, like that's
all we were.
We're always just getting soldstuff or the spam.
You know crap that we're alwaysgetting.
I can't stand it.
If you tell me you want to wait, I'm going to honor that and I
always tell you this is the fact.

(24:54):
These are the options you, as afamily, need to make the
decision.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you one
way or the other.
You need to take these factsand make a decision on your own.
Yeah, definitely.
And for the folks out there,for your average veteran out
there that hasn't utilized theirVA loan yet or is too afraid to
because of the process, whatadvice would you give them to
get the best possible deal,aside from linking up with you?
How do they get started in thatprocess?

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Well, the first thing is so, before I got to this
company, I would tell you toshop around to different lending
companies.
First off, I would go local.
I wouldn't go national.
I love USAA.
I have a credit card throughthem, I have a bank through them
, my auto loan is through them,my homeowner's insurance is
through them.
I love them Loan side not somuch.

(25:45):
And that goes with all theother big banks.
And, by the way, when I saywhen I was talking about big
banks earlier, I'm not talkingabout USA, but they're just not
the greatest and I understandthe love connection for them.
I would go local.
The reason I would go local isbecause you get to look that

(26:06):
lender directly in the face andyou get to wheel and deal with
them if you can, because you areseeing them.
It's someone that you're goingto see in the community.
They're going to recommend thebest real estate agents to work
with or the best home ownersinsurance to go with, all type
of stuff.
So I would go local.
I would also try to go tosomeone that can broker, because
if they're going to broker likean insurance broker right, like

(26:26):
you contact them they're goingto shop for the best rate fees
for your current situation.
It's the same thing in themortgage side.
So instead of contacting andapplying at five or six
different places and providingdocuments for five or six
different places and providingdocuments for five or six
different places and havingconversations with five or six
different people, I would go tothe broker side Plus, if you're

(26:47):
in a weird scenario like itcould be you just had a
bankruptcy last year or justanything weird going on a
broker's gonna be good too,because they're able to look at
all the companies that they workwith and see where you slip in
and fill that in.
So that would be my advice.
Also, I would ask them a fewquestions on the lending side.

(27:11):
First off, if they tell you togo get your own certificate of
eligibility, I would run.
The reason is is because ifthey can't pull in a certificate
of eligibility for you, theydon't do enough VA loans.
You do want to go with someonewho specializes in VA, because
VA is a whole different animalcompared to any other home loan.
There's lenders that have beenin for 20, 25 years that tell me

(27:33):
stuff.
I'm like you know that's notcorrect, right?
That's not even true and it'snothing really against them.
It's the companies that they'veworked for.
They have their own added onrules that have made them think
that's the way the VA is.
But it's not.
I've had other lenders tell meI'd rather not do VA.
It's too difficult.
Of course I'm like it's theeasiest one to do.

(27:54):
I was like I will lie, eventhough I can do all home loans
well, because conventional orsome of these other home loan
products out there.
I always tell clients hey, Idon't specialize in this.
My team does, like my boss,they all specialize in this.
But if you have a question forme, I might have to go seek that
information.
But if it comes to VA, I gotyou, I got you covered.

(28:15):
I can handle all of that.
So you definitely want to go tosomeone that specializes in VA,
especially if they're tellingyou you don't qualify.
Contact a VA loan specialistand there's an amazing website
Veteran Mortgage Advisors.
Look them up because they havelisted on there veteran.
These are lenders that havegone through a several hour

(28:38):
sorry, it's way more thanseveral hours but it's a course
that teaches them everythingthey need to know about VA.
They teach, or they have aweekly class together where all
the lenders come together and welearn more or we learn about
weird scenarios that anotherlender and how they reacted to
it, stuff like that and ifthere's any changes to the VA
because VA is changing it'sgovernment right.
They're changing every day,coming out with new regulations,

(29:00):
so you definitely want to gowith a VA specialist.
It's like if you're doing a 10,you know, if you're trying to
reverse mortgage or get a HELOC,you probably want to go to
someone who specializes in thatto make sure you're getting the
best deal.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, definitely, that definitely matters for sure
.
I mean, hell, even getting acontractor and making sure that
contractor understands how this,how city hall expects things.
You want someone thatunderstands city hall, right, so
it's the same thing with withthe va loans.
I mean, you want someone thatspecializes in that.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
No doubt about it yes I've heard and make sure you
look at reviews.
You know like reviews are big.
I mean I know there's.
I guess people are able to buyreviews and stuff.
I know locally here we don'treally deal with that, that
issue.
I'm sure probably on LA youguys probably deal with that a
little bit more because you'recompeting with tens of thousands
of lenders.
But look at reviews and then,like I said, if they're

(29:50):
questioning someone or havequestions, contact me anyways
because I can look up otherstuff, because I can actually
look up if they do do a lot ofVA, because they're always going
to tell you yes, Do you do VA?
Yes, I do.
All right, what's thepercentage of the business of VA
?
I saw a stat the other day thatsaid most lenders are only

(30:10):
closing one or two VA loans ayear.
You might want to go withsomeone who are 90% or maybe
even 85% of their business is VA, Someone who's actually dealt
with some weird stuff and had tobe on the phone to VA Like does
this does?

Speaker 1 (30:22):
this work.
Yeah, I have a buddy of minewho's in real estate and he's a
veteran and he gets really upsetwhen a I guess someone that
hasn't served before is sportingthe flag and they're saying
that they care about veteransand all this stuff but really
they're really just going forthe business.
They really don't have any typeof, I guess, self-fulfillment

(30:43):
to truly help veterans likeyourself, Just like you're doing
right now for our community.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Well, the other issue too is and I got a lot of flack
over this it wasn't this lastVeterans Day, it was 2023.
I can't remember exactly how Iworded it, but it was pretty
much saying Ray, a lot of realestate agents follow me I mean a
ton and so I posted right.
Here comes all the real estateagents saying, uh, happy

(31:10):
veterans day, and how much theylove veterans, but then they
won't accept the va loan offer,and that caused a huge oh boy
fire.
But actually it helped me withbusiness this year, because then
I started getting calls fromreal estate associations to come
in and teach VA and really tellthem why they need to be
accepting VA loans.
My real estate agent classesare three hours and an hour of

(31:31):
it is really hammering down whyyou accept a VA loan and you
need to stop listening to themisinformation that's out there.
You need to educate your sellerstoo, because there's just a lot
of misinformation out there.
Yes, there has to be pestinspection, but if you're really
worried about that, maybe youshould take care of that before
you possibly sell your home.
Obviously, there's situationswhere you just need to get the

(31:53):
home sold, but there's waysaround that too.
The veteran can come in and payfor that.
If you really don't want to payfor it, they can pay for it.
Or you just have the termitecompany charge escrow.
You're like, oh, I don't havethe 10 grand to tent a house and
fix the wood rot, that's fine,charge escrow, they'll just take
it out of your check, yourseller's check.

(32:14):
So there's little things likethat.
That real estate agents go,appraisals always come in low.
Actually, no, on VA, appraisalscome in higher than
conventional and the VA is alsothe only home loan product that
allows you to fight theappraisal.
So if the appraisal comes inlow, you can first go back to

(32:34):
the appraiser and say, nope,these are our comps, this is why
we think it should be at thatprice.
And even if that appraiserstill says, nope, I don't see it
, we're worth $20,000 lower.
You can go back to the VA andsay, hey, we don't agree with
this.
Can you override the appraiser?
And 79% of the time the VAraises that price.

(32:55):
So it's just like stuff likethat and it's just about getting
out there and educating.
I'm only one person.
That's why I try to.
I always tell veterans hey, Ineed you to also go out and
teach, especially if they're onactive duty.
I need your help now.
Please go out and tell everyonethat you serve with that.
This is the way the VA loanactually is.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
You know what man, knowledge is?
Power?
That that's for sure.
And for folks out there there,here's a hot take.
I mean, there are a lot of flagwavers out there there are there
are a lot of folks out therethat will say we are veteran
friendly, we welcome veterans,we're hiring veterans, but then
you show up and it's like notexactly what you thought it
would be as far as like theactual job or position or the

(33:36):
support that's being provided.
So, finding someone with theauthenticity, ideally with the
background, someone who maybewho's been in the military
before Um, I hate to say that,but that is true, like you have
to have been there to have atrue appreciation for it and to
truly care about it.
But overall, what would you sayto folks who think that they

(33:56):
live in like a high propertyvalue area?
Not think, but they know theydo, like LA Southern California,
who think that they're pricedout, that they think that you
know, hey, there's no way Icould get a VA loan because the
property values in my area areway too high.
I mean, is there a ceiling onthat?

Speaker 2 (34:13):
No.
So on VA, one of the othermisconceptions is that there's a
county loan limit and you can'tgo over that county loan limit.
There's several misinformationwithin that, or what people
believe within that statement.
Some because on yourcertificate of eligibility it
says $136,000.
And that's what's the original.

(34:34):
Okay, back when it came out in1944, that was the original loan
amount.
And instead of the VA changingit on a certificate of
eligibility, it's become aformula now which I don't teach
that formula because we'll letlenders stick to that.
You can still go over countyloan limits and county loan
limit only comes into play ifyou're going to use your VA loan

(34:55):
again and you're keeping yourprevious VA loan.
So let's say you bought a homein LA and you want to keep that
home and rent it out and youstill have the VA loan on it and
you want to go buy a home inSanta Barbara.
That's when county loan limitscome into play.
But even then you can still goover the county loan limit.
You just have to come up with a25% guarantee of the overage.

(35:20):
Okay, so the VA guarantees 25%to every lender.
So if you foreclose on a home,that lending company gets 25% of
that original loan amount, sooriginal loan amount.
So even if you lived in it for20 years and you don't owe much
on it, the lending company stillgets 25% plus they get to sell
the home with today's value.
And that's why rates are loweron VA, because it's not as big

(35:45):
of a risk for lending companies.
That's why VA does.
That is because they want.
They want to make sure lendersare doing VA loans.
But anyways, to answer thequestion about like high
property values in certain areasand really being scared about
it, you know, most of the timewhen people tell me that, oh, I

(36:05):
can't, I'm priced out, I can'tafford it A lot of them actually
can.
They just don't think that theycan.
And I'm like well, how much areyou paying a month?
And this is a conversation Ijust had this week.
I'm like how much are youpaying in rent right now?
He's like 5,500.
I was like 5,500.
I was like 5,500?
I was like man, my mortgagepayment's not even 5,500.
And he was in Bakersfield, sohome prices are way cheaper in

(36:27):
Bakersfield.
I was like man, you can get apretty decent size house for
that amount.
But even if people don'tqualify or they're not up to the
loan amount that they want.
So let's say they only getapproved for 500,000, but they
want to be in the $800,000 range.
Most lending companies.
Well, the bigger the lendingcompany, the more likely they're
just going to say, hey, youdon't qualify.
They're going to kind of kickyou to the curb because they got

(36:49):
way too much stuff going on.
We're going to sit there, we'regoing to go through your credit
, we're going to go through yourincome and we're going to get
you on a game plan to get to thelevel that you want.
Or, hey, man, you didn't make apayment for the last three
months.
That's okay, we're going to getyou next year.
Let's work on your credit forthe next year.
Get it up, no late payments.
We're going to get you on agame plan.

(37:11):
And most people, I would say onaverage, are only six months out
.
Well, you know, if it's anincome issue, perfect, okay, I
only make $20 an hour.
Guess what.
Let's get you to a differentjob.
That's making you pay more.
If you're wanting to, obviously,if you love where you're at,
that's one thing.
But if you're willing to make amove, go on to US government

(37:31):
jobs.
You know, go on there.
A lot of them are paying waymore than that.
Like around here.
I'm like dude vandenberg, spacefor space.
Right here we have spacex, wehave all these companies out
here that are hiring good, andwe also have diablo nuclear
power plant.
I'm like man, go work securitystarting pay is like 175 000 or
I might be a little exaggeratingthere, but it it's a.
It's six figures of startingpay.

(37:52):
Like you go work out there,boom the second you get that job
.
Or you get that job offerletter, contact me.
We're getting you into a homebecause we just got your income
up.
So most people are within range.
Every once in a while I get theone where you know they're
making minimum wage and they'reliving in Newport Beach.
You're going to have to move ifyou really want to buy.

(38:12):
That's just the way it is,unfortunately.
But we're going to be therestep of the way to help them.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, that's incredible For folks out there
that from my understanding nowfrom my understanding if you
utilize a VA loan, it has to bea home that you reside in.
You can't just buy this forinvestment property.
Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Correct.
So the key word that the VAuses is you must intend to
utilize the property as yourprimary residence for at least
12 months.
Now you're going to hearlenders out there tell you there
is no 12-month requirement.
You're going to hear othersthat say it's more.
The reason you're going to hearpeople say that there is no

(38:53):
12-month requirement is becauseof that word attend.
You must attend to occupy theproperty.
I had a Vietnam vet thatpurchased a home up here next to
Camp Roberts and somehow duringthe whole process he didn't
realize that he was moving inwhere they practice firing tanks
and he was only, I think, twoweeks in at the time and they

(39:14):
started their summer trainingand his PTSD just went through
the roof.
We got him out of there andinto another home within 45 days
and the VA has no issue withthat.
Now if they see you keep doingthat it's mortgage fraud,
they're going to know like, oh,you're clearly doing this for
investment opportunities.
This is not what the VA loan isgeared towards, but there is a

(39:35):
way to start real estateinvesting with the VA loan.
I always tell those on activeduty every place that you go to,
if your unit obviously allowsyou, if they're going to give
you VAH.
I know my unit would neverallow me to go live off property
if I wasn't married.
They just they didn't allowthat.
Here is Vandenberg.
There's not enough housing onbase, so they pay BAH to the

(39:56):
majority of the airmen, or this,I don't know.
You call them space cadets.
They're not space cadets, butanyways, those in the Space
Force.
I tell them buy a home here andthen when you PCS somewhere
else, buy a home there.
And when you PCS somewhere else, buy a home there.
And then when you're gettingout at 15, 20 years or however

(40:16):
long you want to stay in, atthat point you don't have to go
work.
You're making money off therental properties and then you
can get more into that as well.
So there's several people.
There's actually a reallyawesome group on Facebook.
I'm not sure if they're onother platforms.
I'm on their Facebook page.
It's called Military toMillionaire and one of their

(40:37):
focuses is utilizing your VAloan to own multiple homes.
The guy who founded it I thinkI forget what the numbers is,
but he has millions of dollarsworth of property now, again, I
wish I taught this when I was in.
I wish I taught it when I wasgetting out as well.
They never did.
When I was ETSing, theyliterally said I got so excited

(40:59):
because, like, ooh, va loanclass.
We walked in, waited 20 minutesfor them to come in and they go
hey, the VA loan is not throughthe department of the VA, it's
through a private mortgagecompany.
Have a great day.
And they walked out.
I was like you know, at thetime I'm like young and dumb,
right.
So I'm like, oh cool, I'm goingto go home now.
So I go back to a unit Awesome,I get free time.

(41:20):
But they don't.
They don't teach it.
And so that's why there'speople like me who are out there
who are really hammering ithard to change the lives
financially for for our military.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, I actually had a buddy of mine, uh, javier.
He was a special forces guy,did 20 years and he did, he did
just that like when he retiredhe had five, five properties
that's amazing out.
Yeah, it's absolutely amazingand I wish I had you can also
buy up to a fourplex.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
And so that's why I tell a lot of these guys I'm
like, hey, we can take thatincome.
So you have to live in one ofthe units.
So we're going to take thosethree other units and help
qualify you because you're like,oh man, I can't afford a
fourplex.
I'm like, well, we're going totake, we're going to send an
appraiser out there.
He's going to appraise what youthink you can get.

(42:06):
You know rent from and then ifyou never rented before, it's
only 70%, so it was a thousand.
We only can use $700.

(42:36):
No-transcript.
That has 50 apartments in it.
I mean, also, you can't use aVA loan with it.
But he built up such a bigportfolio at that point he was
able to go buy 50 apartments.
Amazing, absolutely amazing.

(42:57):
And it's not in the greatestpart of the country.
Actually, I think it was up inFlint, michigan, I think is
where he bought it.
But he's got income coming infrom 50 people all of a sudden.
And it's amazing.
And he did all that utilizinghis VA.
Again, he didn't use VA topurchase that property, but
because he utilizes VA loanswith all the other properties,
it got him to that point topurchase that property, but
because he utilizes VA loanswith all the other properties,

(43:18):
it got him to that point topurchase that property which is
really cool.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
That's amazing.
I always tell people that ifyou go into the military and you
manage yourself properly, youcan walk out of the military
with your bachelor's degree,possibly your master's degree.
You can walk away not evenhaving touched your VA,
education stuff, and the samegoes for this If you utilize

(43:41):
your benefits, you can walk awayfrom the military as a property
investor across severaldifferent properties, and it's
all about managing your benefitsand managing yourself for the
long-term view.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Correct and your TSP account.
The one thing that got me intofinancing right away is I grew
up because my mom was in thereal estate side of things.
I grew up in 08.
I watched our family suffer andbe extremely poor during those
times because we had no incomecoming in, and so we went

(44:17):
through Dave Ramsey's class.
So I started teaching DaveRamsey.
I don't agree 100% witheverything of Dave Ramsey, but
when it comes to debt payoff,you know that's an amazing
platform.
But then I started teaching theTSP.
How do you utilize your TSP?
Well, in the military themajority.
I can never get people reallyinto these classes.
I was teaching on 4hood becauseeveryone would be I'm not
living.
I'm not gonna live to 40.

(44:38):
Why do I even care?
I'm like no baby.
I'm serious.
I ended up getting about 50,000in there before I.
I got out and I don't have itanymore because it saved my butt
.
I don't recommend doing this.
But 2023 was really when, onthe leading side, it got
insanely bad and we just had ababy and wife wasn't working

(45:00):
anyway.
I mean, it's a whole long storyso I had to cash it out to get
through, but it saved us, ifthat makes sense, and I'm very
grateful I did it during thatthat time period to save us in
the future.
But if you don't, if that I meanthat money by six years old is
millions of dollars, and so it'slike get started, put money in

(45:21):
your TSP, get your education, Imean.
And the education doesn't haveto be, you know college, you can
go to a trade school.
You know, if you want to be aplumber, electrician or welding,
they also offer that.
At least they do.
I don't know if they still do,but I know when I was getting
out they were offering automechanic training, welding and

(45:43):
IT, if I remember correctly, andwelding.
I got denied my unit.
We brand new commander came in.
He actually canceled my ordersto go to that welding class, but
I had someone who went throughit and now he works out here at
spacex making 350 000 a year andhe's only been out there for a
year and a half.
Man and no prior education tothat, only served one contract

(46:07):
in the military and sorry, I sayI like this bad day.
That's what I did like.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But what my point was is thathe did that, took that training
there at the end of his contractand now look at him he's making
a ton of money being a welderon the launch pad.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
It's really cool it's all about proper management.
I'm glad you underline youunderline the trade school thing
because that's huge man like Ihave two master's degrees and
because I come from a time whereit was all about college,
college, college.
I got out in 07 and I wasn'teven thinking about that.
But if I could go back I wouldlove to get like HVAC, uh,

(46:44):
electrical, you know,certification, to just kind of
make myself a little morelateral, lateral, uh, laterally
mobile, like professionally, um,and I guess I could now, but I
utilized all my gi bill for thatstuff um, yeah, there's a guy
that I served with in thereserves over here in
bakersfield and he was workingfor a.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Um, why am I trying to blink?
Uh, ac, ac and heating.
Yeah, hvac, hvac.
Thank you, hvac.
He's working for that companyand we brought in a small
business loan.
A guy who specializes in theveteran loan Not home loans, but
he specializes in smallbusiness loans for veterans Came
to a class and that wasprobably two years ago and he

(47:29):
owns his own company now.
I think he has about 25 or 30employees in a building and just
killing it, especially on theAC side, because he lives in
Bakersfield.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, anywhere here in Southern California or
mid-California you need that.
So yeah, it's all aboutspreading awareness, man.
That's why I'm glad I got youon the show today, robert.
And just to make things clear,if somebody is interested in
taking advantage of the VA loan,they could come see you
directly.
You can do the lending, you cando everything.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
I can do everything.
If they just want to learnright now, just hop on.
I actually don't have anyclasses up right now.
I take December off because myDecember classes I wasn't
getting anyone to attend inperson or even on Zoom.
I guess on holidays I totallyunderstand.
Plus, we get so busy with ourVegetch an Angel Tree program
that I kind of am not able to doit anyways.
But I will start it up again inJanuary.

(48:20):
But if people are like, hey, Iwant to buy in January, we'll
just schedule an appointmenttogether and I'll just teach
them one-on-one.
It's faster that way too,because you know, when I have a
bunch of people on, I go to thewhole class.
When you come on one-on-one, Iask you questions like hey, were
you in the reserves or theguard?

(48:41):
Oh, you weren't.
Okay, I'm gonna skip thatportion.
This portion doesn't reallyfall into your, your camp.
Now some people want to learnanyway so they can tell people
about it because they knowpeople you know who fall in that
situation.
But yeah, I can do the loan, Ican do the education for you.
I post on social media all thetime and then you know, I love
here on the Central Coast justbeing a resource where, really,

(49:02):
with anything that you'rerelated, it can be oh, I'm
struggling with PTS or I'm youknow, I need help filing PA
disability claims, all that Imean.
We have connections.
We host veteran resource fairsalmost every month Not me

(49:36):
personally, but I work with theBSO office and other
organizations who put it on.
I am actually going to beputting it on my own a few times
in 2025, but those are alsopretty much every month.
Either it's in surfing or goright um horseback riding.
I mean there's all of theseresources to get out there and
do things and do things as afamily or get the actual help
that you need.
So I love being that resourcehere on the central coast and
but a lot of it.
Again, we get calls all overthe country asking for resources
too.
I always get messages and it'snot hard for me to typically

(49:58):
research for them, but if theycan't, I usually tell them.
I find another organization inthe area and I say, hey, please
contact them because they'relocal.
They're going to know more thanwhat maybe my Google search is
popping up.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
I'm so glad that I got you on the show, man,
because you are fairly local tome.
I do get about like who in LAor who in the Southern
California area, do you know?
Dot dot dot, and so thank youfor coming on the show and I
want to give you an opportunity,man, to talk about Operation
Angel Tree.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yes, so my first nonprofit Welcome Home, military
Heroes.
We started off just doing thewelcome homes at the airports,
train stations, all that.
The very first one was veryawkward.
Welcome Homes at the airports,train stations, all that the
very first one was very awkward.
I was 16 at the time and it wasliterally my mom, my dad and
myself and we took the Americanflag down.
And so there's like these threerandom strangers there going

(50:45):
Welcome Home.
And now it's the nonprofit hasexpanded a lot.
We have 12 different missionswithin Welcome Home.
That includes care packages.
We've sent about 24,000 carepackages.
We do venture vehicle salutesbecause of COVID and we started
about seven years ago theVeteran Angel Tree Program.
We had a local business who wasputting up a Christmas tree for

(51:08):
children or seniors I can'tremember what it was for and it
wasn't going well and they werelike, well, maybe I can do
veterans.
So they contacted us and I'm ayes man.
I mean I'm trying to stop that.
My wife wants me to stop that.
But I was like, okay, let'stake it on.
And so we started off with onetree and what you do is the

(51:28):
community comes together, we puttags up of veterans who are in
need.
You know, it doesn't matter ifit's just for a short period of
time or it's been a long periodof time.
If they're struggling right now, we're going to help them.
And so they give us a list ofwhat they want.
It's never a laptop or a flatscreen TV, it's always.

(51:48):
I need a grocery gift card.
Can I get a gas card BecauseI'm having to walk to work
because I can't afford gas?
Or I need boots, or can I get abike so I can ride to work?
It's stuff like that.
It's actually very humbling tosee these tags.
You know, every once in a whilewe get something like an air
fryer or something like that,and we have people who will go

(52:09):
out and buy it.
But the community comestogether.
So we put them up on a tree.
Community them up on the tree.
Community grabs a tag, they gopurchase it and then they return
it and then we wrap it and wedistribute it to the veterans.
We're up to eight trees both uh, we have them in san barbara
county and san luis bispo county.
This year we wrapped 1300 giftsand it's just it blew up so on

(52:32):
that those 1300 gifts helped 425veterans, so a lot of them were
.
I can't afford gifts for mykids.
What can you guys do?
And so you know, a lot of thosekids were given two or three
items, items for, and then we'rewe're given the grocery gift
card on top that or a targetgift card on top of it.
But the years prior we were inthe 200 range and it just boom,

(52:53):
bumped up to over 400.
And I think it has a little bitto do with the economy.
And I think it has a little bitto do with the economy.
I also think it has a littlebit to do that this is getting
out to the media now.
I mean, we had, we were on ourlocal ksby news four or five
times in a 10-day period and soit was just like people were
getting hammered with it.
It's just a very humblingexperience.

(53:14):
I we have 40 plus volunteersthat come into it.
I don't do much with theprogram and what I mean by that
is I do all the marketing stuff,get the news there, do the
social media stuff, and then Ijust kind of oversee operations
because we have a committeechair who runs that, just to see
.
I got super teary-eyed when westarted dropping off.
We work with seven or or no.

(53:36):
I think it's six.
We call them partner agencies,so they're either another
veteran non-profit or theirgovernment entity, so it can be
the va bash good samaritans.
Now I'm trying to blank some ofthe others names, but we have a
um organization up here calledcap slow and they have a veteran
department.

(53:56):
They do most of the vetting forus so they make sure they're
real vets.
They make sure that they'reactually a veteran who is
struggling right now.
We work with the VSO offices inboth counties to get names of
veterans as well.
So we're expecting this to blowup even more.
We're going to open up a newtree in Santa Barbara next year,

(54:16):
another one way up in Paso,which is the northern part, and
we're talking like.
I think it's like a 200 miledistance between the two.
I actually think it's more thanthat and I have volunteers who
will pick up anything and gohelp wrap, deliver tags, pick up
those gifts.
We work with the Combat VeteranMotorcycle association to honor

(54:39):
these businesses and thesetrees.
We do like a veteran angel treeride now and we drive around to
all the locations.
We got santa with us.
It's just, it's an amazingprogram.
And not this, not 2024, butstarting 2023.
My dream was to always to takethis program year round, and
what I mean by that is no, we'renot putting up Christmas trees
all year round, it was.

(55:01):
I want to continue helpingveterans who are in need all
year, and we had an amazingfundraiser at the end of 2022 to
finally allow us to go yearround, and we're still able to
do it.
So we work with a lot of thesegovernment agencies or
nonprofits that house veterans.
So when they house them, theyneed a couch, they need a

(55:24):
microwave or a bed to sleep on,and we get the community to come
in to either purchase it,donate it, and if they don't,
then we go out and we'llpurchase those items.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
So that's actually called Veteran in Need or
Operation Veteran in Need, andthen Operation Veteran Angel
Tree falls right underneath thatprogram, as well, wow, there's
so much to collect here, man,and you're total inspiration man
, because I want to definitelyput this in the show notes
everything that you've mentionedhere today and how to contact

(55:48):
you, and everything for ourcommunity.
And, like I said before, thebest part of my job is I get to
talk to inspirational folks likeyourself to help spread that
awareness for a community outthere.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Well, crazy is that that's only one of the four
nonprofits, so that's insane.
That's just.
That's just the one I I'm withHonor Flight as well.
Do you know what Honor Flightis?
Yeah, I do.
Yeah, so I'm Honor FlightCentral Coast on the vice chair
for here.
But you know, I'm getting to apoint in some of these
organizations where I'm kind ofjust overseeing and then I kind
of just show up during the funtimes, like I'm not afraid to

(56:21):
admit that.
I feel like I've gotten to apoint, to where we've gotten
these organizations to thatpoint.
We have amazing volunteers.
I can just kind of like overseeit, be the one that goes out
and does the talking or thespeeches when I get asked to go
and talk on behalf of theseprograms.
That's probably my favoritething.
Honor Flight, oh my gosh.
Be able to travel to DC withthese veterans and see their

(56:44):
emotions on the wall, going tothe wall or going wherever.
I recommend anyone who'slistening to go as a guardian to
get on a flight.
Be a guardian for a veteran, bea war to Korean or Vietnam
veteran.
It's an amazing experience.
I get to ride on every singletrip and I've probably been on

(57:07):
10 or more.
Every single one's different.
You always have an amazingstory that you get to hear from
someone and you guys sit down.
Well, at least for us, we doallow drinking um at the hotel,
and so then we I always go out,and a few of us go out and buy
the drinks for all the beds andwe get to sit there and just
hear their crazy stories,whether that was in the military
or their life after themilitary yeah, man, there's just

(57:31):
.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
There's just too much to talk about.
Man, you know, I'd love to haveyou back on the show ro, the
show Robert, to talk more aboutsome of the other things that
you're involved with as well andspread that awareness.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Yes, I would love that.
I love talking.
I mean you probably can tell Ilove talking about all this
stuff especially.
I mean I love talking VAs too.
But I definitely love talkingabout the nonprofit side of
things as well.
Or even people contact me tospeak on behalf of their
organizations as well, or evenpeople contacted me to to speak
on behalf of their organizationsas well now too.
So, um, and I do all that forfree uh, kind of usually when I

(58:02):
go to those places they provideme free food, so I guess I get
something out of it, but yeah,as you, as it's well deserved,
man, because definitely ifyou're using your time and
energy, you know they need to beat least feeding you.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
So, yes, well.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
I think it's like you know, you are younger, you know
all these these organizations.
You typically, when they'recoming in, they're they're a lot
older veterans coming in andspeaking.
And I think a lot of them getshocked when I show up,
especially.
I mean I'm 31 now, but when Iwas in my 20s and I was showing
up to do these things, everyonewas just like what the heck?
Yeah, you're the one coming.

(58:33):
Are you the right person?
I yeah, you're the one comingin.
Are you the right person?
I'm like yes, now that I'mgetting the gray in my beard,
people don't quite question meas much anymore.
But it's fun, I love it, I getit.
I've gotten to travel.
I'm down, actually, in LA orOrange County often.
I've taught a few classes downthere as well.
I plan on doing a few moreclasses down there this year.
So I've got to travel to meetamazing veterans.
It's so cool to be able to helpthem.

(58:55):
When they get denied onsomething or they get told that
they went to a certainorganization for disability and
I ask them what process theywent through, and I'm like so
you didn't provide a letter, youdidn't do this, you didn't do
that.
And they're like no, I wasnever told to do that.
I'm like all right, let's getyou to an organization down here
or your local VSO office, makesure they actually get you.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
It's all about the connections, right, and the
networking.
It's all about the connections,yes, yeah.
So, hey, man, listen, let's doanother show together.
I would love to talk more aboutthe other stuff and for anyone
that's listening to this podcastright now, please go down to
the show notes.
If you're watching this onYouTube, go down to the
description at the bottom.
You're going to find how to geta hold of Robert and to link up

(59:38):
with him.
Connect with him, find him onInstagram.
You're still on TikTok, right?

Speaker 2 (59:42):
I am yes Okay.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Yeah, until it's banned, I guess.
Until it's banned in January,right, so we'll see what happens
with that.
But, robert, thank you so muchfor your time today.
Man, I really appreciate allthe information, knowledge and
all the work that you're doingfor our community.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
No, thank you Again.
I'm very honored that you askedme to come on and, of course,
thank you for everything thatyou're doing and getting the
word out.
I've only for a while, soseeing the people that you're
getting on the podcast andgetting their story out as well
is really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Yeah, man, no doubt I love doing what I do, but for
everyone else out there,no-transcript.