8 Things Every Veteran Should Know About Their VA Home Loan, From Navy Vet And Novum Home Loans Co-Founder Travis Peace

The Naval Academy grad and former Navy nuclear engineer co-founded Novum Home Loans to help veterans use the home loan benefit they earned. Here’s his advice.

Travis Peace was 26, a Naval Academy grad and a nuclear engineer on the USS George Washington, when he and his wife went condo shopping in Virginia Beach. A few years earlier, he was playing Division I football as an offensive lineman for Navy, including Paul Johnson’s first season as head coach.

He had no idea he qualified for a VA loan.

“I thought VA was where the old guys from Vietnam went to get their health insurance,” he told me.

They didn’t have 20% to put down, so they rented. Units in the complex they looked at were selling for $180,000. He figures one is worth close to $400,000 now.

Today Travis is the co-founder and president of Novum Home Loans, a veteran-owned mortgage lender that specializes in VA loans. He spent years building mortgage businesses at USAA and Keller Williams before he and co-founder Tad Hensley started their own.

When they researched the market, they found a number that surprised them.

“Less than 20% of veterans have ever used their VA loan benefit,” Travis says.

“I’m a veteran. I know this community. I’ve lived this,” he says. “Somebody’s going to do this. Might as well be us, because we’ve got all the pieces to do it.”

Travis’s pitch for Novum is short.

“It’s simple, but it’s not easy to do,” he says. “You’ve got to offer great rates. You’ve got to close on time. You’ve got to hire people that know what they’re talking about when it comes to VA loans. We can control those three things, and that’s what we do.”

Ahead of Veterans Day, I asked Travis what veterans should know before they start house hunting. Here’s what he told me.

1. You Can Use Your VA Loan More Than Once

“The biggest misconception I hear is, well, I don’t want to use it because I only get it once,” Travis says. “I don’t know where that came from.”

He didn’t know it either until he got into VA lending.

“You can use the VA loan benefit as many times as you want to,” he says. “What a lot of folks misunderstand is there is an entitlement limit if you are using more than one VA loan at the same time.”

The main rule is that you have to live in the home.

“The requirement to use a VA loan is you have to intend to live in it for at least 12 months,” he says. “So as long as you’re living in each home for at least 12 months, you can use it over and over again.”

That’s good news for veterans who bought a starter home years ago and need more room now.

2. You Don’t Need 20% Down

“People think you need 20% down to buy a home,” Travis says. “You don’t. You need that to avoid mortgage insurance.”

It’s the mistake he made in Virginia Beach.

“We could have bought one of those condos for 0% down,” he says. By his math, his Navy housing allowance would have covered the entire mortgage payment.

There are still costs to plan for.

“VA loans are great because there’s no down payment, but there’s still closing costs involved,” he says. “And there are exceptions to paying the VA funding fee if you have a disability rating. You have to understand how that works.”

3. Ask How Many VA Loans Your Lender Has Done

“Every lender is going to say that they’re great at VA loans,” Travis says.

He estimates VA loans make up about 10% of all mortgages, so most lenders don’t specialize in them. “We say they do just enough VA loans to be bad at them,” he says.

His test is simple. Ask a lender how many VA loans they’ve done, and listen to how they talk. Service members get an LES, the military’s version of a pay stub.

“If you’re a veteran, you can sniff out BS pretty well,” he says. “If they’ve never heard of an LES, they probably haven’t done too many VA loans. They call it a pay stub. That’s not what we call it in the military.”

4. Get More Than One Quote

“There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors that lenders can do when they show you a quote or an estimate,” Travis says. “We recommend, even if you come to us to get a quote, go get a quote with somebody else.”

Novum will even go over a competing quote with you.

“Whether you use us or not, come to us for advice on how your VA benefit works,” he says. “We’re more than happy to compare loan estimates with you.”

5. A Seller Concession Can Pay Off Other Debt

A seller concession is money the seller agrees to put toward the buyer’s costs. Travis calls this one a hidden benefit.

“There’s a hidden benefit of VA loans that a lot of folks don’t know, especially in this market,” he says. “If you get a seller concession with VA loans, you can use it to pay off personal debt for a veteran, like credit card debt or auto loans.”

6. You Can Buy Up To A Fourplex

Travis says the VA loan can be used on a property with up to four units, as long as you live in one of them.

“There’s a lot of savvy veterans who do understand how to do this,” he says. “When they get stationed in San Diego or Virginia Beach or San Antonio, they’ll buy a duplex, a triplex, a fourplex, live in one of the units and rent out the other three to pay their entire mortgage payment.”

I told him I’d seen the TikToks.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just saved you an hour of paying for somebody’s course.”

7. A Lender Who Knows VA Loans Knows The Rest, Too

Novum specializes in VA loans, but it works with all kinds of buyers.

“If you know VA loans, that means you know all different types of mortgages,” Travis says. “You’re really well versed in the guidelines, so we can help a lot of folks. Even if you’re not eligible for VA loans, we can help make sure that you’re in the best financial situation.”

“Somebody didn’t think it was going to work for them, and we’re able to help them understand, hey, you can do this,” he says. “And you see it change their lives.”

I told him that’s the American dream. If you served your country, it should be the most within reach for you.

8. Put Your Veteran Radar On

“A lot of veterans get taken advantage of,” Travis says. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

He’s seen it since his Navy days.

“When we’d come back from being underway, we’d see the used car guys right outside the gate waving the American flags,” he says. “‘You’re a veteran, you deserve to have this brand new Corvette for 25% interest at 10 years.’ Guys, do not go over there.”

Veterans talk, too.

“The network effect is a real thing,” he says. “If you do right by veterans, word’s gonna get out. Conversely, if you screw over a veteran, word’s gonna get out.”

His last piece of advice is the one he gives every veteran.

“Trust your gut, trust your instincts. Put on your veteran radar,” he says. “Don’t just take any one person’s advice for granted. It’s one of the most significant emotional and financial decisions you go through. Treat it as such.”

Let’s talk football: Travis’s Army-Navy Pick

Travis played offensive line at Navy, so I had to ask about this year’s Army-Navy Game. It’s December 12 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

He played in the 2001 game, less than three months after 9/11. After warmups, President George W. Bush walked into the locker room and talked to the team.

“It’s a locker room speech from the freaking president,” Travis says.

His advice for anyone going to the game this year is simple.

“Get there early and soak in the pageantry,” he says. “It really should be on everybody’s bucket list.”

I asked for his prediction.

“It always comes down to turnovers,” he says. “I’m an offensive lineman. I just want to see us run the ball.”

Quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity.

About Novum Home Loans

Novum Home Loans LLC is an equal opportunity lender. NMLS #2487386

Novum Home Loans is a veteran-owned and operated mortgage lender based in Austin, Texas. Tad Hensley and Travis Peace co-founded the company. Its mission is to provide advice and value to the military community through the home buying journey. Novum specializes in VA loans and offers other loan types too.