Veterans in search of homes
>>> according to the department of veteran affairs , more than 27 million vets and service members are eligible for va home loan benefits. now, that number is expected to increase as more veterans return home and others enlist in military service . grant moon is a decorated war veteran who started the company that helps vets secure a safe home and joins me in-studio to talk more about this. grant, great to have you here today. as i said, you're a decorated war vet, but you came back and started this company. it's called va loan captain, correct?
>> correct, va loan captain.
>> so what inspired you to do this?
>> sure. well, vets and service members for the past decade have been targeted for unscrupulous lending practices. and just as of recent, there were two instances, one being that 1.1 million veterans were illegally charged fees on their home loans and the second was a settlement that just actually finalized in february whereby 5,000 veterans were illegally foreclosed on. so just learning of this, you know, we, quite frankly, just were sick and tired of it. and we wanted to create something that addressed it.
>> i think for a lot of people out there, they're going to be, you know, when you hear about this, confused by the banks, the incumbents who have managed these va loans, the benefit to our service men and women, why have they been allowed to provide such a dishonest path for people to get home ownership and the benefits that are rightfully theirs when they return?
>> well, that's a good question. i think that, you know, well, just by program design, veterans are entitled to va home loan benefits. and the va actually guarantees the home loans on behalf of the veterans . but private lending institutions are actually the ones that provide the lending to the eligible beneficiary. and you know, because of that, there's a handoff process that created some gaps within the industry. and that's probably how that occurred.
>> that allowed for the infiltration, so to speak. so in addition to the possibility of homelessness, unemployment is another major issue that we need to realistically talk about. according to "the new york times," the jobless rate among vets, aged 20 to 24, averaged 30% in 2011 , which more than doubled non-vets of the same age. from what you've seen from your experience, how does that the play against the need to provide shelter, you know, and the fact that they can put down roots, the investment of home ownership . how does it play against that?
>> sure, well, our model is, we intend it to be a circular business model . whereby the va loan industry is $71 billion and growing. so it's a very big market, but what we're finding is there's not a lot of veterans that are employed within the mortgage industry and especially handling some of these va home loans. so with our veterans guarantee pledge, which our participating banks and lenders sign, they have to provide veterans hiring preferences for applicable divisions that support our program. so we're hoping to address that with our hiring preferences that these bank and lending institutions sign.
>> obviously, this is a business for you, but this goes a lot deeper than that. this is very personal for you.
>> that's right. that's right. you know, the best end state for us is to assist our veterans and homeowners, provide real value to them through competitive interest rates and fees, but also be able to give back to society. and for every loan closed, our participating bank lenders on our platform give $200 to one of our partner veteran charities.
>> that's excellent. va loan captain, ceo and president, grant moon. grant, great to see you