Vetted VA working to educate lending professionals on VA loans
Out of the over 18 million Veterans in the United States, only one-third have used a Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgage loan, and fewer are currently using it. Various factors have caused the limited use of the product, which one loan originator and advocate is working to correct.
One of the biggest issues with the VA loan program is the misinformation spread by the lending community.
Nathan Knottingham (pictured top) is a loan originator and partner and chief operating officer of Vetted VA, an organization that educates brokers and Veterans on VA mortgage loans. Along with founder and CEO Christopher Griffith, Knottingham held a VA Summit at the Equity Prime Mortgage event, The American Gift (TAG), on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia.
It frustrates him when he hears Veterans and brokers sharing incorrect information about these types of loans.
“The damage to the community, when it’s just the passed-on stereotype or the community think,” Knottingham told Mortgage Professional America. “Often, it doesn’t happen because somebody's maliciously intending to be poorly educated in an idea. It’s that they were educated by somebody who did not choose to be better educated in an idea.”
He believes that in many cases, brokers are just passing along information that was shared with them in their initial training.
“You learn from the people who sit down before you and say, ‘This is how you do the job,’” he said. “Unless you have an inquiring mind, you don't open yourself up to understanding that maybe you didn't learn all of it.”
High rates have helped Veterans
Knottingham has seen things improve for Veterans since Vetted VA started six years ago.
“We have watched since Vetted VA started six years ago as a Facebook group, and then as we started articulating the training, we’ve watched nationally, the VA loan has become more and more accepted,” Knottingham said. “In 2020, when things were starting to pop off and get busy, and in 2021, when it got super busy, you were hearing Veterans being beaten out by cash offers.
“But you are now starting to see more veterans using 100% financing and beating cash offers. Because people were being like, ‘It's my client. I'm going to fight for him.”
A Vetted VA report found homeowners who used VA or non-FHA government loans had 18 times higher average net worth than renters. Only one-third of 18 million US Veterans have utilized their VA loan benefit. https://t.co/4QIHolkCbP
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) June 6, 2025
Not only are Veterans beating out cash offers, but as interest rates have remained elevated, VA loans have afforded them a chance to get better rates than conventional loans.
“As rates go up, the affordability factor for a Veteran is actually much higher with a 100% type loan or a low down payment,” he said. “There's flexibility to use their cash wisely, to finance and then over time, the equity and the payments processed pace at such a level where they're saving more money.”
While Veterans have the option to work directly with Vetted VA TPO to get a VA loan, that is not a requirement, even if they come to the organization for help with the process.
“So, our whole desire of Vetted VA is not to generate more loans for professionals, but to ensure that a veteran trying to use a contractually earned benefit, which the VA loan is, is able to do so and feel confident in their decision making,” Knottingham said. “Now, if they choose to use a professional we vet, awesome, we trust them, but we don't require it. We don't demand it. We don't push it. We let the freedom of choice be the freedom they can use.”
Critical training for mortgage brokers
Vetted VA provides two levels of training programs for brokers. While brokers are not required to go through the training program, Knottingham believes it is critical that the knowledge level on VA loans get raised across the industry.
“Do not let your ignorance stop you from progressing forward,” Knottingham said. “The why behind that is your ignorance in thinking you know all things and not stopping yourself to ask, ‘What else?’ Or your ignorance of, ‘I don't know enough, therefore I can't start.’ Your ignorance is the one thing that will hold you back from a better way.”
He mentioned several top VA brokers who started scared of messing things up with VA loans. He said that when he hears brokers admit that, he knows that Vetted VA has a shot to help them.
“The more, the faster we are to say, ‘Hey, we're ignorant. But I can overcome that with some more education and training if I'm willing,’” he said. “If you’re willing to be wrong and be shown how you’re wrong and fix that, and then just be willing to be wrong again and just fix it. So don't let your ignorance hold you back from the next thing.”
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