We are your military Realtor family. Military spouses, veterans, and Military Relocation Professionals who have been through this more times than we can count. The last thing your family should be stressed about is where you are going to live.
I am Dawn Riley. My team and I have spent more than twenty years helping service members and their families buy and sell around the bases in Maryland, Virginia, and the District. About half of everything we close involves a VA buyer or a VA seller. That is not a specialty we advertise. It is simply what our business is made of.
A military move is a different animal than a civilian one. You get a date, and the date does not care about your feelings. You often shop on a four-day house-hunting trip, write a contract, and negotiate it before you fly back. We work at that speed because we have to, and because we already know the answers to the questions that would otherwise cost you a week.
Ask about our military discount.
And ask about VA loan assumptions. I have closed a number of them, and most agents in this region have never done one.
The Riley Team speaks your language
TLF. TMO. DTS. PCA. The list never ends, and it is exhausting to explain your own acronyms to the person who is supposed to be helping you. We already know them, and more importantly we know how each one bends your timeline.
We also know that an active duty buyer on a house-hunting trip is a power shopper. You will look at eleven houses in two days, pick one, and want it under contract before your flight. We do the legwork ahead of that trip so the two days are spent deciding rather than discovering.
PCSing in: put your BAH to work
On-base housing is thin at nearly every installation on this page, and the waitlists are worse than the brochures suggest. Your BAH is going somewhere either way. Sending it toward a mortgage instead of a landlord is often the better call over a three-year tour, and lenders count that allowance as qualifying income.
If you need to sell your current home first, we will find the right agent to do it. If you want a VA loan officer who actually knows the program, we have several we trust. Nervous about what a twenty-year-old roof is going to cost you? Our inspectors give you a straight answer rather than a hedge.
PCSing out: we sell it, then we vet your next agent
If you are the one leaving, we price to your report date and market hard from day one. Once an offer is on the table you get the benefit of my Master Certified Negotiation Expert (MCNE) training, which is the part that protects your proceeds when the inspection response arrives.
Then we do the part most teams skip. I interview Realtors at your next duty station, check what they have actually closed with VA buyers, and hand you two or three I would trust with my own family. There is no cost to you for that.
Why a military specialist matters on a VA loan
Most buyers, and honestly a fair number of agents, walk through a house looking at the kitchen. On a VA purchase I am looking for the things that will stop the appraisal cold. Peeling paint on a pre-1978 house. A handrail that is missing. A roof with less than the required remaining life. Standing water in the crawlspace. None of these are automatic deal killers, but each one has to be handled before settlement, and finding them at the showing costs nothing while finding them at the appraisal costs you two weeks and your leverage.
Then there is the condo trap. A condo project has to be on the VA approved list before a VA loan can close there. Agents who do not work with VA buyers regularly do not know to check. Their clients find out after they are under contract, and by then someone else has bought the house they wanted.
VA loan assumptions: the tool almost nobody uses
A VA loan is assumable. If a seller is carrying a note from the low-rate years, a buyer can take over that loan at that rate rather than financing at today's. I have closed a number of these, and the savings are not marginal. On a $500,000 house the difference between a 2.75 percent assumed note and current market financing can run well over a thousand dollars a month.
There are two things that decide whether an assumption is possible. The first is the equity gap. An assumption does not enlarge the loan, so the difference between the sale price and the remaining balance has to be covered in cash or with a second lien. The second is servicer cooperation, which varies wildly. Some packages clear in six weeks. Others take three months, and the contract dates need to reflect that from the start.
Sellers, there is a warning attached. If the buyer assuming your loan is not VA-eligible and does not substitute their own entitlement, your entitlement stays attached to that mortgage until it is paid off. Service members have discovered this at the worst possible moment, standing at a new duty station unable to use the benefit they earned. I put that in front of every client before they accept an offer.
Finding homes for our heroes
Map and radius home search · pick your installation
Each page covers commute realities, the neighborhoods people actually choose, and how the VA benefit plays in that market.
Start My Military Relocation PlanAbout 30 quick questions. Report date, PCS status, budget, lender. I read every one myself.What working with us looks like
1. Tell me your dates
Report date, house-hunting trip, whether the family comes with you or follows. Everything else is planned backward from that.
2. Get the money sorted
A VA loan officer who knows the program, a pre-approval that sellers respect, and an honest look at whether an assumption is on the table.
3. Shop, write, negotiate
A short list built before you land, offers written the same day, and an inspection response that does not quietly cost you five thousand dollars.
Where we work
The Riley Team at Deep Roots Real Estate works Calvert, St. Mary's, Charles, and Anne Arundel counties directly, plus Prince George's and the surrounding market. For duty stations outside that footprint I place you with an agent I have personally vetted and stay involved as your advocate through settlement.
Frequently Asked Questions
About half of everything The Riley Team closes each year involves a VA buyer or a VA seller. It is the largest single part of our practice.
The buyer takes over the seller's existing VA loan at its existing interest rate instead of getting a new mortgage. On an older low-rate note the monthly savings can be several hundred dollars.
It can. If the buyer is not VA-eligible and does not substitute their own entitlement, the seller's stays tied to that loan until it is paid off, which can block their next purchase.
Lenders count BAH as qualifying income. For many families the payment on a purchase lands close to the allowance, which is why buying often beats renting over a three-year tour.
I interview agents at your next duty station and give you a vetted short list. Referral compensation is paid between brokerages, so there is no cost to you.
Compensation is negotiated in writing before we tour, and in most Maryland transactions the seller contributes toward it. I will show you exactly how it works on your deal before you sign anything.
Ready to Start Your Move?
Send me your report date and I will build the plan around it. No pressure, no drip campaign, just a straight answer about what your money buys here and how fast we have to move.
Dawn Riley
Associate Broker, Realtor, Master Certified Negotiation Expert (MCNE)
The Riley Team at Deep Roots Real Estate
410-414-2438
dawn@dawnriley.net
https://dawnriley.net/