Mil Spouse in the House: Real Estate Readiness with Grant Vermeer

Welcome back to Mill Spouse in the House. I'm your host, Kristi Nix, active duty army wife of 21 years, newly retired family at almost a year now, and we have settled down in the Fort Stewart, Georgia area, where I am the head trainer at our local Anytime Fitness. Over the course of our military life, we moved eight times, and every single time you need to find somewhere to live, and it can certainly be a stressful process, which is why we're excited to bring you this episode, Real Estate Readiness. From service member to military spouse and now real estate expert, this week's guest, Grant Vermeer, breaks down the biggest mistakes military families make when buying or selling a home. We're talking why clicking contact agent on Redfin or Zillow might cost you thousands, how to spot a qualified real estate agent and avoid the fakes, and whether you really need to buy at every duty station. Grant, we're super excited to chat with you and get your insights, but first, here's a quick rundown of the latest news impacting military families, brought to you by Millspouses.com, a site built by military spouses for military spouses. Well, October has certainly been a stressful month for many. With the government shutdown leaving families uncertain about paychecks, President Trump directed the Department of Defense to use all available funds to ensure service members were paid. Pentagon officials say about $8 billion in unobligated research and development funds from the last fiscal year were tapped to cover mid-month military pay. Meanwhile, TRICARE is warning families they could face delays in medical claims processing due to the shutdown. Even when funding resumes, there may be a backlog of civilian care claims to tackle. And a quick reminder, TRICARE Open Season is coming up from November 10th to December 9th. That's when eligible beneficiaries can enroll in or change their TRICARE health plan for the new year. It's also your chance to sign up for the new DoD Healthcare Flexible Spending Account, which lets you use pre-tax dollars for qualified medical expenses like co-pays, prescriptions, and more. You can find all of these updates, plus a helpful guide to surviving solo parenting during deployment at Millspouses.com. Staying informed is crucial, but so is taking care of your mental well-being, especially during times of change. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor, Talkspace, with more on how to navigate the challenges of military life. Being a military spouse comes with its challenges, but you don't have to navigate them alone. Welcome to Millspouse in the House, your go-to podcast for real talk, support, and community. And thanks to our sponsor, Talkspace, getting the mental health support you need is easier than ever. Talkspace is a secure, HIPAA-compliant therapy platform where you can connect with licensed therapists anytime, from anywhere. Now in the TRICARE network for all TRICARE recipients, for children 13 and up, retirees, veterans, and active-duty spouses, because mental wellness is for the whole family. Visit Talkspace.com slash Millspouse today and take the first step toward support that fits your lifestyle. Welcome back. If you're part of a military family, you know that moves aren't just frequent. They're a way of life. Every few years, you're packing boxes, changing zip codes, and sometimes buying a home in a place you've never even visited. And to make it even trickier, a lot of those decisions happen from thousands of miles away, sometimes without your service member even around. Joining me today is Grant Vermeer, a Navy veteran, active-duty military spouse, and founder of the Vermeer Group. His mission, matching military families with real estate teams across the country to help you with the home buying and selling process. So Grant, we're super excited to have you here today. Let's get started. And why don't you tell us a little bit about your military service? Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm super excited to be here. This is really a treat for me, so thank you. But yeah, my military journey started at the Naval Academy. I was a young kid who didn't know if the military was for me or not. And, you know, funny enough, I got recruited to play basketball at the Naval Academy, which is what started my entire journey. And it was the luckiest and greatest thing that ever happened to me was that falling into my world. And so I was excited about that. Did four years at the Naval Academy and then commissioned into what is known as the cryptologic warfare community. So it's the Navy's cybersecurity and intelligence world, which was a really cool and fun experience. Did multiple submarine deployments as a part of that. But it was a lot. It was a lot. And you might be able to tell over the course of this episode, I'm pretty extroverted. And like interacting with people. So submarines were like not a great fit for me. Not so much. And I'm a California kid, so I like the sunshine. So I was 0 for 2 there with submarines. And so, you know, I decided to get out of the service at the end of my contract right around the five and a half, six year mark. And that's been great. I've been in the real estate world ever since. That's awesome. So just a fun fact, I played college soccer. Oh, heck yeah. Down here in South Georgia. And one of the hardest games we ever played was against the women's Navy female soccer team. Let's go. Those were some tough chicks. Yeah, that was a fun game. They weren't in conference, but it was like an extra game that we got to go play. Beautiful up there as well. I love that. What position did you play? I was a left wing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Long time ago. I see you. Yeah. Okay. So you moved out of the service from the Navy into active duty and military spouse. Yeah. Tell us a little bit how that shifts been going for you. It's been, again, the greatest blessing of my entire life was marrying my wife. Like, I'm so grateful for this entire thing. I love her to death. And it's so cool. But as I think every military spouse can relate, it's thrown a bomb into my career into like how I've had to navigate that. Right. When I was getting out of the service, I had moved to Austin because that's where my family hub is at, right outside the Austin area. And so for three or four years, I was building my real estate business under the assumption that my life was going to settle in Austin. And so I was building my real estate business out there in Austin, having a great time, really gaining momentum, kind of had a really solid business out in Austin, was loving it. But over that period, I was in the dating process with my now wife. At the time, she was at Corpus Christi, so we were able to make it happen. And that's when she got orders to San Diego. And I knew without a doubt she was the person that I wanted to spend my life with. And so we got married. So you're still following the Navy. Right. And married right back into the Navy. And so as a result, I was getting ready to move to San Diego. And I kind of had some decisions to make on the real estate world because my business was in Austin. And to continue to fly back there but live in San Diego was probably not really feasible in the long run. I was like, do I rebuild my business in San Diego? And then it's like, well, then I'm probably just going to have to move again in a year and a half or two years when we go to the next place. And so all those factors have kind of come to fruition in what I'm building with the Vermeer Group now, which I'm sure we'll get to. But it's just been a fun transition. It's forced me to be very entrepreneurial and figure out how I can still provide a service to the military community despite the realities of being a military spouse. And so that's kind of where we're at today. That's really cool too because I think one of the biggest parts of being a spouse with a career or profession or building something more specifically, we don't want to have that resentment going into our marriage either. They always say, you know what you're getting into? I mean, you probably knew what you were getting into a little more than I knew what I was getting into because you're already in the Navy yourself. But I think it's awesome to have that optimistic outlook on, I love this person. I'm going to go and I'll figure everything else out later. If you find success in one place, you're likely to find success somewhere else. So kudos to you. I love that you said yes. She must be one remarkable woman, I have to say. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Go ahead. You can have a plug if you'd like. That's really cool. I love that. So let's get into the real estate side of all of this, which you're here as our expert for. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see service members make when working with a real estate agent or a lender? Yeah, no, absolutely. I appreciate it. And again, I think this is one of these interesting topics where real estate is just never a part of your life until it is. And now you're like, okay, well, how do I actually approach this? How do I make these decisions? What do I do? And it's a big decision. And all I ever want, and I feel like kind of to surmise some of the things that I'll kind of expand upon here, is that I just wish military families were just a little bit more educated about the process at large so that way they could understand each of the components and how they should be taking it as seriously as they should. And so I think kind of the first mistake that I see very consistently is service members just choosing a part-time or really an underqualified real estate agent to represent them because they don't know how they should be verifying or how they should be qualifying some agents to know if they're actually good at their job or not. And so – oh, yeah, please, if you're going to ask a question. Oh, no, keep going. Yeah, no, I think that's great because how do you know? So I have a feeling you're going to tell us. Yeah, we'll definitely get there. But I think, again, a lot of the times, again, as we see the mistakes, and we'll get into a little bit of what makes a good real estate agent, and I promise we'll make our way there in the transition. But in that process, I think the way that actually comes to fruition, the way I see that happen is two factors. A lot of military families will either just kind of hire their close family friend or quite literally family member who happens to have their real estate license, but they're not really like a full-time agent or they haven't done a lot. But there's the pressure of their family or friend being like, hey, I'm an agent. You should use me. And I just want to help reframe for military families that, again, if you go through this process, as we all know, the PCS process at large can be extremely stressful. But purchasing a home, if that's the path you do choose to go down, that is a very serious decision. And no matter what your agent is telling you, if they're like, hey, as a buyer's agent, you'll be able to use me for free, that's technically not right. Maybe you might not have any out-of-pocket cost that day, but you are hiring someone to help represent you in the largest purchase of your life. And if you think about it that way, which usually comes out to be multiple thousands of dollars that are going to be the compensation to these agents, if it came down to you actually making that payment to that person, you would want someone who is incredible at their job. Not just like okay, not just sufficient, not just licensed and taking care of the job, but someone who is incredible at their job to take care of you in this really large purchase. And so the first one is I see, again, people hiring friends and family because it's convenient or they feel like an emotional pressure to do so. And then the second way I see this come to life is people just clicking the contact agent button on these third-party sites like a Zillow or a Redfin because it's convenient and easy. And guess what? That's why Zillow and Redfin made it that way for you to click those buttons for them. But just as a little bit of like behind the scenes, I think sometimes people put in perspective like if I hit contact agent, it's going to come back and it's going to put me in touch with an agent who knows everything about this property. Again, I feel like it's kind of a natural assumption. We put a little inherent trust into that. But really what's happening is the moment you hit contact agent, they are basically then selling your data and passing your information that you've inputted to an agent who has paid them to receive that information and then try and basically cold call you from that moment and try and convert you into a client. It's a lead generation. Exactly. It is a lead generation magnet, and Zillow makes money by selling that data to agents to try and work with you. Whether they're qualified or not. Whether they're qualified or not. So it's a gamble. It is a gamble. And so again, just to put this in perspective, obviously this is my profession and I take this seriously and that's why I've done a bunch of this research. But I did, at the sake of not calling out specific agencies, again I would just offer this as a word of caution, really a lesson learned versus a site specific thing. I went to some of the more popular agent matching sites, like how to find a real estate agent all across the country type places. And I said I was moving to Georgetown, Texas, which is where my parents live. And it's an area I know a ton about. And I put in there that I was looking to buy a million dollar plus home. Oh, I'm looking for a million dollar plus home. I'm looking for a luxury real estate agent, all this different stuff. And they said, at the end of the day, they're like, okay, thank you. I had already put that I was pre-approved to purchase a home. I had already settled my lending situation. And yet, still, after hitting submit on all that stuff, two things happened, which is one, I got about seven phone calls from Veterans United about trying to get me a better mortgage deal. So it's very clear that they're just selling off your data as a lead generation magnet to some of these offices that then become annoying and super frustrating. But then two, I had two real estate agents connect me. And again, their message was that we are going to find the perfect fit for you, the perfect fit of real estate agent based on what you're asking for. I was connected to those two agents. And guess what? I got on the phone with them, and I talked to them. You quizzed them a little bit. And I pressed them a little bit and asked questions knowing that I knew the answers because we live there. And again, those two agents who were supposed to be this perfect fit for me, one had never sold a single home yet in his year and a half as a real estate agent. He had done 14 transactions, which really just like leases, like helped people with a lease instead of actually purchasing a home. And they were saying, this is the perfect person to help you buy a million-dollar home in this area that was about 45 minutes from where he lived. And then the second person, a little bit more qualified, had never sold a home in the city of Georgetown, Texas. And so again, that's the reality of it because people are just paying for leads. That is the business model behind the scenes is that people are just paying for leads. And I just want military families to take this a little bit more seriously and not just inherently trust whoever is assigned to them thinking that they're actually really good at their job. And so those are the cautionary tales that I tell in that, again, the biggest mistakes that people see is just like this blatant, inherent trust going through some of these sites when, in reality, they're probably not being represented the best way they possibly can. Well, sure. And as a military family, you're slightly vulnerable, right? Because you don't know your area. You don't know the local team that's the most successful because they've worked their way to expert level realtor. Yep. So you are a bit vulnerable. I mean, you don't know who's on the other end of that transaction. So that's maybe not the best place to go to get it. So that leads me to the question, you know, what makes a good real estate agent in your mind and how can a military family identify that person in an area? You know, our first duty station was Fort Irwin, California, which we lived on base. But Barstow, California was the closest town. I had never even heard of that city, you know, before my husband called me and said we were moving there. I wouldn't have known the first thing about Barstow. I definitely know that I did not want to live there. Thankfully, we lived on base. But if I would have called, you know, I probably would have gotten rose colored lenses on what Barstow was, you know, from the realtor that wanted to sell me a house there. So give us some advice there. What could we be looking for? What makes a good agent? Yeah. First, I just got a caveat. Barstow, California has like a special place in my heart. I grew up in Northern California. When we would drive from Northern California down to either Southern California or like into Las Vegas for sports tournaments, we would pit stop in Barstow, California. And there was this one Pizza Hut slash, and I forget, like Pizza Hut slash like Wings Place. It was like a half and half owned like franchise business. And that was our spot every single time. It's a special place for sure. That's about the only thing in the town. Yeah. To answer your question, like what makes a good real estate agent, if I could surmise it in one way, it would be this, which is a good real estate agent should never convince you to buy or sell a home. They should only support you when you make the personal decision that buying or selling a home actually makes sense in your life. If your real estate agent is a sales person, like they are trying to convince you or tell you why buying or selling a home is right for you, I would be cautious. I would be cautious. I just wholeheartedly believe in this, again, what is a service-based industry that you are looking for people who truly have service at the core of who they are. They want to see you make the right decision for them, or for you, excuse me. They want to see you make the right decision for you. And again, how that comes to be, yes, it is a bit of a personal like touch. There is a certain level of like feel to it, like an art to it, you know, trends of behavior and performance, again, like going through certain reviews that are left for people. But sometimes that can be hard too, right? Like when you Google search an area, because again, if you're just a normal person, how do you figure that out, right? Like if you type in real estate agent in X area, how do you cipher through the hundred results and returns that come through? Everyone is claiming that they're a VA loan expert. Everyone is claiming that they work primarily with military. Yeah, and guess what? When the next person who's not military calls them, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm primarily a normal person agent, right? Like people are constantly like they're going to tell you what you want to hear, right? And so like, again, I know this is not providing a ton of solutions. It's just continuing to the like the problem of the industry. But I guess I would just encourage people to do real due diligence. Talk to a lot of people in the area that you have that you are going to for personal referrals, personal positive experiences. Right. And again, if you don't know a ton of people will start calling people that you do know to see if someone they know knows someone there. Or even Facebook groups. Facebook groups are a huge resource for military spouses because they're digital. So they're everywhere. But hey, we're PCSing to XYZ. Do you have someone you would be willing to refer? We have to do that for everything. Hairdressers, churches, babysitters. You know, we're experts at finding a referral at least from someone that we know that's a spouse. What about qualifying questions? Would that be out of line or inappropriate for someone looking to move to ask maybe some quality? How many people have you helped PCS into that area or get a VA loan? Those types of things. Yeah. Specifically, actually what I would do because here's my thing. I feel like a lot of times you'll hear a lot of people say that. Well, ask them how much they've produced. Ask them how many homes they've sold. How are you actually supposed to be able to verify what the heck they're saying? Very true. Right? To me, that's the hard part. Because it becomes very hard for the consumer. And so the one thing I would say is I would ask them, not just for one, not just for two, but say, please send me the contact information for, again, however many you want to ask for, but for like five people that you have helped who are like me, who are in my situation, who have used a VA loan, whatever the case is, provide me their contact information. I would like to talk to them before I hire you. This is the big thing that, again, in terminology, I think sometimes we use this term like, oh, I'm working with this agent. No, no, no, no, no. You are hiring that person. You are hiring that real estate agent to represent you. And so, again, I would ask for quite literally like testimonials, but not just curated testimonials. Let me talk to someone who you have used. Because if that agent is really worth their salt, then there are plenty of people who are going to be ready to sing their praises. And they're probably okay with that, right? So I'm a personal trainer, and I might not be the best fit for everybody. And I want them to decide that we are a good fit for each other. And I'm okay if you're going to look other places because I believe in my product. And when you're ready for me, I think we're going to make a great team. But if you want to try to find another fit, that's okay. So I think knowing that a realtor is like, I want to be the best fit for you. So here are some people you can chat with or talk to. So that's awesome. That's really great advice. Okay, so question. Is there a quote unquote right way to do real estate as a military family? And even more specifically, which I love this question, do you think that we should always buy everywhere we go? Yeah, I know we wanted to keep this episode 15 minutes, but I got about an hour and a half thesis on this. I'll keep it brief. The short answer is no. There is not a right way to do military real estate or real estate as a military family. You're going to have a ton of people who have very strong opinions about this. And guess what? The one person who's been very successful buying a home at every single place is going to tell you that the right way to build wealth is to buy a home at every single place. But guess what? The person who made their living selling insurance is going to tell you the insurance business is the best career path and the best way to go through things. And the person who built their career in finance is going to tell you finance and investing in stocks is going to tell you investing in stocks. And so what I want people to realize are not just the case examples, but the learning lessons and the realities that came with those choices. Because if you are, again, maybe a married couple, you're a military spouse, but you have no kids. And you and your spouse are actually okay renting out a room. And again, personally, I wouldn't. This is why I never got into the field is because we have this term, quote, unquote, house hacking, where you can buy a house, but then you rent out other rooms to people to help reduce the cost of the mortgage for you, all these different things. As a married couple, sometimes that's hard. We don't want to do that. We want to live our life. Life is not a spreadsheet. This is something that I talk over and over and over again with people is life is not a spreadsheet. Again, I'm not here to say one way or another. If you're a couple, you're a military couple, and you're like, we want to build generational wealth. This is so important for us. Then, yeah, purchasing every place you go and maybe renting out other rooms to people and being able to build your real estate portfolio going across multiple locations, it has been very successful for people. But it comes with a lot of realities that when you buy a home every single place you go and you don't sell, like you buy and rent it out when you leave, buy and rent it out when you leave, you're not just a homeowner. At that point, you are a property manager. You are a real estate investor. That's right. And there are realities that come with being a real estate investor. You need to be very financially prepared, emotionally prepared, and mentally prepared for the realities of that. Because even if you hire a property manager, you're going to have to manage the manager. If something goes wrong, you are going to be responsible for the cost to cover that. And if something goes wrong in three of the properties at the same time, you need to be financially prepared to be able to cover the cost that would be associated with those things. And so, again, everyone who's saying just buy a place every place you go, buy a place every place you go, it can be an incredible leveraged investment path. But there's a lot of realities and risks that come with that that you just need to be prepared for. And so, again, if that's a path that you want to go down, reach out to me. I'll put you in touch with people who are actual real estate investors. That's not me. My goal is to make sure people who just want to buy the home that they want to live in are making a good decision. For that time period. For that time period. That's it. And that may mean renting. And at other times, that may mean buying if you know that you're at a base that it's very likely you come back to in the future or that you stay for multiple tours. There are a lot of opportunities to do real estate smartly in the military. But I think they're very, very personal decisions based on your priorities, your interests, your financial situation, your projected career path, etc. Yeah. So, we lived on base a few times. But one of my husband's regrets for him was that we didn't invest in a home sooner. But he was in Iraq and Afghanistan three times in our first 10 years. I didn't have the emotional bandwidth. I didn't. For me, we had three children as well. PCS multiple times. For my mental capacity, it's just one more thing that I knew. Because I was going to be the one handling all of it. Regardless of the financial commitment to it, I was going to be the one managing everything. And I did not have the capacity to do that. So, that was our deciding factor. We're in a different place now, obviously. But those first 10 years, it wasn't something I was emotionally ready to do. That's real. So, there's lots of things to think about. Absolutely. 100%. So, great advice there. Well, Tal, what got you into this world of real estate? From the Navy to a real estate expert. What landed you here? Yeah, a little bit of nepotism. We'll be real here. My mom was a real estate agent for a long time. And she was really good at what she did. And I knew as I was getting out of the military, again, what's funny is I definitely didn't… I wasn't growing up being like, man, I want to get into real estate. But as I was getting out of the Navy, it's funny how our life phases kind of impact the decisions that take us to the next stage. After deploying on multiple submarines and missing multiple Christmases, multiple Thanksgivings, missing the birth of both of my nieces, missing multiple weddings, special events, different things. All I wanted, like literally all I wanted was to be close to my family. And, like, I just – I missed that. I missed being close to my family. And at the sake of overdoing it, I was like the best way to be back with my family is quite literally to join the family business. Like that will – it will give me the opportunity to be with my mom, work with my mom, like have a literal excuse, a literal obligation to be with my family. And was that modeled for you growing up if she had been in this business before? Yes. I mean 100%. That's awesome. And so, yeah. So it was just like for me it was – at that point in time it made sense. Then when I got actually into the real estate business, I realized I enjoyed it. Like it was good and it fit my personality type. Like I enjoy being able to interface with a lot of people. I have this ethos that, again, like is really important to me. It's this idea of being a man for others. It's a Jesuit Catholic kind of mantra and ethos. And, again, I just feel like in this – again, in a service-based industry, it gives me an opportunity to hopefully genuinely provide a service and take care of people and do what is right by them and help them in a really big decision. And so I was really enjoying the real estate process on that side. As we talked about getting married to my lovely wife through a grenade and the whole situation, I was like, what am I going to do now? And so that's kind of what's led to the Vermeer Group as it is today, which is I needed to find a way for my real estate business to be geographically agnostic, for it to be able to move with us wherever we move. Like I know my career path is a supplement to my wife. She loves being a pilot. Like I want to support her in any single way that I can because I know that she loves what she does. And so I was like, I need to build something that can adjust and flex and mold around her and her career path. Like that was the team decision that we made is that she loves being a pilot. And so we're going to do whatever we can, and I'm going to adjust however I can to make sure that she's able to pursue that and prioritize that. And so I was like, okay, well, then how do we do that? And that's kind of what led to the Vermeer Group as it is, which is, again – Now, you mentioned at the intro, which I appreciate, we are solely focused on matching military families, connecting military families with real estate professionals that I personally know and trust all across the country. That they are military friendly, that they are experienced with the VA loan, that they are good human beings, good people, and that they're really competent at their job. And it's been a blessing to, again, be able to have built that network of people over my time in the real estate world and kind of have that experience with people. And I just want to make sure that military families are getting taken care of in the real estate process. And so it's been super fun for me to do that, just a quick three-second rundown of how it would work. Hypothetically, if a military family, you're PCSing any place in the country, like this is a nationwide service, and you reached out to me and said, hey, Grant, I'm moving here. We'd really like to buy a home here. Can you help us? I would take a consultation call with you. We would sit down and discuss your priorities, needs, timelines, wants, desires, where you're going, how that goes. And then I would go ahead and do the due diligence on your behalf, if not already knowing exactly who would be a good fit for you. I will go through the process of making sure that we find someone who's worth their salt to protect you in this process and make sure you're being well-represented. The vetting, you have done the vetting. You're making a recommendation. So it sounds like you really expanded your impact blueprint from being in one geographical area, which is the most traditional real estate pathway, as I know of it. The Navy aspect forced you to see this as more of a nationwide opportunity to impact service members in this particular part of the process of moving. That's very awesome. I would imagine it's quite fulfilling. Like you said earlier, and I kind of mentioned earlier, getting married to my wife was the biggest blessing in the whole world. And I mean that from the personal level. I adore that woman. It's the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. But it also forced me to think in a way that actually, in my opinion, is now going to increase the scale at which I am able to help military families. If this didn't happen, I probably would have just been happy building my business the way it was being built previously. And one of the unique things, again, and for me, having been in the real estate industry, is I think real estate agents are paid a lot is the short answer. And so it's one of these things where I was like, how can I, again, how can I use this, increase the scale, and really help military families? And again, the way the real estate world works, I'm a huge believer in transparency. Again, if you were to work with me, basically the way I would make my money, again, is by a referral fee to the agent who is going to help you buy a home. That's how the business works. So the consultation, the service side, is completely free to you. I would get a referral fee from them. And guess what? That referral fee is pretty significant. And it's a long way to say. I was like, OK, how do I really make this in a way that it's a service for military families? And it really benefits military families. And so I've actually worked out an interesting structure with the referral partners that I have around the country that instead of paying me what is kind of, quote, unquote, the full referral rate, I receive only a portion of that amount. And there is an amount and kind of a structured list of what it would look like on my website that would go back to the buyer as a credit to their closing costs. So hypothetically, a referral fee, I would receive 25% of the buying agent's compensation as a referral. Instead of receiving 25%, I only ask for 15% and make sure that the real estate agent who's representing you actually puts that 10%, which can end up being like thousands of dollars, towards your closing costs. That's amazing. So it alleviates some of the burden for that military family. Hopefully it alleviates some of the burden. It takes away some of the closing costs, gives you an opportunity to buy down your interest rate, whatever the case is. It's just like, I don't know, man. For me, it's one of these opportunities. Again, like we talked about, my wife, she's my sugar mama. She's our brother. I got sugar mama bringing it home for us. Again, I just want to build this in a way that it's genuinely a really good thing for military families. You're going to get taken care of in the process, and you're going to get a little bit of credit applied to your closing costs. I think you're going to be blessed from that abundance mindset in multiple ways. But I've always reminded spouses, our service member gets orders, right? But in that union of marriage, the team of that family is getting orders. And God has a plan for you where you're going to, if we just choose to open up and try to find it. A spouse with a purpose is, in my mind, so impactful in so many ways, whether there's an income attached to that purpose or not. There doesn't even have to be an income attached to it. But just acknowledging that your service member who loves their job is bringing you to, and there's a reason for you to be in that area, in that community with a passion that you have to serve families outside of the uniform, right? So you just have that unique blend of service member and also now spouse. So that's really cool that you can relate on both sides of that coin. So that's amazing. I appreciate it. And I just want to use the opportunity to say, being a spouse is freaking brutal, dude. Yeah. Oh my God. I'm experiencing that now. Again, my wife has been on deployment. We're recording this right now. She's been on deployment for the past seven months. She's supposed to hopefully get back in about three weeks. But how good for you to have something to do with your time, like something that you care about. That's true. That's been helpful. As well, right? That's been helpful. Yeah. It does make the time more purposeful because we do spend a lot of our time waiting for them to come home or be back home. But having the flexibility once she does get home, hopefully to pause a little bit and spend that time with her, I'm sure. When does she come? Are you allowed to say or still waiting? Hopefully in the next couple weeks. If she's home before Thanksgiving, I'll be really happy. That's perfect. I hope that for you too. So let's see. As we've mentioned, PCSing, leaving behind friends, packing up our things, and buying and selling houses can catch up with us. Grant, our conversation has been incredibly helpful as us military families navigate all of that time and time again. Before we wrap up things today, we'd like to share another message from our sponsor, Talkspace, about how they can support military spouses through these times of change. Being a military spouse comes with its challenges, but you don't have to navigate them alone. Welcome to Mill Spouse in the House, your go-to podcast for real talk, support, and community. And thanks to our sponsor, Talkspace, getting the mental health support you need is easier than ever. Talkspace is a secure, HIPAA-compliant therapy platform where you can connect with licensed therapists anytime, from anywhere. Now in the TRICARE network for all TRICARE recipients, for children 13 and up, retirees, veterans, and active-duty spouses. Because mental wellness is for the whole family. Visit talkspace.com slash millspouse today and take the first step toward support that fits your lifestyle. And we are back and talking all things real estate readiness with Grant. So you mentioned you've been in the waiting game, waiting for your beautiful bride to return. So what's coming up next for you guys in her career? Yeah, just straight fun stuff. She's on her, again, in the Navy, we specifically call it a sea tour, like her operational really deploying tour. So she's about to get back from deployment. She'll be home for about a month, month and a half, and then gets back underway for another three and a half to four months. And as we all know, just because why would that be just the end there? As soon as she gets back from that, we're in our PRD window to actually move and PCS ourselves. Oh, wow. So will this be your second PCS as military spouse? That's correct. Yeah, we did the one to San Diego. And again, fingers crossed. I'm praying we could stay in San Diego. That's an option. I love it. But we'll see. Again, it's very likely we end up in Pensacola or back in Corpus Christi. So just preparing for that. And again, it's funny talking about this. I'm myself trying to get ready and prepare for the next PCS and trying to figure all this stuff out. And it's crazy how fast it creeps up on you. For the past year, I was like, oh, we still have another year and a half. We still have another year. We still have all this. And now I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh, my gosh. We're going to have about a month and a half while you're actually home to prepare for the fact that we may be moving again here very shortly. Across the country. Potentially. Potentially, yeah. Yeah, I've done a few of those. It's a lot. And they do sneak up on you. And it's a lot to think about. But so for this move, when you moved there, you left Texas doing real estate locally. And you went with your wife and you created this, sounds like, referral process within the real estate business. Yeah. How are you feeling now knowing with this upcoming... We called it a PCS. You called it something a little bit different, it sounds. This time, do you feel like you're a little bit more prepared and equipped as far as your career path goes? Yeah. No, absolutely. I appreciate it. Yeah. So the term that I use... Sorry. Sometimes the actual military in me gets in the way. The term I use is PRD, our projected rotation date. And so that's like when we're actually up for the next set of orders. Right. And so, yeah. So our PRD is coming up. So the PCS season will be upon us. I do. A little bit more. But I think each time, I think as we all know, each time is its own beast, its own unique challenges. Something that we thought we were prepared for, something new is going to come up that's going to cause us an absolute headache. I'm sure of it. Yeah. But again, part of what I've built is now, again, the beauty of it is I know people all across the country who are ready to put out a helping hand and actually help us get to whatever is next. There's so much value in networking, right? The people you meet along the way, you never know when those digital relationships can become belly to belly. As someone that built a business online, I can say for sure you're creating relationships that it'll be so cool how God shows you why that happened and when it happened. Yeah. Looking back, I can see how the career progression for your spouse is important, right? My husband absolutely loved being in the military and we moved so many times. And when you're a new spouse, at least for me, because I was not in the military, I didn't always understand the points of the consistent moving. But there's so much career progression that happens for them. And so you can look back and see why those moves were important and necessary and what it does for their career. So that's why that has to be the priority. That's why when you said yes to going with her, you knew that meant you got to pack up and go. And so as a retired family now who is very thankful for the path they had, it wasn't always easy, but it was important. And he got out of the military very happy with the 21 years that he was in. So I'm very grateful for that. I didn't always feel happy about the Fort Irwin, California or going back to Fort Leonard Wood. But I can look back and see how the relationships he created and then even the growing I did in those places. Right. So that's awesome. I'm excited. Can't wait to hear where you guys go next. I appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. So I would like to give you an opportunity to tell the audience how and where can they connect with you? Yeah. No, I appreciate it. Funny enough, I feel like this may be not a response you get frequently. I'm addicted to LinkedIn. I'm obnoxiously active on LinkedIn. And so if there's a best way to get ahold of me, just find me on LinkedIn, Grant Vermeer. It's literally the number one way to do it. Otherwise, you can go to my website www.thevermeergroup.com and have contact information or just shoot me an email to grant at thevermeergroup.com. All those ways easy to get ahold of me. But funny enough, LinkedIn is probably your best chance. That's awesome, Grant. We have absolutely loved having you on the podcast today. You've been such a delight to me. I'm so excited to follow you in your wife's journey. And I appreciate you being here. No, thank you. This has been such a treat for me. Thank you so much. All right, you guys, make sure you connect with Grant on his LinkedIn or even at his website. That was such a value packed interview with him. So my three top takeaways as a spouse that we learned from Grant. One was to really treat the home buying experience as serious as it is. Especially since it's something that we know we're going to have to do as frequently as we will as a military family. But also, I really took away his passion for us to have a real plan and to really consider the outcomes and the actions of making a good or bad decision when it comes to buying a home, deciding where to live and how to find that real estate agent. That's really going to serve you and your family based on the needs, especially those unique challenges we face as military spouses and families. And another good piece of advice I think that I was able to learn from Grant, especially as a spouse, while we're juggling so many other components of our life, is to really outsource when appropriate. The real estate agents really are those boots on the ground, if you will, when you find the right one. In that unknown to us area that the military is asking us to find a home and live. And so to really outsource, use and leverage the experts that are out there, which clearly Grant is one of them. So again, like I said, make sure you're connecting with him on his website or his LinkedIn just at Grant Vermeer. So we really thank Grant for being here with us today, for all of his insights and all of his expertise. You guys, what a great episode. Please, I want to encourage you and ask for you guys to subscribe to this podcast. You'll get a great notification letting you know every time we release an episode. We certainly want to keep connecting with you in that way. Leave us a review and join the Mill Spouse in the House community. That is one thing a spouses are experts at. We know how to leverage a community of like minded friends and also make sure to follow us on Instagram at this is Mill Spouses in the House. Thank you so much for being with us this time and listening. I am your host, Christy Nix, signing off the net. Oh.