Building a Realistic Plan to Grow Your VA Business
Key takeaways
- A VA goal is useful when you can say where the business will come from. Start with the local market, not a national target.
- Benchmark against the right peer. Know who are the top VA specialists but a local officer with a business like yours is a better guide to your next step.
- Fish where the fish are. Start where veterans live and VA loans are already made. Treat gaps in the data as questions.
- Build relationships before the application. With trigger leads restricted, agents, builders and community organizations matter more.
- Coach the work, not just the result. Track conversations, consultations and pre-approvals before loans close.
A VA production goal becomes useful when a loan officer can explain where the additional business might come from and what they will do to earn it.
That starts with understanding the local market. Who is already producing VA loans? Where do veterans live? Where is VA lending taking place? And what might a realistic next step look like for you?
For a sales leader coaching MLOs, these questions turn a general conversation about growth into a more practical one: where to focus, whom to work with, and how to measure progress.
Building relationships before the application
Mortgage marketing is changing. The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act’s restrictions on mortgage trigger leads took effect in March 2026, with exceptions. A trigger lead originates with a mortgage credit inquiry, when a consumer is already applying for credit.
The Government Accountability Office’s October review says more time is needed to assess the law’s effects. But it gives us a reason to consider a broader question: How do you become a useful resource to a prospective buyer before they reach that stage?
Relationships with agents, community organizations, and prospective buyers can develop while a veteran is considering a move or exploring financing options. Local market analysis helps an MLO decide where to invest the time to build those relationships.
What the gap between producers tells you
Our automated VA / Veteran Market Reports are available for 3,200 counties across the United States. As we look across markets, we repeatedly see a familiar pattern: a small group of loan officers produces at a substantially higher level, followed by a sharp drop in individual VA production. The size of that gap varies by market.
Travis County, Texas, is one example. The leading officer recorded several times as many VA loans as the nearest officers, who were much closer together.
Their product mix adds context. VA accounted for nearly all of the leader’s recorded local business. For the officers immediately behind, it was a smaller part of a broader mortgage business.
For MLOs working hard to maintain volume in a tight market, these comparisons need to lead somewhere practical. What would it take to add more VA business to your own production? Where is that business happening? Which local relationships could help you reach it?
A leading VA specialist can provide one reference point. An officer with a business more like yours may offer a more useful benchmark for your next step. A modest increase in VA production may make a meaningful difference to an MLO who currently handles these loans only occasionally.
The rankings cannot tell us exactly why one officer leads. Experience, relationships, company support, and other factors may be at work. But they can give an MLO and sales leader a starting point for setting a realistic goal and building a plan around the market they can serve.
Fish where the fish are
You have probably heard this advice before. But how do you know where to cast your line?
Start by looking at where veterans live and where VA loans are already being made. Then consider the local housing market and the relationships you have, or could build, in those communities.
An area with active VA lending may be a good place to start. Are your agent partners working there? Are there builders or community organizations you could get to know? What questions are prospective VA buyers asking?
An area with many veterans but relatively little VA lending can be worth investigating, too. But a gap in the data is a question, not a list of ready buyers. Look more closely at housing turnover, the financing people use, and the local conditions before deciding what opportunity may exist.
Set a goal you can work toward
For an MLO, a realistic goal begins with your own production, your pipeline, your relationships, and the time you can invest in building new business.
Look at how much VA lending takes place in the area you want to serve. Compare your activity with local peers whose businesses are relevant to yours. Then decide what improvement you want to work toward and over what period.
A sales leader can help test the plan: Where might the additional conversations come from? Which partners could help? What training or support does the MLO need? Based on that MLO’s own experience, how many conversations and applications might it take to reach the goal?
The goal is not to copy the top producer. It is to build a plan that makes sense for the MLO and the market they want to serve.
Turn the plan into conversations
Once you choose a focus area, think about who is already serving that community. It might be an existing real estate partner, an agent active in the area, a builder, or an organization that works with military families.
Bring a reason to talk. Ask what questions they hear from veterans considering homeownership. Explore where better information about VA financing could help. Offer education that helps people understand their options.
Every veteran’s situation is different. Some may be ready to buy; others may be planning for the future or already have financing that works for them. The market data helps you prepare. The individual conversation tells you what matters to that person.
Coach the work, not just the result
Growing a viable VA lending business takes time. Sales leaders and MLOs need ways to see whether a plan is gaining traction before the loans fund.
Track the partner conversations, borrower consultations, pre-approvals, applications, and closings that follow. Check in along the way. If outreach isn’t leading to conversations, revisit the partners and the approach. If conversations are happening but borrowers aren’t moving forward, explore what questions or obstacles remain.
A thoughtful VA business plan gives an MLO more than a production target. It gives them a place to focus, a reason to reach out, and a way to learn from the work.
Polygon Research’s VA / Veteran Market Report brings local market and competitive intelligence together to help you start that conversation.
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