WHAT A JOKE THIS REFERRAL SERVICE IS...

[DaveInMesa]

USAA talks about understanding and helping military families. In their real estate referral service they refer you to agents who were never in the service. They have no idea about the military except they work for a company who will pay a sizable portion of the commission to USAA to buy the referral and USAA pays a small part of that to the client.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Dear DaveinMesa,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We would appreciate the chance to get some additional details about your experience with the real estate referral service and would be grateful if you messaged us here with some more information so that we can get your feedback to the right person. Thank you.

[hugo1]

Hello, 

Has anyone find out about the issue on this post? It worries and makes me think on using this service to read things like this.  I noticed that you get transferred to another unit after you call the USAA main number, is USAA doing enough to protect customers from anything different from what normally we get from USAA service? How does this work, this partnertship with other companies? 

I hope to get an answer on this prior to start looking for answers myself in forums or in Facebook.  

Thank you.

Hugo XXXXXXX

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Thank you hugo1 for your comment.

I can share my personal experience using a USAA recommended real estate agent. She was attentive, responsive and understood our needs, all in all she was wonderful. I have shared your concerns about this program with our mortgage department. If you would like someone to reach out to you to discuss things in more details please email us at socialmedia@usaa.com with the best way to reach you and the details you provided above (and your member number). Thank you for taking the time to post and good luck in your home buying journey!

[Phasor]

I am not sure what process, if any, USAA uses to screen real estate agents for its referral network.

3 years ago I was moving from Germany back to the US.  The agent I was referred to by USAA was useless.  He was a retired cop turned real estate agent who had lived in the same town his entire life.  Which is good for knowing the area, but he was clueless about the military, or moving from overseas, and the associated stresses.

To make matters worse, I was in a state (LA) that does not allow for buyers to receive credit from the Home Buyers Circle program.  If you are in state that does allow it, it might be worth using.  However, in my case I had a sub-par agent and received no incentive for doing so.

You would think USAA referred real estate agents would be former military, or military spouses, or at the very least have some mlitary orientation training.  However, I think most real estate agents in a military area can find out the miltary pay charts and the BAH rates and see $$$ when a military member walks in the door.