Ken Schreiber VA Mortgage Lending Specialist NMLS 1013498

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Ken Schreiber VA Mortgage Lending Specialist NMLS 1013498 Ken Schreiber NMLS #1013498 | VA Mortgage Lending Specialist | Team Leader- Heroes Mortgage Lending empowered by NEXA Lending LLC

Ken Schreiber, Team Leader of Heroes Mortgage Lending has been helping families achieve homeownership since 1992. Specializing in VA, FHA, and USDA Financing for first-time homebuyers and BRRR Investor Financing, we provide tailored solutions to meet our clients’ needs. Empowered by NEXA Mortgage LLC, we proudly serve Military Families, First-Time Homebuyers, and BRRR Investors with expert guidance. Ken’s experience extends beyond lending, having served as a business consultant, mentor, speaker, educator and radio host on AM560 the largest talk radio station in Chicago

Heroes Mortgage Lending is your trusted partner for all home financing needs.

Military Veterans: What Is the REAL Reason You Are Still Renting?You May Be Able to Buy Your Own Home With No Down Payme...
10/09/2026

Military Veterans: What Is the REAL Reason You Are Still Renting?

You May Be Able to Buy Your Own Home With No Down Payment, Have the Seller Pay ALL Allowable Closing Costs—and Spend Less Out of Pocket Than a Rental Security Deposit.

A place that’s yours. Room for your family. The freedom to make it feel like home.

If that’s what you want, what’s holding you back?

Maybe you think you need thousands saved before you can buy. Maybe you’re unsure whether your credit qualifies. Or maybe nobody has explained where to start.

Have you decided you can’t buy—or simply haven’t found out whether you can?

Those unanswered questions can keep you renting before you’ve even explored what’s possible.

🇺🇸 VA Homeownership Made Easy™

✅ Financial Stability Matters Most—Not Your Credit Score
✅ No Down Payment Required
✅ Sellers Can Pay ALL Allowable Closing Costs
✅ No Minimum Credit Score Requirement

If you’re financially stable today, don’t assume your credit score tells the whole story about your ability to buy.

We provide VA home financing, and I’ll look at your individual situation to help you understand whether we can finance your home, how much cash you may need, and your next best steps.

You don’t have to know the process. You just need a clear place to begin.

👉 Click “Learn More” to Find Out Whether You Qualify to Buy Now using your VA home loan benefits

NO!...Late Payments in the Past 12 Months Do Not Automatically Disqualify You From VA Loan ApprovalI hear this from Vete...
10/03/2026

NO!...Late Payments in the Past 12 Months Do Not Automatically Disqualify You From VA Loan Approval

I hear this from Veterans all the time:

“My lender told me I cannot have any late payments in the past 12 months.”

That may be the lender’s rule.

But it is not a universal VA lending rule.

Many lenders have internal guidelines that are more restrictive than the underlying VA loan requirements.

As a result, Veterans are often told to:

Wait until every late payment is more than 12 months old

Improve their credit score

Save more money

Pay off additional debt

Come back next year

Sometimes waiting really is necessary.

But late payments within the past 12 months do not automatically disqualify every Veteran from VA loan approval.

In fact, a disabled Veteran I recently helped had multiple late payments within the past 12 months—including a 90-day delinquency.

Today, she is:

✅ Approved

✅ Under contract

✅ Preparing to close on her new home

That does not mean every Veteran with recent late payments will qualify.

Recent late payments matter and must be evaluated carefully.

But so does the Veteran’s complete financial situation:

What caused the late payments?

Did they occur during one identifiable hardship?

Is that hardship now behind the Veteran?

Are the accounts currently caught up?

What has materially changed?

Has the Veteran’s income or financial capacity improved?

Has payment stability been reestablished?

Can the Veteran responsibly afford the proposed mortgage today?

There is an important difference between:

A Veteran who is still experiencing financial instability

and:

A Veteran who experienced a setback, recovered and is now financially stable—even though the credit report still shows the damage.

Being told:

“No late payments in the past 12 months”

does not necessarily mean:

“You are not eligible for a VA home loan.”

It may simply mean:

“That particular lender will not approve your loan.”

You may need to wait.

But you should not be required to wait unnecessarily because one lender’s internal rule was presented as though it applied to every VA loan.

VA Made Easy™ — We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

OLD UNPAID COLLECTIONS DON'T MEAN YOU CAN'T BUY A HOME.Many Veterans believe they must pay off every old collection acco...
09/28/2026

OLD UNPAID COLLECTIONS DON'T MEAN YOU CAN'T BUY A HOME.

Many Veterans believe they must pay off every old collection account before they can qualify for a VA home loan.

So after being told “No,” they start trying to clean up their credit.

They pay old collections.

They negotiate settlements.

They hire credit-repair companies.

Or they simply decide homeownership will have to wait until they can afford to pay everything off.

But before you spend thousands of dollars paying old collection accounts, I believe there's a much more important question:

DO THOSE UNPAID COLLECTIONS ACTUALLY PREVENT YOU FROM BUYING A HOME?

The answer may be no.

An old collection tells us something happened financially in the past.

Maybe you lost your job.

Maybe you went through a divorce.

Maybe your income dropped unexpectedly.

Maybe several accounts became delinquent during the same difficult period.

Those collections matter.

But they don't tell me, by themselves, where you are financially today.

I want to know what happened after those accounts went bad.

Did you return to stable employment?

Did your income recover?

Are you making your housing payments on time?

Are your current obligations being paid as agreed?

Have new late payments stopped?

Have you begun accumulating savings again?

In other words:

DID THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM CONTINUE — OR DID YOU RECOVER FROM IT?

That distinction matters.

It does not mean unpaid collections should be ignored.

There are circumstances where a collection may need to be addressed, and the entire credit profile still has to be evaluated.

But automatically telling every Veteran:

“Pay off your collections and come back”

is not the same thing as determining whether those collections actually prevent that Veteran from qualifying for a VA home loan.

And that's why I don't want Veterans spending thousands of dollars—or waiting months—before we understand what actually needs to change.

DON'T PAY OLD COLLECTIONS JUST BECAUSE YOU ASSUME YOU HAVE TO.

First, determine what's actually preventing approval.

Maybe those collections need to be addressed.

Maybe something else needs to change.

Or maybe the Veteran's financial recovery is already further along than the credit report makes it appear.

The goal isn't a perfect credit report.

The goal is to identify the:

EARLIEST RESPONSIBLE PATH TO VA LOAN APPROVAL.

Sometimes that means not yet.

But when waiting is necessary, you should know exactly why you're waiting and what needs to change.

Because there is a difference between responsible waiting...

and unnecessary waiting.

STABILITY MATTERS MOST — NOT YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

DON'T FIX YOUR CREDIT UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT ACTUALLY NEEDS FIXING.One of the first things Veterans often tell me after bei...
09/24/2026

DON'T FIX YOUR CREDIT UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT ACTUALLY NEEDS FIXING.

One of the first things Veterans often tell me after being denied a VA home loan is:

“I'm working on my credit.”

My next question is:

What, specifically, are you trying to fix?

That's where things often get interesting.

Maybe another lender told you to raise your credit score.

So you start paying old collections.

You open another credit card.

You hire a credit repair company.

You spend months trying to gain points.

But before doing any of that, there's a more important question:

WHAT IS ACTUALLY PREVENTING YOU FROM BEING APPROVED?

Because the answer isn't always your credit score.

It could be recent late payments.

It could be unstable housing history.

It could be debt obligations.

It could be insufficient income.

It could be that the financial hardship that caused the credit problems hasn't been resolved long enough to demonstrate recovery.

Or it could be that your financial circumstances have already improved substantially, while your credit report still reflects problems from the past.

Those are very different situations.

And they don't necessarily require the same solution.

That's why I don't believe the first step should automatically be:

“Go fix your credit and come back.”

The first step should be understanding the problem.

DIAGNOSIS BEFORE ACTION.

What happened?

What is happening now?

What specifically is preventing approval?

And what—if anything—actually needs to change?

Sometimes the answer really is:

You need more time.

Sometimes there are specific financial issues that need to be resolved.

But sometimes a Veteran spends months trying to “fix” something that wasn't actually the primary obstacle to responsible VA approval.

That's unnecessary waiting.

Before you start chasing a credit score, paying accounts simply because they're on your credit report, or following a generic credit-improvement checklist:

FIND OUT WHAT ACTUALLY NEEDS FIXING.

You may discover that you have work to do.

Or you may discover you're further along than you thought.

Either way, you finally have something more useful than a credit-score target.

You have clarity.

STABILITY MATTERS MOST — NOT YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

A LOW CREDIT SCORE CAN OUTLIVE THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM THAT CAUSED IT.This is something many Veterans don't realize.Your f...
09/21/2026

A LOW CREDIT SCORE CAN OUTLIVE THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM THAT CAUSED IT.

This is something many Veterans don't realize.

Your financial circumstances can improve before your credit score does.

Imagine a Veteran loses his job.

Income drops.

Payments become late.

Maybe an account eventually charges off or goes to collection.

His credit score falls.

Then his circumstances change.

He goes back to work.

His income stabilizes.

His housing payments are made on time.

His current obligations are being paid as agreed.

New late payments stop.

He begins saving money again.

Financially, something important has happened:

The hardship ended and recovery began.

But his credit score doesn't suddenly reset.

The late payments are still there.

The collection may still be there.

The charge-off may still be there.

And the score may continue reflecting the damage caused during the hardship.

That's why I don't believe the first question should simply be:

“What's your credit score?”

I want to know:

What caused the financial problems?

When did those circumstances change?

And what has happened financially since?

Because there is an important difference between:

A CREDIT REPORT THAT STILL SHOWS PAST FINANCIAL PROBLEMS

and

A VETERAN WHO IS STILL EXPERIENCING FINANCIAL PROBLEMS TODAY.

That does not mean old credit problems don't matter.

They do.

And sometimes the Veteran genuinely needs more time to demonstrate financial stability before purchasing a home.

But the credit score alone cannot tell us the whole story.

A Veteran's financial recovery may be further along than the score suggests.

That's why the objective shouldn't automatically be:

“Get your score to ___ and come back.”

The better question is:

Has your financial recovery progressed enough to support responsible homeownership?

Sometimes the answer is yes.

Sometimes it's not yet.

But those decisions should be based on the Veteran's actual financial circumstances—not simply a three-digit number.

STABILITY MATTERS MOST — NOT YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

TWO VETERANS.SAME CREDIT SCORE.COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FINANCIAL SITUATIONS.Imagine two Veterans both have a 580 credit sco...
09/17/2026

TWO VETERANS.

SAME CREDIT SCORE.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FINANCIAL SITUATIONS.

Imagine two Veterans both have a 580 credit score.

If we looked only at the number, we might assume they present roughly the same lending risk.

But let's look a little closer.

Veteran #1

His financial problems started after a job loss.

He fell behind on several accounts while unemployed.

His credit score dropped.

But since returning to work, his income has stabilized.

His housing payments have been made on time.

His current obligations are being paid as agreed.

He hasn't continued creating new late payments.

And he's begun rebuilding his savings.

His credit score is still 580.

Now consider Veteran #2.

His score is also 580.

But he is currently missing payments.

His rent has recently been late.

New delinquencies continue appearing.

His income remains unstable.

And there is no clear point where the financial problems ended and recovery began.

Same credit score.

Completely different financial situations.

That's why I don't believe a three-digit number, by itself, tells us whether a Veteran is financially ready for homeownership.

The score matters.

The credit history matters.

But so does something the score cannot adequately explain:

What is happening financially TODAY?

When we evaluate a Veteran who has experienced past financial problems, we want to understand the difference between:

HISTORICAL CREDIT DAMAGE

and

CURRENT FINANCIAL INSTABILITY.

One may reflect a difficult period the Veteran has already recovered from.

The other may tell us the financial problem is still happening.

That distinction matters.

And sometimes it can make the difference between:

READY NOW

RECOVERING

or

NOT STABLE YET.

We don't ignore the past.

We put it in context.

Because two Veterans can have exactly the same credit score...

…and be in completely different places financially.

STABILITY MATTERS MOST — NOT YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

YOUR CREDIT REPORT TELLS ME WHAT HAPPENED.I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.When a Veteran comes to me after another len...
09/14/2026

YOUR CREDIT REPORT TELLS ME WHAT HAPPENED.
I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

When a Veteran comes to me after another lender has told them “No” or “Not Yet,” I don't begin by asking:

“What's your credit score?”

I want to understand the story behind the credit report.

Maybe you lost your job.

Maybe you went through a divorce.

Maybe your income dropped unexpectedly.

Maybe you experienced another financial hardship and fell behind on several accounts.

Your credit report will show me much of what happened.

Late payments.

Collections.

Charge-offs.

A bankruptcy.

And a credit score that may still reflect that difficult period.

But there's something your credit score cannot tell me by itself:

What happened next?

Did you go back to work?

Did your income stabilize?

Did your VA disability benefits increase?

Did you get your housing payments back on track?

Are you paying your current obligations on time?

Have you stopped creating new delinquencies?

Have you begun accumulating savings again?

In other words:

Did the financial problem continue—or did you recover from it?

That's an important distinction.

A Veteran experiencing financial instability today is not necessarily the same lending risk as a Veteran whose credit report still reflects financial problems from the past.

That doesn't mean we ignore late payments, collections, bankruptcy or other derogatory credit.

We don't.

It means we put them in context.

We want to understand:

What happened?

When did it happen?

What changed?

And perhaps most importantly:

What has your financial behavior looked like since?

Sometimes that review tells us the Veteran isn't ready yet.

That's okay.

“Not Yet” can be the responsible answer.

But if that's the answer, I believe the Veteran deserves to understand why—and what specifically needs to change before homeownership becomes realistic.

And sometimes we discover something very different:

The Veteran's financial circumstances have already changed substantially...

…but the credit report is still telling the story of who they were financially rather than where they are today.

That's why, at VA Made Easy™, we believe:

STABILITY MATTERS MOST — NOT YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

We Say “YES!” when other VA lenders say “No” or “Not Now.”

VA HOMEOWNERSHIP MADE EASY™ AFTER RECOVERING FROM DIVORCEDivorce can disrupt nearly every part of your financial life.Yo...
09/08/2026

VA HOMEOWNERSHIP MADE EASY™ AFTER RECOVERING FROM DIVORCE

Divorce can disrupt nearly every part of your financial life.

Your household income may change.

Your housing expenses may increase.

Joint debts may need to be separated.

And accounts that were once manageable together may become difficult to maintain on your own.

But what happened financially during a divorce does not necessarily define what is possible for you today.

The more important question may be:

Have you recovered?

Has your income become stable again?

Are your housing payments being made on time?

Have late payments stopped?

Are you consistently managing your current obligations?

Can you reasonably afford the projected mortgage payment?

Those are signs that the financial disruption caused by the divorce may now be behind you—even if your credit report and credit score still reflect what happened during that difficult period.

That does not mean your past is ignored.

It means your present financial stability deserves to be evaluated alongside it.

Some Veterans genuinely need more time to recover.

Others may already be financially stable and still be waiting because no one has carefully evaluated the complete picture.

If you have recovered financially from a divorce and want to understand whether VA homeownership may now be possible, send me a message.

I’ll help you understand what your VA homeownership path may look like from here.

VA HOMEOWNERSHIP MADE EASY™ AFTER WASTING MONTHS TRYING TO CLEAN UP YOUR CREDIT SCORESYou did what you were told.You pai...
09/08/2026

VA HOMEOWNERSHIP MADE EASY™ AFTER WASTING MONTHS TRYING TO CLEAN UP YOUR CREDIT SCORES

You did what you were told.

You paid down balances.

You disputed information you believed was inaccurate.

Maybe you were even told to open another credit card, pay old collections, or simply keep waiting for your score to improve.

Yet months later, you may still be hearing:

“Not yet.”

Paying your bills on time and improving your financial situation was not wasted effort.

But spending months focused almost entirely on raising a credit score—without anyone evaluating whether you have already recovered financially—may have caused you to wait unnecessarily.

That can be incredibly frustrating, especially when your income is stable, you can afford a monthly mortgage payment, and the financial problems reflected on your credit report are no longer happening today.

Here is what many Veterans are never clearly told:

Your credit score reflects information from your past. It does not always explain what caused the problem, what has changed, or how you are managing your finances now.

That does not mean your credit score is irrelevant.

It means the score may not tell the whole story.

I want to understand:

Have the late payments stopped?

Have your housing payments remained on time?

Has your income become stable?

Are you consistently managing your current monthly obligations?

Can you reasonably afford the projected mortgage payment?

Those answers can reveal something a credit score alone cannot:

Whether you have actually recovered financially and may now have a responsible path toward VA homeownership.

Some Veterans truly need more time.

Others may be waiting unnecessarily because no one has carefully evaluated the complete picture.

If you have wasted months trying to improve your credit scores but still do not have a clear answer, send me a message.

I’ll help you understand what your VA homeownership path may look like from here.

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Mesa, AZ

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