A military family's guide to veteran-owned real estate in Virginia: why it matters, how a 1% technology fee works, and how to keep more equity on every PCS move.
Military families in Virginia move more than almost anyone, and every move can cost a percentage of a home's value in commissions. If a seller's agent charged 3% on a $400,000 home, that would be $12,000, and commissions are negotiable. Do that across three duty stations and the number stops being a line item and starts looking like a down payment left on the table. A veteran-owned option exists specifically to stop that leak.
There is a difference between a veteran who sells real estate and a company built by veterans to fix the cost of the process itself.
VroomBrick is a veteran-owned and minority-owned real estate technology platform, founded by a Navy veteran who spent years buying and selling on the military's timeline. It operates in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Being built by people who moved on orders is not a marketing line. It shapes the product: the process is designed around PCS deadlines, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and remote closings from a new duty station, because those are the situations the founders lived through.
That matters because military families are not the average seller. You are often working backward from a fixed report date, sometimes managing the sale from a different time zone, and doing it more than once in a few years.
Here is the math on a single sale, and why it stings more for a family that moves often.
On a $400,000 home, a 1% technology fee is $4,000. If a seller's agent charged 3%, that would be $12,000, a difference of $8,000. Commissions are negotiable, so your number depends on what you'd have paid. That difference stays with you instead of leaving at closing.
Now multiply that by a career. A family that sells three homes across three assignments can pay the traditional commission three times. The work of listing a home does not change much between a $300,000 house and a $600,000 one, but the percentage-based fee climbs with the price every time. That is the specific thing a veteran-owned platform was built to correct.
The obvious worry is that a lower fee means you are on your own. You are not.
VroomBrick is a technology platform, not a brokerage, and it does not represent buyers or sellers. What it gives you is the software and the connections to the licensed professionals you would hire anyway:
This is not for-sale-by-owner. You are not showing the home alone or figuring out closing paperwork yourself. VroomBrick charges a 1% technology fee for the platform, paid by you at closing, from the sale proceeds. You don't pay a listing agent commission. You still work with licensed professionals.
If you are buying, your VA loan benefit is one of the strongest tools in real estate: many qualifying service members buy with no down payment. That loan is handled by a lender, not by VroomBrick, and you can use it on a home you buy through the platform.
The savings work differently on the buy side. After the 2024 National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement, buyer-agent compensation is negotiated separately and is no longer bundled into the sale automatically. VroomBrick charges a 1% technology fee for the platform, paid by the seller at closing. You don't pay a buyer's agent commission. If the seller agreed to pay more than 1% for the buyer's side, the rest can be requested as a credit toward closing costs, if the seller agrees and your loan program allows it. You can see how the VA loan fits in the Virginia veterans VA loan guide.
Selling on PCS orders is its own discipline: decide sell-or-rent fast, list as early as orders allow, set up a power of attorney before you leave, and plan for a remote closing. That deserves its own playbook, and it has one. Rather than repeat it here, see the full PCS selling timeline, which walks through the compressed schedule, remote signing, and the capital-gains rule that protects many military sellers.
For a veteran-owned and minority-owned company, keeping transaction costs down is not an abstract goal. The households most squeezed by real estate fees, first-time buyers, military families on repeat moves, and anyone watching every dollar, are the exact people this platform was built to serve.
The point is not to talk anyone out of professional help. You still need a closing attorney and showing agents. The argument is narrower: the price of that help should not climb every time home values do, and military families should not pay that climbing fee more often than anyone else.
The fastest way to know if this fits your situation is to run your home value through the agent commission cost calculator. It takes 30 seconds and shows the exact dollar difference between a percentage commission and VroomBrick's 1% technology fee. From there, explore the Virginia veterans resources, see how selling works, or learn what is available across Virginia.
If your buyer is using a VA loan, VA loan commission rules: who pays what explains which charges VA lets a veteran pay and how the seller concession cap works.
Run Your Numbers. We'll Handle the Rest.
About VroomBrick: VroomBrick is a real estate technology platform, not a licensed real estate brokerage. VroomBrick does not provide brokerage services, represent buyers or sellers, or hold real estate licenses. VroomBrick charges a 1% technology fee for the platform, paid by the seller at closing. You don't pay an agent commission on the side VroomBrick works with. Closing attorneys, showing agents, and lender partners are independent licensed professionals. Commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable. Savings examples are illustrative; actual savings vary by transaction.
Veteran-owned means the company is owned and operated by veterans. VroomBrick is a veteran-owned and minority-owned real estate technology platform founded by a Navy veteran, operating in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Being built by people who moved on orders means the process is designed around military realities like PCS timelines, VA loans, and remote closings.
Not quite. A veteran real estate agent is a licensed agent who is also a veteran. VroomBrick is a technology platform, not a brokerage, and it does not represent buyers or sellers. It connects you with independent licensed professionals, a closing attorney, showing agents, and lender partners. VroomBrick charges a 1% technology fee for the platform, paid by you at closing, from the sale proceeds. You don't pay a listing agent commission.
It depends on the commission you'd otherwise pay. On a $400,000 home, a 1% technology fee is $4,000. If a seller's agent charged 3%, that would be $12,000, a difference of $8,000. Commissions are negotiable, so your number depends on what you'd have paid.
Yes. Your VA loan is handled by a lender, not by VroomBrick, and you can use it on a home you buy through the platform. VroomBrick connects you with lender partners and a licensed closing attorney, and after the 2024 NAR settlement the buyer-side savings can return to you as a closing-cost credit.
About the Author
MBA · Army Veteran
Head of Partnerships at VroomBrick. Writes about how homeowners can keep more of their equity, what the post-NAR-settlement market actually looks like, and how buying or selling works with a 1% technology fee.
Read More
Back to all articles →Try our free calculators or start your transaction with VroomBrick today.