Agent Connection, powered by Home Story through USAA, is a no-cost program for military members buying or selling a home. While the resource aims to meet the needs of all 14 million USAA members, USAA’s Vice President of Real Estate David Bennett shared that he hoped it would be especially helpful for those going through a PCS.
Agent Connection’s goal is to ease the burden of buying, selling and moving. It connects members with vetted real estate agents, provides a home search database, and allows members the opportunity to pay less at closing through commission credit or commission reduction (state-dependent). Members do not need to finance with USAA to access this program.
How it works and why it matters
The program provides possible commission reduction (available in all 50 states) and commission credit (available in 41/50 states) at closing while also giving members access to a database of proven realtors and a powerful search engine.
“You can sell and get a commission reduction, then buy and get a commission credit,” Bennett explained. “For example, on a $500k transaction, it would be about a $3k reduction. Then when you’re buying a home, it would be in the form of a commission credit, available in the states that participate.”
USAA wants to make enrolling and receiving funds as easy as possible.
“We really thought through our members’ pain points and how to address them,” Bennett said.
Military families know the pain points that come with a PCS: timelines, buying unseen, financial burdens, and the overall headache of such a major life event.
“We tried to think of our currently serving audience — the tight timelines, the stress of moving your family. We don’t want our members to have to chase funds,” he added.
Made with moves in mind
Agent Connection is more than a database with a home and price value; it’s a program that looks at home buying (and selling) dynamically. Agent Connection allows military members to see what life will actually look like, making searching for homes without visiting the area — a specific, terrifying, yet all-too-common PCS pain point — even easier.
“When we rolled out the program, we had the first member enrolled within two hours. It’s very easy to enroll, whether through a loan officer or the website itself. We wanted to make the program easy to use for our members,” Bennett said. “Different members like to be engaged in different ways. We wanted to give them as many options as possible.”
The USAA standard
The USAA name is well known in military circles, and Agent Connection will reflect the company’s reputation.
“We want to work with partners in the industry who are going to uphold the USAA standard,” Bennett said.
“This program, this service, will integrate into the broader narrative at USAA. We are hoping members see USAA really standing up for those serving our country,” he shared.
Agent Connection doesn’t accept just anyone into their database. They must continuously strive to maintain USAA’s values, and agents will maintain certain expectations to serve their community.
“We hold all our vendors to the USAA standard. That’s what we follow through on. Home Story is always looking at service scores and making sure they are getting back to our members promptly. It’s not enough to just be a participant,” he explained. “You have to actively take care of our members at all times. We have pretty tight standards that will be constantly tracked moving forward.”
Looking ahead, he said they are working on a slow rollout but aim to assist even more families in the next peak-PCS season.
Agent Connection quick facts
- Since launch in mid-July, the service has already led to 70 closings on home purchases or sales, with another 250+ transactions currently pending.
- Through late September, the average commission credit for Agent Connection users who closed their transaction through USAA was over $1,700.
- In August, Agent Connection registrations exceeded USAA Bank’s targets by five times.
