Johnny Perez - Compass holds California DRE Broker Associate License #01328614 and operates from 1350 Columbia Street in downtown San Diego, serving residential, luxury, and commercial clients since 2002. As the founder of Heroes Star, a nationwide program providing free homeownership education, VA loan guidance, and rebate access to active-duty military, veterans, firefighters, law enforcement, and first responders, the practice maintains relationships with VA-certified lenders at downtown institutions including Banc of California. The 2018 NAHREP La Jolla chapter presidency anchors the practice within San Diego's Latino real estate network, expanding referral pipelines into South Bay, East County, and cross-border buyer pools. Compass's Coming Soon and Private Exclusives platforms give the team pre-market exposure for listings before MLS syndication, a staging-to-launch timeline that involves renovation coordination with architecture and interior firms including ACRM Architects + Interiors downtown. The Columbia Street office's proximity to Naval Base San Diego and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot positions the practice within the primary PCS relocation corridor for military families transferring into the region. VA renovation loans combining purchase financing and rehabilitation funding into a single mortgage instrument — requiring appraisal review, contractor bid coordination, and draw-schedule management through a VA-approved lender — constitute the most structurally complex transactions in the military-focused practice.