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VA Home Loans

post #1 of 10
1/20/04 at 3:48am
Thread Starter 
Some wonderful someday, I want to use mine. How do they work exactly? Were you satisfied with the service you received? Are the houses they finance pretty nice? Or pretty small? Whatever you can tell me, I would appreciate it.
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post #2 of 10
1/20/04 at 3:56am
VA? that is something military right? sorry, no idea here
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post #3 of 10
1/20/04 at 4:03am
Thread Starter 
Veterans Administration. They are supposed to help veterans with a number of things. If you stay in the military for I think it is at least four years and are honorably discharged, you are supposed to get two home loans guarenteed - no money down, no credit check. The government insures your loan.
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post #4 of 10
1/20/04 at 9:29am
ANY house can be financed by VA, provided it meets the guidelines (basically it needs 4 walls, a few windows and doors, etc). You can even finance a mobile home or condo with VA. The hardest thing you have to do is find a mortgage broker that finances VA loans. VA doesn't actually loan the money ... the guarantee the loan to the mortgage company, which saves you about $100 per month in mortgage insurance and the need for a 20% downpayment.

Also, once you pay off a mortgage loan, you can use it over and over, provided you made your payments on time.

We went through a process similar to Liz the first time. Had to beg for mercy and tell them why I had stupid little (and I do mean little!) collections against me on my credit report. Then they approved us for something like $225k -- yeah right! I asked the mortgage broker how he thought we'd make payments on that.

The catch is that you have to pay a 3% fee to the VA for guaranteeing your loan. You can roll it into the loan itself, so there is absolutely nothing out of pocket. On both occasions that we've done a VA loan, we actually got cash back at closing.

It's really no more complicated than any other home loan and a mortgage broker will walk you through all the steps.
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post #5 of 10
1/20/04 at 10:02am
We bought a townhouse when he was first in the military with our VA loan. There was no trouble getting the loan. We sold the townhouse a few years ago and are thinking about using it again in a couple years when we are paid off with our credit card consolidation loans. I know we were approved for WAY more then we could afford.
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post #6 of 10
1/21/04 at 5:44pm
For us in the middle of nowhere it was hard for us to use it. Like Dawn said you have to find a bank that wants to do it and if you live in the middle of nowhere with the closest military base being 5 hours away it is hard to find one. The banks here either know nothing about it or they don't want to finance a VA loan. We had ONE bank an hour away that did one a few years ago with the company that we wanted to go through.

If we would have used it in Gulfport there wouldn't have been to much of a problem.
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post #7 of 10
1/21/04 at 11:11pm
Well, I'm doing it right now, and so far it has been no problem. The VA does have to inspect whatever house we pick, and if they find problems with the house (like the lead siding they have on old houses out here) than the owner has to agree to fix it before you buy it. Other than that it's nice because it's nothing down, and we will be getting money back at closing.

Let you know more about how I liked it later, but like Dawn said as long as you don't default on the loan you can use it over and over.
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post #8 of 10
1/22/04 at 10:10am
Well someone (not me) took the VA loan and bought a house and then defaulted on the loan so I doubt I will ever get to find out how this works. Around here everyone deals with VA loans..so I do think it matters how close you are to a military base/post. Although I know my parents bought their first place in the middle of BFE using VA and that was back in the 70's..not sure if that made a difference or not??
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post #9 of 10
3/6/04 at 11:18pm
We have used them twice so far. I think you can use it for just about any house you want. It's great! No downpayment needed.
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post #10 of 10
3/6/04 at 11:58pm
sounds simple enough Good Luck Lenora!
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