VA Purchase

You need a Certificate of Eligibility showing you meet the VA's service requirements, income that supports the payment, acceptable credit, and a home you will live in that meets the VA's minimum property requirements. In most cases the lender can request the certificate online through the VA, and we handle that for you. If the VA needs more, we will tell you which service documents to send.

The VA does not set a minimum credit score. Each lender sets its own, and they vary. Because we work with many lenders, we can look for one whose standards fit your credit, and the VA also looks at residual income, the money left over each month after major expenses.

The funding fee is a one-time charge set by the VA that helps keep the program running. The amount depends on your down payment and whether you have used the benefit before, and it can be rolled into the loan. Under current VA rules, veterans receiving VA disability compensation, surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, and certain other borrowers are exempt.

There is no limit on how many times you can use the benefit. Entitlement is restored when a VA loan is paid off and the home is sold, and in many cases you can have a second VA loan while keeping the first, using your remaining entitlement. We will show you where your entitlement stands.

Yes. VA loans are assumable, so a buyer can take over your loan and its terms with the lender's approval. The buyer does not have to be a veteran, but your entitlement stays tied to the loan unless the buyer is an eligible veteran who substitutes their own. Ask the lender for a release of liability, and talk with us before agreeing to an assumption so you know how it affects your benefit.

You can use VA financing to build a new home, either by buying a newly built home or with a VA construction loan, through lenders that offer one, that covers the land and the build together. The VA does not finance vacant land on its own with no home planned. See VA One-Time Close Construction below.

Not on its own. A VA purchase loan is for a home you will live in as your primary residence, generally moving in within a reasonable time after closing. You can buy a duplex to fourplex and rent out the other units as long as you live in one of them.