Advice from Veterans whom have used the VA home loan
Hello Reddit Veterans/Realtors, its time for me to be an adult and get a place of my own. Im asking for any tips or recommendations for using the VA home loan. Pros/Cons, anything at all really, i want to get as much info as possible before i make the biggest purchase of my life so far.
Edit- thank you everyone for your input, its greatly appreciated. It seems to be that VA loans are a great option and that they will work with me Thanks again
Just bought (2 months ago) my first house using a VA loan. I went with Navy federal. I will never go though anyone but USAA for any loan ever. Everyone above her was very helpful and fixed all her mistakes in the knick of time, but she caused a lot of unneeded stress. Im sure the rest of the company is well ran but even at first when we had hints of our loan officer dropping the ball, we attempted to get a new loan officer. They told us to stick with her and it was just a one time thing (not returning phone calls/emails). In the end I got my house and im happy, but I feel like USAA’s customer service is just top notch and their rates are always competitive, if not the best.
Our loan officer was very incompetent and almost caused me to miss my closing date
As far as the house hunting went, it was fun. Navy fed (USAA as well) offer real estate agents who specialize in finalizing VA loans, and a good agent will make the process great. They also give a great % reimbursement for using their suggested agents. I got $1750 back after I closed (I purchased my house for $315,000 for reference).
VA loans will never allow you to overpay for a house. They will do a property appraisal and make sure what youre paying for is worth their loan. Which gives a little peace of mind once they complete the appraisal and approve the purchase.
There are other loans that allow you to do that but no VA, and the rates will be higher
308,000 house. 0 down. VA loan has a % loan fee (kinda of like a minimum down payment but they roll it into the financing) so it came out to 315,800. I had the seller cover all the closing cost, about $10,000. For whatever reason, closing cost are a bit lower when using a VA loan, have your real estate agent explain it to you. Roughly $500 for appraisal, another $200-500 for home inspection. Dont forget to calculate escrow (property taxes/home insurance) into your monthly bill. My property taxes are $3300/yr. So my monthly bill is just shy of $1800. Just to give you an idea of what to expect.
Other than my loan officer. The process was great. VA loan was amazing and cost me sub $1000 out of pocket.
Only negatives i know https://rksloans.com/title-loans-mo/ of, but did not have to encounter myself, was VA loans have a cap on how much they will allow you to purchase (i think 430,000 but dont quote me). VA loans will not let you roll projected house improvements into your loan, so no fixer uppers unless you are paying for those through some other means. Lastly, because its a VA loan, there is a lot more paperwork that has to be signed compared to a regular loan. I must of signed 150+ papers, a lot of them 2-3 times by the time i actually closed.
