If you’re a veteran looking for a mortgage, you can save a lot of money by using your VA home loan benefits.
To help you understand the advantages of a VA mortgage as well as how to qualify, we’re answering questions some of our social media followers have recently submitted. Let’s go over five things you need to know about VA Home Loans.
1. Do You Need Good Credit for a VA Home Loan?
Most of our competitors’ websites will tell you that you have to have good credit—meaning somewhere around a 620 or 640 FICO score—to get approved. If you don’t, they won’t even talk to you about getting a loan.
Of course, excellent credit is better than good. Great credit can help get you approved; however, there’s more to an approval than just a credit score. You have to look at the entire picture. We have denied people with a 680 score, and we have approved people with a 520 score.
At Low VA Rates, we close loans all the time with people that are below that 620-640 range. The VA handbook says nothing about a minimum credit score.
If you’re being denied because of your credit score alone, you’re dealing with the wrong company.
2. Do You Need a Down Payment for a VA Home Loan?
You do not need to make a down payment to get a VA loan. You can finance 100% of a VA loan, which is one of the biggest benefits of VA loans.
Making a down payment can, however, make your monthly payment lower because you’re borrowing less money. It can also decrease other closing costs associated with the loan, like your VA Funding Fee.
3. Do VA Home Loans Expire?
Though what this question was specifically about isn’t completely clear, we can approach the question from a few different angles.
VA Mortgage Benefits — Your VA mortgage benefits do not expire. If you’re eligible for a VA loan today because of your honorable military service, you will be eligible for a VA loan until you’re no longer on this planet—it’s a lifelong benefit that does not expire.
VA Loans — Your VA loan does not expire.
VA Loan Approval — The approval on your VA loan could expire. If you go get a pre-approval from Low VA Rates today, there will be an expiration on that pre-approval. If you go beyond your pre-approval expiration date, we will just look at your documents over and give you a new pre-approval (unless something has changed that causes us not to be able to approve your loan).
4. Do VA Home Loans Require an Inspection?
This is a bit tricky because it’s not an easy yes or no. VA home loans sometimes require an inspection, depending on what kind of loan you’re looking at.
VA Purchase — On a VA Purchase, an inspection is always required. An appraiser comes to the house and during the appraisal, they are required to inspect different aspects of the property that a conventional appraisal might not need.
VA Refinance — On a VA refinance, the appraiser will still look at certain things to make sure the house is habitable and meets guidelines, but it’s not quite the same as the inspection you’ll get when you purchase your home.
VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance (IRRRL) — There is no inspection or appraisal needed at all for a VA IRRRL, also called a VA Streamline. As long as you currently have a VA mortgage and you’re eligible for a VA Streamline, you won’t need an inspection.
5. Do VA Loans Have PMI?
Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is an additional fee paid to a private company every month that is added to your monthly mortgage payment. On a conventional loan, if you don’t put 20% down, you’ll likely be required to pay PMI.
VA loans, however, do not require PMI. Even without a down payment, you do not have to pay any PMI on a VA Home Loan.
Grateful for Our Veterans
Some of the best aspects of a VA loan are the zero down payment and zero PMI required, since they put more money in the pockets of our veterans.
If anyone in this great nation deserves to keep more of their hard-earned money in their bank accounts, it’s veterans—which is why the VA has created the VA mortgage program.
If you’re looking to purchase a home in 2018, please contact us. We’re experts in the VA mortgage world, and nobody does it like Low VA Rates. Check out our Facebook or Instagram and send us a message there, or give us a call now at 855-223-0705.
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