Anyone buy a house w/ a VA loan?

[hollieplus2]

How did it go? Was it easy? We went to a golf lesson yesterday and fell in love w/ this house for sale. The price is in our budget but I don't want PMI or a down payment so I'm thinking about the VA loan. When we bought our current house I asked to use it and they told me it would be easier if we didn't and the rates would be the same. I'm thinking in this economy I might have more luck sine they wil guarantee up to a certain amount.

 

[Russian-in-Kansas]

Yep, we did. It was super easy, the rate I think was about the same but we had to pay a funding fee, but not a down payment. All we did was bring in our LESes and the bank did the rest.

 

[mamajoan]

We bought our very first home with a VA loan. If you have all of your documentation... VA certificate etc.. the process will go smoothly. I liked using the VA loan as I felt protected because the VA requires the seller to do alot rather than the buyer. Utilizing a realtor who understands VA loans is important. It will make things much easier.. on everyone involved.

There is a VA funding fee and closing costs so you do need money to get into the house, even if you are not putting a down payment.

We now live in our 4th home. It has been 19 years since we purchased our first home. We have learned something new each time we purchased a home. We used the VA for the first home, but always consider it as an option when purchasing other homes. It was great to be able to use that VA loan to get us into our first home... when we did not have a lot of money saved up to put a large down payment. We will be looking for our 5th home in a couple years... hopefully looking for the "retirement" home.
Good Luck!!

 

[OctMtnWoods]

We did 16 yrs ago. It took about 1 month more than it would have normally. Also, had to find a bank that was willing to work with VA. At the time, not everyone would. I don't know if things have changed.

Also, something we didn't find out until closing. It seems the seller & sellers atty didn't have faith that the sale would go through because we didn't put down much money at all. So much so, that the sellers didn't come to closing, and their atty came, but made another appt to be somewhere else, so took the check right at the beginning & left. Before we even signed for the mortgage.

Well the point of the VA loan was so we wouldn't need to put much down. All very odd. We had the income & good credit. We just didn't have a deposit at the time because we had focused on paying off all our debt prior.

 

[mickeyfan1]

We did. We started the process in September of 08, we closed on our house in February of 09 (New construction). I had no more trouble with this than my conventional mortgage, same amount of documentation - tax returns for last 2 years, verification of employment, DD214, Eligibility Certificate. We were approved the day we signed. Re-approved after all docs were in, re-approved by the underwriter and approved by the VA 3 weeks after closing. I think there is a lot more documentation needed as so many lenders have tightened up on their practices, and the letter from the VA 3 weeks after we closed was kind of funny. Our rate was the same as FHA, the "Funding fee" is rolled into the mortgage amount but is fully deductible, and we paid about 7K in closing costs. We went through Countrywide, which is now Bank of America.

 

[Ephany]

Both of our homes (prior and current) were purchased with VA loans. We've never had a problem, although we've bought in heavily military areas using realtors who specialized in military clients. That may have been the difference, since everyone was familiar with process and what was expected from all parties.

 

[Piecey]

We just closed in December with a VA loan...

I will admit there was a lot of extra red tape but if you start the process now and have a bank that is familiar with them, you'll be good! We had no problems.

Our loan was employee too (I work for the bank) so we had to have an upper level mortgage officer do all our paperwork [no one local was allowed to know what I made, so it had to be handled elsewhere] and I think that helped relieve some of the hassle.

Biggest thing is to read EVERYTHING. The VA threw out so much paperwork, it was crazy. I was signing stuff forever it seemed.
If the Veteran that is elgibile for the loan is disabled, the funding fee is waived. I had to keep on them about that REPEATEDLY because they kept trying to charge us the funding fee and my DH is disabled. Don't know whether or not that would work for you, but if they are disabled--- watch that!


Overall, I love it. We had money for a down payment but love having it as "extra" now and our payments are still low because there is no PMI.
We'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I get the thing about the people who said they weren't sure if it would close or not.... the sellers of our house couldn't prove that the termite damage the inspector found was treated (everyone agreed it was old, but the VA required proof that it had been treated) and so they had to re-treat the whole house. They didn't think the mortgage would close so they didn't treat it but paid the money for the treatment into escrow for us. So seems common for VA loans to not always work out, I guess?... as our sellers had the same fear.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

Both of our homes (prior and current) were purchased with VA loans. We've never had a problem, although we've bought in heavily military areas using realtors who specialized in military clients. That may have been the difference, since everyone was familiar with process and what was expected from all parties.

Good point. Not military area where ours took place described in prior post.