VA Home Loans
VA Loans are for all Veterans and Active Military personnel.
If you are or have been in the military (including the Reserves or National Guard), you may meet the VA mortgage Eligibility. The Department of Veterans Affairs, commonly referred to as the VA, has made home ownership easier for veterans (and in some cases their surviving spouses) through its loan guarantee program.
If you qualify under the guidelines, you can buy a home with little or no down payment and often at a lower interest rate than conventional fixed-rate mortgages.
While the VA does not actually lend the money, it assumes some of the risk for the loan. To partially offset this, they charge a "funding fee," which can be paid in cash at closing or can be financed over the life of the loan.
In addition, VA home loans are assumable under certain conditions, which means if you decide to sell your property, the buyer may take over your mortgage with the same interest rate and payments -- a good selling point.
The buyer who assumes the loan does not have to be a veteran. The VA loan often is a very cost-effective alternative for veterans or current military personnel.
Their are limits on the amount you can finance. But there is greater flexibility for the payment of closing costs: the seller is allowed to pay all discount points and other closing costs.
VA Loans Offer the Following Important Benefits:
- Equal opportunity for all qualified veterans and active duty military.
- There is no PMI (private mortgage insurance).
- No down payment (unless required by the lender or the purchase price is more than the reasonable value of the property).
- Buyer informed of reasonable value from the appraisal.
- Negotiable interest rate.
- Ability to finance the VA funding fee (plus reduced funding fees with a down payment of at least 5% and exemption for veterans receiving VA compensation).
- Closing costs are comparable with other financing types (and could be lower).
- No mortgage insurance premiums.
- An assumable mortgage.
- Right to prepay without penalty.
- VA assistance to veteran borrowers in default due to temporary financial difficulty.
Here are additional measures that the VA has in place to protect VA borrowers.
- The VA can suspend from the loan program those who take unfair advantage of veteran borrowers, or decline to sell a new home or make a loan to an eligible veteran of good credit because of their race, color, religion, sex, disability, family status or national origin.
- The builder of a new home will be required to give the purchasing veteran a one-year warranty that the home has been constructed to VA-approved specifications. A similar warranty must be given for new manufactured homes purchased.
- In cases of new construction completed under VA or HUD inspection, the VA may pay or otherwise compensate the veteran borrower for correction of structural defects seriously affecting livability if assistance is requested within four years of a home loan guaranty.
- The borrower obtaining a VA loan may only be charged the fees and other charges set forth by the VA as allowable.
- The borrower will have no prepayment penalty of the entire loan or any part not less than the amount of one installment or $100.
- The VA encourages holders to extend forbearance if a borrower becomes temporarily unable to meet the terms of the loan.
Currently there are 18 active military installations in Texas.
- Brooks City-Base - San Antonio
- Dyess Air Force Base - Abilene
- Goodfellow Air Force Base - San Angelo
- Lackland Air Force Base - San Antonio
- Laughlin Air Force Base - Johnstone
- Randolph Air Force Base - Universal City
- Sheppard Air Force Base - Wichita Falls
- Biggs Army Airfield - Fort Bliss - El Paso, TX
- Camp Bullis - San Antonio
- Corpus Christi Army Depot - Corpus Christi
- Fort Bliss - El Paso
- Fort Hood - Killeen
- Fort Sam Houston - San Antonio
- Red River Army Depot - southwest of Texarkana
- USCG Station Galveston - Galveston Island
- Corpus Christi Naval Air Station
- Fort Worth Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base
- Ingleside Naval Station
