Buying a home (VA loan)

[Hermia]

I was curious if anyone has any experience buying a home with a VA loan (or if anyone has any first time home buying wisdom in general!)

Is the loan better than conventional financing? My husband and I are researching and trying to figure things out, but the way we understand some of the things on the VA site seems to be different than what at least one prospective lender is telling us. We linked him some info on the VA website and he's all, "That's what you get for reading a govt web site." Specifically, we're unclear about what the VA will do in terms of entitlement benefits (which make the amount of the loan smaller). He won't explain anything further until we meet with him, so I was just hoping to look around a little and see what I could find. I'm assuming it would need to be my husband who would need to contact the VA directly for info and he's at work at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[lisa_la_machina]

I'm sorry I can't help in terms of the VA loan specifically, but we just bought our first home and my advice is to secure your financing before you start your search. Whatever financing you end up with--VA or traditional--it was so nice for us to know exactly what our price range was and to be able to make an offer FAST when we found a house we wanted, especially since we live in a booming market. (We got the house, btw. Yay!)

Happy house hunting!

 

[melagras]

Hire an independent inspector. DO NOT USE THE ONE YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENT USES. You will get screwed. I am speaking from experience.

Don't let your real estate agent rush you in reviewing the inspection report. Take your time and make a list of the items you want repaired.

Shop around for homeowner's insurance. After three years of paying $1,100+/yr, I shopped around and saved $450/yr.

Make sure you have substantial funds in a savings account or a credit card with a high limit. I've exhausted all avenues for money trying to keep up with repairs.

 

[atompki1]

From what I understand, and I'm no expert, a conventional loan usually makes the process go smoother all the way around. If you can get a conventional loan without a significantly larger interest rate, it might be worth it.

Home buying tip....have some money set aside for furniture, small repairs, a new picture..etc. ALL houses are money pits to a certain degree There is ALWAYS something to do in them. It's nice to have some cash left over to deal with small stuff. And if you can swing it, get the seller to pay for a 1 year home owners insurance policy. We had one and it paid for a new hot water heater and one other thing(was 14 years ago so I can't remember what it was).

Congrats on entering home ownership!! It's really fun having your own home that you can do what you want with

 

[cjbate]

VA Loan

My husband and I are both veterans but have not gotten around to using our VA loan benefit yet (although we have bought a house). My knowledge which is limited is...

- the benefits of using a VA loan is you can get a loan with 0 down.
- the negatives are, you typically pay a higher interest rate and higher fees. Try to compare apples to apples when comparing loans. Get quotes for both and use an independent broker.
- There is an upper limit to VA loans which is based on zip code. You can google it and find it on a website somewhere.
- "Govt website" is the expert on VA loans...they are the authority, not him. They are a government program. So maybe consider that before what your guy says...he sounds a little irritating. lol!!

After weighing everything you may opt for a traditional loan after all...

HTH!
Jen

I was curious if anyone has any experience buying a home with a VA loan (or if anyone has any first time home buying wisdom in general!)

Is the loan better than conventional financing? My husband and I are researching and trying to figure things out, but the way we understand some of the things on the VA site seems to be different than what at least one prospective lender is telling us. We linked him some info on the VA website and he's all, "That's what you get for reading a govt web site." Specifically, we're unclear about what the VA will do in terms of entitlement benefits (which make the amount of the loan smaller). He won't explain anything further until we meet with him, so I was just hoping to look around a little and see what I could find. I'm assuming it would need to be my husband who would need to contact the VA directly for info and he's at work at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[jeanniem]

I was curious if anyone has any experience buying a home with a VA loan (or if anyone has any first time home buying wisdom in general!)

Is the loan better than conventional financing? My husband and I are researching and trying to figure things out, but the way we understand some of the things on the VA site seems to be different than what at least one prospective lender is telling us. We linked him some info on the VA website and he's all, "That's what you get for reading a govt web site." Specifically, we're unclear about what the VA will do in terms of entitlement benefits (which make the amount of the loan smaller). He won't explain anything further until we meet with him, so I was just hoping to look around a little and see what I could find. I'm assuming it would need to be my husband who would need to contact the VA directly for info and he's at work at the moment.

Thanks!

Hi
It sounds like you need a new lender! VA loans are typically .5% lower than conventional loans. They do, however, charge a funding fee which varies depending on whether you have used the benefit before. Right now a 15 year mortgage is 2.5%!!

For VA loans, you don't have a choice of inspectors and neither does your realtor, one is simply assigned to you (they are inspectors the VA has certified).

You can avoid the funding fee if you are a disabled vet (10% disabled). VA loans can take a little longer to get, but they have better rates and you have more protections than a conventional loan.

The loan amount doesn't typically vary by "entitlement", it depends on the jumbo amount in your area. You still have to qualify with good credit and income.

Good luck with your house hunting!

 

[Hermia]

jeanniem, the last part of what you said with entitlement and the loan amount, I think I'm beginning to understand better. We still haven't met with any prospective lenders in person but from reading on the VA website, I do think we initially misunderstood some aspects of the loan. So basically, if the property you want to buy is valued over 144k, VA will give you a loan for up to a certain amount, which in our county (the ridiculously expensive Orange County, CA) is waaaay more than we want a loan for anyway. The VA guarantees 25% of the loan, meaning that if we were to default, the lender would be guaranteed that amount from the VA, so that would mitigate their potential losses, hence we're less of a risk, hence the lender may be more willing to give us more favorable terms...does that sound about right?

Sigh...there's so much to think about with this. We were kind of rushed into it because we *just* found out that the owner of our condo wants to sell it (and for more than we could afford) so we've got to be out by March 12 (my birthday, yay happy birthday to me). I'm kinda bummed because I like this place and because I was not planning on us starting to seriously look for a place for another year. However, with this happening, we thought, well...maybe we could get our own place now. And we thought the VA actually paid a portion of the downpayment, thus making the loan smaller...so we were wrong on that. I think we'll get an offer for a loan, I just think the monthly payment coupled with the HOA fee (which apparently is appx 400, Lord have mercy) will be pushing the upper limits of what we can afford. So, I went from sad about this to hopeful and now I'm back to sad. Esp. as the owner of the place we want upped their price...what they originally asked for we prob could have done, but it seems when people own property in Irivine that they're trying to sell, they figure they're sitting on a gold mine and charge accordingly. The place we want is really rather modest, but everything here is outrageous. /grumble

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this! While I don't want to move more than I have to, I now think it's more likely that this place will not work out. I don't relish the idea of finding another temporary place to rent, but I think I'd like to go into this a bit more prepared and with more of a heads up.

 

[kuriisenbo]

I remember how tough it was when I bought a house. I had a lot of expenses and besides that, it was so difficult to find a reliable loan company. As it was the first time I bought a house, I didn't have any wisdom or knowledge regarding this topic. Of course, I didn't have enough money to pay for the purchase, so, a friend suggested taking a loan on https://credit-10.com/se/zmarta-logga-in/. I applied for the loan, and once I received the money I was so excited about it. I am still paying off the loan but I am happy that I have my own house.