I mailed my eligibility form today.With all of the vets here I'm looking for opinions about the V.A. home loan.
I'm a first time home buyer.I dont know jack about home buying.
Will the loan cover closing cost? Do I need a down payment?
How long does it take to get the certificate of eligibility?
I have thought of all of the questions this evening.Its to late to call the local VA services officer.

My VA loan, about 3 years ago, took a couple of months to approve, and came through quickly. There wee several different options, and we took oe that had no down payment and the rolled the closing costs into the note. The biggest hold up was getting a VA sanctioned inspection of the home, and we got lucky and got one just a few days before our scheduled closing.

The V.A. loan is the only way my wife and I could ever hope to qualify for a home when we were first starting out. They let you finance the closing costs and you can put as little as 0% down (I think, it was a while ago).

My wife seems to think the 0% down may have been a regional thing. Terms in your area may be different.

If you don't hear back from them about your certificate of eligibility pretty quick, call them. Ours was very late and holding up our purchase. We called them, they corrected the problem in one day, and we had our cert.

Also, you should deal with the V.A., don't rely on the realtor to do your legwork. That's what slowed our process down.

I hope this helps and good luck!



edited for spelling.

Hello!

I'm no expert,...but I have an opinion! Better yet, I will tell you what I did. I went with a VA laon because I did not have the "down payment" that a conventional loan requires.That was always the big benefit for getting a VA. You will have to come up with cash for closing (unless the seller will pay it..usually only half though), but you can finance the VA funding fee into the loan itself.

In reality though...I would never buy a damn house again. TOO much damn money goes into them. Adds up real quick! I would have been better to invest and live in a apy/condo....

Something about a house on the water though...

Good luck!

I'm sure that things have changed since it has been almost twenty years since I got my first VA loan.  One of the rules for a VA loan was that the seller had to pay  the points for the loan. I believe this has since changed.  A down payment is only required if you purchase a home that costs more than the VA loan guarantee (very easy to go over the limit in some parts of the country).  In order to get my Certificate of Eligibility, I took my DD 214 to the VA office in San Francisco and had the certificate in 15 minutes. I was totally amazed at the quick service.

Our VA loan was 1% down here in MA, it sure was a great way to get into a house.  Closing time was short, only 2 months as others have mentioned.

You may want to shop around.  I went through all the crap to get one for my first mortgage and ended up finding better deals not guaranteed by the VA.

Try www.banx.com.  Lordtrader turned me on to this one.  There is a function to see pay off of buying down your interest rate.