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VA Home Loan
For those of you who did VA home loans (especially with no down payment), what was your experience like? Did you close on time? Did your appraisal go well or were there problems with it being valued at less than the selling price?
We have signed a contract with a seller and have already had to move from one mortgage company to another because they said that they couldn't meet the closing date of 9/30. There aren't a lot of attractive properties in our area, and I am worried that things will fall through or the closing date will be pushed way back. It seems that there are problems pulling up my husband's certificate of eligibility even though he applied for it and he is definitely eligible. We already have an agreement with our landlord to move out by 10/15 at the latest.
Thanks in advance!
Re: VA Home Loan
Completely depends on your lender. If you have a lender who's inexperienced with VA loans, you're in for a bumpy ride, to put it mildly. It'd even be worth switching lenders if you're not confident in this one's ability to work the system.
There's nothing inherent in the system that makes it that much slower. We've bought 5 houses and used VAs for 3 of them. Our lender closed one of those VAs for us in 11 calendar days. The other two loans closed in 30 days. Proof that experience is everything for the VA. But I've read on here about lenders taking 75 days because they're totally clueless and don't know all the paperwork requirements.
And glitches with COEs are common.
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We did have an extended closing period to match our lease end date, but didn't need that whole time to close. In fact, we probably could have closed within 2-3 weeks because our sellers pushed us to have an appraisal completed within 7 days of accepted contract. We didn't have any issues with COE though. You may want to try on your own to get that certificate (directions on the VA website) if the bank has any difficulties.
No problems with appraisal (came in $1000 over agreement price). There weren't a lot of recent or really comparable sales in the area, so he had to go back longer than the typical 6 months, but he thoroughly justified that and there were no issues.
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We purchased our home 3.5 years ago with a VA loan and had a wonderful experience. Closed in 3 weeks, had no issues whatsoever with delays, appraisals, or anything of the sort.
We just sold that house to another military couple that used a VA loan. Closing took a bit longer (approx 45 days), but that was the estimate given to us by their lender (USAA) from the get-go. Appraisal came back right at puchase price. No last minute delays or issues there, either.
We had heard horror stories about buying with a VA loan, but we had nothing but good things to say about the process! Like PP said, if you're using a lender that's VA-friendly, it shouldn't be an issue.
We bought our home with a VA loan about 2 years ago. We did a 30-day close and had no issues and no delays.
Our appraisal came back just fine ... one of the benefits to the VA loan is that you get to choose your own appraiser.
If you're having problems, try another lender.
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