Today, Meredith Medvec (Prosperity Home Mortgage) and I are in Memorial Park discussing Veteran Administration Loans, or VA Loans. We will be going over common questions to help our active service members and Veterans.  Enjoy!

1. What are Advantages to VA Financing?
   • 100% Financing: VA Financing does not require a down payment, as long as you stay in the county loan limits.  In Northeast Florida (Duval, Clay, and St. Johns County), the loan maximum is $453,100. As long as your purchase price is within the limit, then you will have no required down payment. That is a huge advantage to Veterans.  Every other type of financing will require a down payment.
   • No Mortgage Insurance:  VA Financing has no mortgage insurance.  That is not the case with FHA and conventional financing. On FHA loans, you have an upfront mortgage insurance premium that you pay one time and you have a monthly insurance premium.  If you put 3.5% down, you have mortgage insurance for the life of the loan.  With VA financing, you will not have to worry about paying a mortgage insurance premium.
2. How Would a Service Member or Veteran Know if They Qualify for a VA Loan?
   • Active Duty: The lender orders a Certificate of Eligibility, or COE. The lender will need basic information from the service member to order it: name, date of birth, social security number, and branch of service.  Once the COE is submitted, the lender will hear back about eligibility within 24 hours (sometimes the same day). After that, you and the lender can more forward with the process of qualifying.
   • Veteran: If you are retired or separated from the military, you will need to provide a DD-214 form. It is a very important document when you are separated from the military.
3. What is the Average Time to Close a VA Loan?
   • A VA loan can close within 21 days from application date.  The biggest thing we see with VA is the appraisal.  They do a very thorough appraisal and they account for 14 days to receive the appraisal back. The appraisal does not always take 14 days but the lender needs to account for it.  For that reason, the lender will need 21 days to commit to closing a VA loan.
4. What Fees are Specific to VA Financing?
   • The one item unique to VA financing is the VA Funding Fee. The VA Funding Fee is a one-time fee on the loan.  The fee is charged up front and added into the loan.  The funding fee (if required) is based on whether you served as a reservist or non-reservist.  It is also based on whether it is your first ti
   • me using your VA benefit or if it is a subsequent use.  Your lender can go into more specifics and how it would apply to you individually.  It is specific to each service member.  One thing to note is: if you are more than 10% disabled with the Veteran’s Administration, then there is no funding fee.
5. What Benefits does Prosperity Home Mortgage Offer Veterans?
   • That is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this video.  At Prosperity Home Mortgage, we value Veterans so much that since 2014 we have waived $6.2 Million on the origination fee and appraisal.  The average origination fee is $750.  We waive that on our VA loans.  In addition to that, we credit back the appraisal.  When you average the two fees, it is over $1200 in savings to our Veterans.  We know how important those savings are to a service member.

Thanks to our active military and our veterans! We would not enjoy the freedoms we have without your service.  Feel free to contact Meredith or I if you have any more questions.

 

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