Greetings all,
I recently seperated from the Navy, and I have been seriously considering buying some property. I was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with VA loans, and could lend me some advice. Thanks in advance for any help.
K2712,
Welcome and thank you for your service! Sorry about the “Navy thing”…(I’m retired Army – HooRah!)
The obvious advantage to using a VA loan is the loan down-payment needed. The disadvatange is that they tend to be more nit-picking about their inspections. If you have little to put down, it is a great way to get into your own house.
Did you have some specfic questions?
Keith
VA is a great deal but if you have good credit, a traditional mortgage can be better. VA has looser guidelines to help veterans get into homes. You don’t have to put anything down, and they have 100% financing with no mortgage insurance. However, there is a VA funding fee involved, and the amount depends on if you were reserves or active duty and how much you put down. The funding fee is pretty heafty if you put 0% down, but it can be financed. VA also limits the amount you can borrow to $359,650 assuming you have full eligibility.
What do you mean by ‘inspections’? Does that mean they’ll only give you a loan if a property is VA-approved?
I’ve visited the site before, but can’t get all my answers on it:
http://www.homeloans.va.gov/faqpreln.htm
In order to get anything in southern California, though, I would have to combine my VA benefit with another loan. 
Question: On an expensive home (as defined by having to work hard to make the payment each month), why would a person NOT have mortgage insurance?
Although I’ve got decent income now, I still don’t know that I’d want to take that risk.
We’re looking at moving to Austin, TX - it’s amazing how much house you can get for $300,000 there.
Yeah, they used to have inspections/appraisals with different standards than the standard lenders - a lot had to do with paint, safety, etc…
Keith
Mortgage insurance, or private mortgage insurance is not something that you want- it is an insurance policy that benefits only the lender, but you pay the premium. It’s purpose is to insure the lender in case you go into default that they will get paid. The reason VA doesn’t have mortgage insurance is that VA insures the loan.
You may be thinking of homeowner’s insurance which is mandatory and would insure your home in case it burns down, etc.
Thanks for the info. If we do move out of SoCal to a more affordable area, yeah, it wouldn’t make any sense at all to pay PMI.