VA Loans

A VA loan is a mortgage guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA doesn’t make the loan — they guarantee a portion of it, which lets lenders offer 100% financing without mortgage insurance to eligible borrowers.

If you have VA eligibility, compare the benefit with your other available financing options.

Program eligibility does not by itself establish lender availability. We’ll confirm which financing options are available for your property, occupancy and circumstances.

VA home loan eligibility starts with your service history and duty status, which is documented through a Certificate of Eligibility, or COE. Current service members generally meet the minimum service requirement after 90 continuous days of active duty. For Veterans, the required service depends on when they served. National Guard and Reserve members can also qualify through certain active-duty service or, in many cases, through six creditable years of service. Certain surviving spouses can qualify as well.

A COE confirms that you have VA home loan eligibility based on your service. It does not mean the mortgage itself is approved. The lender still has to determine that you meet the applicable credit, income, occupancy, property and other loan requirements. VA itself does not require a universal minimum credit score, although individual lenders may have their own minimums.

If you are unsure whether you qualify, I would not assume the answer is no just because your service history does not fit the most common pattern. VA has separate rules for different service eras, Guard and Reserve service, qualifying discharge exceptions, and some surviving spouses.

I can help you obtain your Certificate of Eligibility.

The biggest difference is that VA guarantees part of a mortgage made by a private lender, which allows eligible borrowers to receive benefits that are unusual in conventional financing. With full entitlement, an eligible borrower can generally purchase without a required down payment up to the property’s reasonable value, and VA loans do not have monthly mortgage insurance. A one-time VA funding fee may apply instead. Borrowers who meet VA’s exemption criteria do not pay it.

The benefit is also reusable. Selling a home and paying off the VA loan can restore the entitlement used on that property, and borrowers with enough remaining entitlement may sometimes obtain another VA-backed loan even while a prior VA loan is still outstanding. If entitlement is not sufficient to support the full guaranty on the new loan, a down payment may be required.

VA loans can also be assumed, subject to approval, which can be valuable when the existing interest rate is attractive. An assumer does not necessarily have to be a Veteran unless substitution of entitlement is involved. But an assumption raises two separate issues for the Veteran who is selling. First is release of liability, which deals with whether the original borrower remains responsible for the assumed mortgage. Second is substitution of entitlement, which deals with whether the entitlement tied up in that loan is restored to the seller. They are not the same thing. For an approved substitution of entitlement, the assuming borrower generally must be an eligible Veteran who intends to occupy the property as their home, has sufficient entitlement, and agrees to substitute it for the seller’s.

VA also has its own rules around transaction costs. Certain closing-cost categories (“non-allowable” costs) can’t be paid by the borrower. For example, seller concessions are generally limited to 4% of the property’s reasonable value, while ordinary closing-cost credits are treated separately and are not subject to that same 4% concession cap.

So VA is more than simply a “zero-down loan.” The combination of no required monthly mortgage insurance, reusable entitlement, assumptions, and VA-specific protections and cost rules is what makes the program genuinely different.

Instead of monthly mortgage insurance, the VA charges a one-time funding fee that can be financed into the loan. As of 2026 it runs roughly:

• For a non-exempt VA purchase or construction loan with less than 5% down, the funding fee is 2.15% for first use and 3.3% for subsequent use.
• It falls to 1.5% with at least 5% down and 1.25% with at least 10% down.
• Other transaction types have different fees.