VA Loans Vancouver Washington
My name is Victor Runkle and I have been in Mortgage Lending since 1997. Before my career in Lending I spent four years on Active Duty in the Army and six years in the National Guard. I was stationed at Ft. Carson, CO for two years, 101st Airborne in Desert Storm, and a year tour in Korea. I was a 12B, Combat Engineer, and I attended the challenging schools like Airborne, Air Assault and Sapper School along with various other unit schools. After my Active Duty time was completed I began college and studied Finance where I was introduced into Mortgage Lending. After a couple of years working for a local Mortgage Company I decided to open my own. Since I began my career in Lending I have focused the majority of my business on VA Loans. It was evident from the beginning that there were very few people in Mortgage Lending that knew how to properly close a VA Loan. The truth remains the same today which is why I have had the opportunity to work with so many fellow Veterans. Why do so many Lenders and Realtors try to deter you from going VA?A Loan Officer has a learning curve of about two years to properly close a VA Loan. Many Loan Officers and Lenders do not want to put in this amount of time and effort just to learn a VA Home Loan. Sometimes you may experience a Lender telling you they know how to do a VA Loan but really they do not. This will usually result in you, the Veteran, becoming very frustrated because the process will take much longer than is needed and it will never seem organized. The biggest draw-back is that those Lenders who do not know VA Loans will also try their best to convince you that VA is not the way to go. This is not true. When it comes to 100% financing there are no Home Loans that beat the terms and monthly payments of a VA Loan. Some may argue that they can beat the payment which may be true but you will find yourself in a short-term Interest Only loan that you will have to refinance out of in a few years. In short, if you are ever told that VA is not the way to go, be very cautious! The person, either Lender or Realtor, probably has never done a VA loan before or has heard rumors that they are hard to do! This is not true if you are working with an experienced person like myself. There are very few cases where VA is not the way to go such as if you know you will be moving within three to five years. In this case an Adjustable Rate Mortgage or possibly an Interest Only Loan would be appropriate. But this is only if you know for sure you will be moving. VA has Adjustable Rate Mortgages for three and five years which would be a great option in this situation. The VA AppraisalOne of the biggest arguments I get when it comes to VA Loans is about the Appraisal Many times people will say that the Appraisal will come in under the sales price or with repairs that will upset the seller. When this is brought up in conversation chances are someone is trying to convince you to not go VA. Once again, be very cautious! If you choose to not go VA based on what you are told by a Lender or Realtor it will cost you a great deal of money. The reason why is because you will be put into a Loan that has Mortgage Insurance, which I explain later, or you will be put into a Loan that has a higher interest rate. On the average it will cost you $75 to $150 more a month in payment. This is the price you will pay to make your home purchase easier for your Lender or Realtor because they don't know how to do a VA Loan. The appraisal appears as a problem to many because of how the VA has set-up the appraisal system. Keep in mind that very few times does a VA Appraisal come in under value. In seven years it has only happened to me four times. Each Loan still closed though. But just so you know, here is how it works. When you find a home and get an accepted offer I will contact the VA over the internet and they will assign me a VA appraiser for your home. Every home is only assigned one VA Appraiser. So if you are assigned one that someone doesn't like it cannot be changed unless a formal complaint is made, usually by the Veteran, and the VA chooses to side with the Veteran. A VA appraiser is just a normal appraiser who you can find in the yellow pages under Real Estate Appraisers. A VA appraiser is an Appraiser who has chosen to apply with the VA to become contracted with the VA. Not just any Appraiser can become a VA Appraiser. The VA has strict experience and business references requirements. You have to know what you are doing to say the least. Once the Appraiser has been assigned by the VA the VA Appraiser has a 10 day time frame to complete the Appraisal. Many times it is done faster. The rumor has it that a VA Appraisal takes many weeks. Not true. I usually get them within a week or so unless rates are so low that everyone is refinancing and Lenders cannot keep up with the increased business. This happened few years back when rates dropped into the high fours. This is no longer an issue and probably will never be again. If the VA Appraiser is having difficulty coming up with the value needed to support the sales price they are required to contact us and give us 48 hours to prove our case. This means we have a small window of time to prove that the value of the home is supported by comparable sales. (For Realtors who are reading this, the VA does not show a great deal of concern on distance of comps to the subject property. Just as long as the comps are very similar.) Do you qualify for a VA Loan?Active Duty components must have a minimum of two years time in service. Reserve and National Guard must have six years time in service. If your Reserve or National Guard unit has been mobilized to active duty and you have less than six years time in service, you quality for a VA Loan. If you were discharged from the military for reason other than your enlistment contract terminating and are unsure if you qualify, call us and we will find out for you!
What is the advantage of a VA Home Loan?The VA will allow you to finance 100% of the sales price when purchasing a home. With a VA Home Loan you do not pay mortgage insurance. The VA Home Loan is the only 100% financing option available that allows lower interest rates and no mortgage insurance. What is Mortgage Insurance?Just like auto insurance insures your car or truck in case of an accident, mortgage insurance insures your mortgage in case of foreclosure. For example, lets say you bought a home for $100,000 and had 100% financing. After a few years of making payments, you now owe approximately $90,000. At that time something happened, job loss etc., and the lender foreclosed on your home. The lender would try to resell your home as fast as possible. The lender knows they can resell your home, for 80% of what it is worth, in a very short time. The lender is successful with the resell and they receive $80,000. So what happens to the remaining $10,000 you still owe? Mortgage insurance pays the $10,000. Many people dislike paying mortgage insurance because the chance of their home being foreclosed on is extremely small. Just like you and me, if we were lending someone enough money to buy a home, we would want to be insured that we would get our money back if our borrowers did not pay. As a Veteran, the VA is our insurance. The VA pays the Lender back if they lose money from a foreclosure. What is the first step to getting approved?The first step is to contact us. Fill out the information on the apply online page and we can pre-approve you within 24 hours. Feel free to contact us as well at 1-866-906-7276 toll free. We will also be contacting you to set a time for when we can meet. Here is what we will need from you: Copy of your DD214 or Retirement Points Approval ProcessYour approval will be based upon your monthly debt, income, and credit. Once we have reviewed your monthly debt and income we will get you certified with the VA. Once that is complete and we have an approval from the lender it's time to go shopping for a home! Normally, we can complete the process within a day or two. Sometimes there are a few things to work out but you will be kept informed and know exactly what is happening from day to day. If for any reason you feel as though you cannot get approved, please contact us anyway. We will at least want to let you know what you have to do in order to get approved. This will allow you to have a plan to follow so that you will know what needs to be done to get a loan in the future. |
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