The Ultimate Guide to VA Loans
By Grant Moon
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The Ultimate Guide to VA Loans - Grant Moon
Grant Moon is President and CEO of VA Loan Captain, Inc. (VALC), a diversified financial services marketing, technology, and services company. Grant and his team operate VALoanCaptain.com®, a leading VA Loan benefit and housing education platform assisting veterans and service members with purchasing or refinancing homes. Since its inception in 2011, VALoanCaptain.com® has assisted close to one thousand veteran applicants by connecting them to its lender network and has provided over fourteen thousand users with home ownership and real estate finance-related information. Grant has gained national recognition for VALoanCaptain.com’s social mission of creating veteran employment and for the charitable contributions created by its Veterans Guarantee Pledge®. He has been interviewed and featured on MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, NBC News, On the Money, Bankrate.com, and the New York Times. Mr. Moon was featured in a US Department of Labor success story discussing his most rewarding experiences with one of VALC’s satisfied veteran customers. Additionally, Grant is a sought-after writer on military and veterans topics related to real estate finance and is a contributor for Military.com writing articles on housing and VA loans. VALC is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Grant entered the United States Army in 1998 as a private, having completed basic and advanced individual training as a military policeman. In 2001 he was selected for and attended officer candidate school, graduating as a Distinguished Military Graduate and commissioned as a second lieutenant. Today, Captain Moon serves in the United States Army Reserves. Throughout his career he has held a number of positions including platoon leader, executive officer, company commander, operations officer, and assistance team chief. He is a proud veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom in which he served in a variety of capacities in support of the Global War on Terror. His accolades include the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, three Army Achievement Medals, and many other decorations.
Paralleling his career as a citizen soldier, Grant has had success in the private sector working in financial services and real estate for Fortune 50 and other types of publicly traded companies. Grant is a Golden Globe Recipient for his initiatives in volume expansion for America Express, where he worked in a strategic partnership capacity. Grant has also worked for Hersha, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, in a number of roles with increased responsibilities, ultimately heading the company’s marketing, ecommerce, and distribution departments.
Grant holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Babson College in Wellesley, MA, and a BS from Endicott College in Beverly, MA.
Grant realized the value of his VA loan benefits on returning from Iraq in 2008. By using his benefits he was able to purchase a multi-family home with no money down and no PMI. Additionally, he was able to offset the cost of the mortgage by having rental income on the property.
This book was written by a veteran—a veteran who has taken advantage of his VA entitlement and used it to buy real estate. But this book, while containing the breadth of information needed to understand how VA loans work, is more like a library of books than just one.
The following chapters could well be individual books in their own right. You can turn to any of the chapters and get a complete understanding of the topics covered without having to review previous chapters or have information explained to you in later chapters.
At the end of various chapters, you’ll find Boots on the Ground. Boots on the Ground is a personal account from real-world participants in the world of VA home loans.
There are different property types that VA loans can be used for. There’s a chapter dedicated to these VA loan uses. There’s a chapter that explains the tax advantages of a VA loan. There’s another chapter that delves into credit and credit scores. In all, this library
has twenty distinct books on its shelves.
As you review the individual chapter titles, you can turn immediately to the topics that interest you most for your specific situation. Or you can treat this as any other book, starting from the beginning and reading it through in its entirety. There’s also a glossary of loan terms at the end of the book for you to use—you’ll find it very handy as you begin shopping for your new home or consider refinancing your current VA mortgage loan.
VA loans have increased in popularity over the years and have always been the best-performing loan program when compared to FHA loans, USDA loans, and even conventional mortgage loans underwritten to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines. The VA home loan is a benefit—an entitlement issued to veterans and other qualified service members in exchange for their courageous duty of service.
Boots on the Ground
by
Master Sergeant William Jewsbury (retired)
Throughout his military career—spanning close to thirty years—Master Sergeant William Jewsbury has used his VA loan three times. I grew up in a small town in Idaho that relied on the timber industry and had limited opportunities. You could join the military or you could go into the timber industry.
Jewsbury chose the service, which began a life-long career in the United States Army. After joining the service early in life, Master Sergeant Jewsbury learned about his VA loan entitlement as a young soldier. Coming from humble beginnings, he always wanted to become a home owner. What compels me to be a home owner is that the home is mine and I own a piece of the American Dream.
He looked into his VA loan entitlements and eventually used the VA loan to get a home loan. As he progressed through his career and the demands of having a family grew, the benefit of the VA loan still remained. When comparing the VA loan to other loan options throughout my life, the benefits of the VA loan always beat anything else out there.
When evaluating his loan opportunities, Jewsbury found the VA loan and the ability to buy a home with no money down one of the most compelling benefits. Having the ability to not have to save for ten years to put a down payment was a great benefit,
he says. Additionally, when comparing interest rates, he found that the VA loan was the same as if not better than other loan types. As he moved from base to base throughout his career, he ended up using his entitlement additional times during his active duty service. Now, the recently retired master sergeant and his wife have purchased their retirement home in Washington state, using their VA loan entitlement for the 3rd time in their lives.
The VA loan is a home mortgage loan that is underwritten and approved under lending guidelines established by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it is one of the most popular VA benefits in existence today. One reason for the VA home loan’s popularity is that the loan requires nothing down. Another reason is that credit and qualifying guidelines are more relaxed when compared to conventional mortgage programs. Where did the VA loan come from?
In 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, legislation providing for a wide array of benefits for our returning troops from World War II. This act was established to help mainstream our troops back into civilian life with such things as business, farm, and home loan guarantees.
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act is more widely known as the GI Bill, which is still the term used to identify this package of benefits today. Yet the VA mortgage loan program has actually developed over the course of the past few decades, improving and expanding.
Congress authorized the VA to guarantee these loan types should they default. When a bank makes a VA loan, if the loan ever goes into foreclosure, assuming the lender approved the loan under VA lending guidelines and there was no fraud involved, the original lender making the VA loan is reimbursed approximately 25 percent of the original loan amount.
Originally, this special VA program was available only to those who had returned from World War II and established certain cut-off or termination dates. The veteran had to take advantage of the VA loan before his or her guarantee would expire, resulting in a loss of access to this special program. This was especially attractive in the 1940s because many home loans from banks required 30, 40, and even 50 percent down.
The VA loan program has grown significantly and is now a staple of the mortgage industry. Originally, the VA home loan benefit was seen as a temporary program to help returning veterans buy a home and establish credit. The benefit was to be used only one time and could not be used again. The veteran also had to apply for their VA loan before their cutoff date. The cutoff dates were rather strict, requiring veterans to apply for a VA home loan within two years after their discharge or two years after the end of World War II.
Yet the cut-off dates kept many veterans from taking advantage of the VA mortgage program because they weren’t completely aware of it. They had either not found a home to buy or been hindered by some other reason. In 1952, Congress extended VA home loan benefits to veterans of the Korean War and extended the cutoff date to ten years after the end of that war or ten years after an honorable discharge. However, just a few short years later in 1960, Congress found that the VA home loan was issued fewer times than in the previous fifteen years, regardless of the additional cutoff dates.
Congress found itself constantly providing legislation for its veterans to accommodate the realities of returning veterans of both World War II and Korea. Finally, in 1970, Congress passed the Veterans Housing Act, which eliminated the cut-off dates for qualifying veterans to apply for the VA home loan program in addition to creating a host of other benefits, forging what is now known as the modern-day VA home loan benefit.
Still later, in 1992, Congress again amended the original GI Bill by passing the Veterans Home Loan Program Amendments of 1992. This change opened up the VA home loan program to more than just World War veterans to include those who served in the United States Army Reserve, Marine Forces Reserve, United Sates Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve Command, United States Coast Guard, United States National Guard (which includes the Army National Guard), and Air National Guard.
The VA mortgage loan program is still widely believed to be usable only by veterans, but, surprisingly, there are so many more individuals who have access to this benefit. Who are these groups, specifically? The Department of Veterans Affairs divides those eligible into three separate groups, identified by the letters A, B, and C.
Group A includes veterans, both those serving on active duty and Armed Forces Reservists and National Guard members