Buyer Thinks Our Home Won't Work with VA Loan

[Kathryn Bowden]

We are getting ready to list our primary home, but it's not on the open market yet. We've had one party take a look at our home that found out about it in a round-about way. He was very interested and wanted to come back for a second viewing. I originally told him that we had decided not to accept an FHA loan offer after discussions with our realtor, because of how stringent it is. Our property is rural, and has a barn which is a little rough. It is very usable, but we won't be doing any further work on it, it wouldn't be practical. Our realtor said that she has had a lot of difficulty with FHA loans but not so much with VA loans, and advised we could potentially accept a VA loan offer. The potential buyer insisted from his experiences in the past, that they are every bit as stringent as an FHA loan, and wondered why I would accept a VA loan but not an FHA loan offer. He also thinks he may need to pass on our place as he wants to use his VA loan. I'm really confused because our realtor owns one of the local Remaxes here, has been in the business for decades, and seems very on the ball. Can I please get input on experiences with houses/properties passing the VA loan muster? How does it compare to perhaps a standard loan and an FHA loan?

[Bill Hamilton]

Hmm. In my past experience, VA loans were similar to FHA in terms of them wanting the property to be in pretty perfect condition. But my experience is out of date so maybe we can get @Chris Mason to chime in here. Assuming Chris does VA loans, his advice has usually been right on point.