My mom is a Vietnam vet (non-combat) and I want to help her!

[Chris M.]

Hey guys, my mom served in the army for three years during the Vietnam war (but was not deployed overseas). I'd like to help her get qualified for a VA loan so that she can finally get a house of her own (she's still renting at the moment). To be honest with you guys: I have no idea where to start! Is the government the only provider of VA loans? Are there certain requirements based on her service?

If anyone can shed some light on the process of getting a VA loan for my mom, preferably with little or no money down, it would be sincerely appreciated. I'm guessing there are some things I should watch out for and that you guys have some wisdom to impart on things to avoid, things to pursue etc.

Ideally, I'd like to get her set up with a multi-family or duplex so that we can get a tenant or two and do house hacking as you guys call it. However, we would definitely need to use property management (another area that I have to research!). I just want my mom to be able to retire and live in peace.

Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction on VA loans for Vietnam veterans.

[Chris Mason]

Hi @Chris M.,

Any vanilla mortgage lender can do a VA loan. They're one of the commodity Agency loans alongside FHA, USDA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.

For 2-4 unit properties, one 'downside' to the VA loan is that it kind of frowns on multi-unit properties. Loan limit doesn't go up with unit count, the basic FHA 1 unit loan limit in your area is the VA loan limit regardless of unit count (for example, FHA 4 unit in my area is up at $1.2m, but VA 4 unit is still the basic $625k... good luck finding a 4 unit property for $625k in the Bay Area!). You can go above the loan limit by putting down 25% of the difference (So $725k in a $625k area means coming in with $25k). They also don't like to count rental income without documented landlord experience.

An LO that served in the military will often know a little more about VA loans than one that didn't, but that's not a requirement or anything.

Link to VA.gov website to get a VA Loan Certificate of Eligibility. It sometimes takes a little longer to get it back from the VA for folks that served before the digital age, so get that now, even though technically you can get it while in escrow (normally for younger vets I just order it while in escrow).