VA Home Loan

VA's own answers to the 14 questions

VA publishes a five-page VA Home Loan FAQ, dated April 2025. I rebuilt all fourteen questions here in VA's order, and where a VA answer is out of date or stated too narrowly, I say so and give you the current rule.

Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat at veteranscrisisline.net. TTY 711 then 988, or 1-800-799-4889. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect. Money trouble and the fear of losing a house are heavy things. Make the call before it gets heavier.

How to read this page. Everything in quotation marks is VA's own wording — VA says "we" about itself. Everything else is me. I am one retired Sergeant First Class in Junction City, Kansas, not a lender and not VA. Where I found VA's fact sheet out of date or narrower than VA's own current rule, I marked it Correction and named the rule at its full width. Narrow-wrong is the failure that stops people from filing.

One number to keep. VA loan technician: 877-827-3702 (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. If you are behind on a mortgage, call that number and select 6. For the Native American Direct Loan: 888-349-7541 (TTY: 711), same hours, or email NADL@va.gov.

Question 1

How do I apply for a VA-guaranteed loan?

You start with a lender, not with VA.

VA: "You can apply for a VA loan with any mortgage lender that participates in the VA home loan program." That means a private bank, a mortgage company, or a credit union.
VA: "At some point, you will need to get a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) from VA to prove to the lender that you are eligible for a VA loan." A COE is the one-page proof from VA that you earned this benefit.

One exception to the private-lender rule. The Native American Direct Loan (NADL) is made by VA itself, with no private lender, for a Native American Veteran — or a Veteran married to a Native American — buying, building, or improving a home on federal trust land where the tribal government has a written agreement with VA. You still need a COE. va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/loan-types/native-american-direct-loan

★ Pick a lender. Get your COE.

Question 2

What do I need before I request a COE?

It depends on how you served. VA's fact sheet lists two situations. VA's own website lists seven.

Correction — this is the one that stops people. The fact sheet names only the Veteran with a DD214 and the surviving spouse. If you are on active duty now, or you drill in the Guard or Reserve and have never been activated, you have no DD214 — and reading that short list you could decide you are not eligible. You are. Here is VA's full list.

Veteran — a copy of your discharge or separation papers (DD214).
Active-duty service member — a statement of service signed by your commander, adjutant, or personnel officer, showing your full name, Social Security number, date of birth, the date you entered duty, any lost time, and the name of the command providing the information.
Current or former National Guard member who was activated — a copy of your DD214 or other discharge documents. If your DD214 does not show it, you can also prove 90 days of active-duty service with at least 30 consecutive days using a DD214 showing activation under 32 U.S.C. 316, 502, 503, 504, or 505, or an annual point statement, or a DD220 with the orders that go with it.
Current or former Reserve member who was activated — a copy of your DD214 or other discharge documents.
Current Guard or Reserve member never activated — a signed statement of service with the same items listed above, plus your creditable years of service.
Discharged Guard member never activated — NGB Form 22 for each period of service, and NGB Form 23, your Retirement Points Statement, plus proof of the character of your service.
Discharged Reserve member never activated — your latest annual retirement points statement, plus proof of honorable service.
Surviving spouse — see Question 12 below for who qualifies and which form to file.

★ No DD214 does not mean no benefit.

Question 3

How do I request a COE?

Three ways. Two are fast, one is slow.

Online — va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/request-coe-form-26-1880/introduction
Through your lender — VA: "Your lender may be able to use an online system (called Web LGY) to get your COE." Ask. This is often the fastest route of all.
By mail — fill out a Request for a Certificate of Eligibility, VA Form 26-1880, and mail it to your regional loan center. The addresses are on the last page of the form.

VA: "Please note that mail requests may take longer than requesting a COE online or through your lender."
Download a fresh copy of the form rather than using one off a shelf — the current edition is December 2025: va.gov/find-forms/about-form-26-1880

★ Ask your lender to pull it first.

Question 4

What happens after I request a COE?

VA: "We will review your request and let you know our decision."

Check the status yourself at va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/check-coe-status
VA states its goal is to contact you within an average of 5 business days. That is a goal, not a promise.
Do not send a second request. VA says a duplicate will not speed anything up.

A COE is not loan approval. VA says it plainly: "You must have satisfactory credit, sufficient income, and a valid Certificate of Eligibility (COE)." The COE proves you earned the benefit. The lender still decides whether to lend you the money.

There is no deadline. VA publishes no filing deadline for a COE and no expiration on home loan entitlement. If you got out in 1987 and never used it, it is still yours.

★ Late is not too late.

Question 5

What are the next steps for getting a VA direct or VA-backed home loan?

VA: the COE is "only part of the process." What comes next depends on the loan type and the lender.

Your lender orders a VA appraisal — a VA-approved appraiser's estimate of what the house is worth at the time of inspection.
VA: an appraisal "isn't a home inspection or a guaranty of value." The appraiser also checks that the house meets basic condition standards VA calls minimum property requirements, or MPRs.
VA: "We strongly recommend that you get an inspection to check for any major defects before you purchase your home." An MPR check is not an inspection. Hire your own inspector.
The lender reviews the appraisal along with your credit, income, and asset paperwork, and decides whether to grant the loan.

Correction — who picks the closing company. The fact sheet says the lender will "work with you" to select a title company to close. VA's own operating page says something different: "The lender chooses a title company, an attorney, or one of their own representatives to conduct the closing." Do not show up at closing expecting a vote on it.

If the appraisal comes in below the price you agreed to, you are not stuck. VA: "You can ask your real estate agent to provide the lender with valid sales data showing the property is worth more than its appraised price." That is called a reconsideration of value, and VA regional offices have a formal process for it. Ask your lender to file one before you put cash on the table or walk away from the house.

VA has a short video on the loan process at va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/how-to-apply

★ The appraisal is not an inspection.

Question 6

What if I have questions about the loan process?

Call a person. You do not need a computer for any of this.

VA loan technician — 877-827-3702 (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Native American Direct Loan — 888-349-7541 (TTY: 711), same hours, or NADL@va.gov. The general loan line is not the right queue for a NADL question.
You can also message VA through its loan guaranty support portal at yourit.va.gov/csp — VA requires you to sign in or create an account first, so keep the phone number as your backup.

Regional loan centers. The fact sheet points you to benefits.va.gov/homeloans/index.asp, which loads — but when I tested it, its own "Regional Loan Centers" link went into a redirect loop and never opened. Use this instead, which lists all eight centers (Atlanta area in Decatur GA, Cleveland OH, Denver CO, Houston TX, Phoenix AZ, Roanoke VA, St. Paul MN, St. Petersburg FL): lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/faq/FAQ_RLC_Contact_Info.pdf

★ One call beats three websites.

Question 7

What should I do if I'm having trouble paying my mortgage?

Call your loan servicer right away — the company you send the payment to. Then call VA.

This help is wider than most people think. VA's own words: "If you're a Veteran or the surviving spouse of a Veteran, we'll provide counseling — even if your loan isn't a VA-guaranteed loan." Conventional, FHA, USDA — it does not matter. Call 877-827-3702 (TTY: 711) and select 6.

A VA loan technician is assigned automatically once a VA-guaranteed loan is 61 or more days past due — but do not wait for that. Call first.
Ask your servicer for these options by name: special forbearance, repayment plan, VA traditional loan modification, 30-year modification, VA partial claim, 40-year modification. If keeping the house is not possible: short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure, or extra time to arrange a private sale.
VA says servicers have until November 28, 2026 to add the VA partial claim to their systems. If you are in default now, ask your servicer directly whether the partial claim is available to you yet.

Anyone charging you an up-front fee to "save your home" is the red flag. VA foreclosure-avoidance help, VA loan technicians, and HUD-approved housing counselors are all free. Report a mortgage-relief scam to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, file a complaint with the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, and find free HUD-approved counseling at hud.gov.

If you are on active duty or recently separated, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) carries mortgage protections tied to debt you took on before you entered service. Tell your servicer you are invoking SCRA, and tell the VA loan technician too — and ask your installation legal assistance office for help putting it in writing.

★ Call before you miss the payment.

Question 8

How does foreclosure affect my future home benefit?

VA: if a loan ends in foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu, you repay what VA lost to restore that part of your benefit. VA calls it restoration of entitlement.

Correction — a VA debt waiver does not restore your entitlement. Many Veterans get the debt waived and reasonably assume the benefit is back. VA says otherwise: "although the veteran's debt was waived by VA, the Government still suffered a loss on the loan. The law does not permit the used portion of the veteran's eligibility to be restored until the loss has been repaid in full." A waiver and a restoration are two different things. Find out which one you actually have before you sit down with a lender.

You only owe what VA actually lost. If your short sale or deed in lieu left VA with no loss, there is nothing to repay. Call 877-827-3702 and ask for the loss amount in writing before you assume you owe a dime.
A foreclosure may not have used all of your benefit. VA states that "any partial remaining eligibility would be available for use." Many Veterans with a foreclosure behind them can still buy again on remaining entitlement, usually with a down payment. Ask the loan technician for two numbers: the loss amount, and how much entitlement you have left.
One-time restoration. Entitlement can be restored on a one-time-only basis when the prior VA loan is paid in full but you still own the property — and normally when the loan is paid off and the property is sold.
Substitution of entitlement. Entitlement can also be restored when a qualified Veteran buyer assumes your loan and substitutes their own entitlement for yours.
Restoration is reflected in your Certificate of Eligibility. The COE request form is VA Form 26-1880.

★ Get the loss figure in writing.

Question 9

What is the VA funding fee?

A one-time payment the Veteran, service member, or survivor pays on a VA-backed or VA direct home loan.

VA's reason for it, in VA's words: it "helps to lower the cost of the loan for U.S. taxpayers since the VA home loan program doesn't require down payments or monthly mortgage insurance."
VA: if you are using a VA home loan to buy, build, improve, or repair a home, or to refinance a mortgage, you will pay the funding fee "unless you meet certain requirements." Question 10 is those requirements, and it is worth thousands of dollars.
You can pay the fee up front at closing or roll it into the loan amount.

What it costs. The rate depends on the loan type, whether this is your first use or a later one, and how much you put down. I am not printing a rate here, because VA publishes the current table and it is the only version you should be quoting to a lender: va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/funding-fee-and-closing-costs

★ Read Question 10 before you sign.

Question 10

Will I have to pay the VA funding fee?

Not if you fall into one of these five. This is the highest-dollar paragraph on the page.

No funding fee is owed if any one of these is true — VA's own list, all five:

You're receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability.
You're eligible to receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, but you're receiving retirement or active-duty pay instead.
You're receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) as the surviving spouse of a Veteran.
You're a service member who has received a proposed or memorandum rating before the loan closing date that says you're eligible to get compensation because of a pre-discharge claim.
You're a service member on active duty who, before or on the loan closing date, provides evidence of having received the Purple Heart.

Correction for surviving spouses — the rule is wider than "receiving DIC." Federal law, 38 U.S.C. 3729(c)(1), waives the fee for the surviving spouse of any Veteran — including someone who died in the active military, naval, air, or space service — who died from a service-connected disability. Drawing DIC is evidence of the exemption, not the test for it. If your Veteran died of a service-connected condition and your DIC is pending, denied on some other ground, or offset, ask for the exemption anyway.

Refund — and the cutoff. VA: "You may be eligible for a refund of the VA funding fee if you are later awarded VA compensation for a service-connected disability. The effective date of your compensation must be retroactive to before the date of your loan closing." And the hard edge, in VA's words: "If you get a proposed or memorandum rating AFTER your loan closing date, you'll still need to pay the funding fee. You won't be eligible for a refund based on this rating." If you have a pre-discharge claim pending, the date you close matters. Ask for the rating decision in hand before closing day.

★ Say the word "exemption" out loud to your lender.

Question 11

What are the current VA home loan limits?

The fact sheet's answer is a true VA sentence lifted out of the section it belonged to. Read the current rule instead.

Correction. The April 2025 fact sheet answers this with one line — that VA loan limits are the same as the Federal Housing Finance Agency conforming limits. On VA's own website that sentence sits inside a section about calculating remaining entitlement. Pulled out and used to answer "what are the limits," it tells every reader a cap applies to them. For most Veterans, it does not.

Full entitlement means no VA loan limit. VA: "You don't have a loan limit (as long as you can afford the loan amount and the property appraisal supports the purchase price)." VA guarantees 25% of the loan with no county cap.
Who has full entitlement. VA: you have it if you have never used the home loan benefit, or if you used it and have since had it restored — restoration happens when the property is sold or the loan is paid in full. Otherwise you have remaining, or partial, entitlement.
Partial entitlement is still not a borrowing cap. The county limit is the most you can borrow with no down payment. VA: "If you're able and willing to make a down payment, you may be able to borrow more than the county loan limit with a VA-backed loan." Most lenders require that your entitlement, your down payment, or the two combined cover at least 25% of the total loan amount. Your lender still has to approve you.
Where the county number comes from: the FHFA one-unit conforming loan limit for the county where you are buying, on loan amounts above $144,000.

County limits reset every January, so I am not printing a figure that will be wrong by the time you read this. Look up the current numbers at va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/loan-limits and on FHFA's own table at fhfa.gov.

★ Do not walk away from a house over a number that may not apply to you.

Question 12

Are the children of a living or deceased Veteran eligible for the home loan benefit?

VA: "No. The children of an eligible Veteran are not eligible for the home loan benefit."

But a surviving spouse can be. Do not let the no for children make the whole Family assume there is nothing here. A surviving spouse may use this benefit if the Veteran died in service or from a service-connected disability; or had been rated totally disabled and then died — in certain situations even if the disability did not cause the death; or is missing in action or a prisoner of war. That last one surprises people: the Veteran does not have to have died.

Remarriage. Remarrying ends eligibility unless the remarriage happened on or after age 57 and on or after December 16, 2003. A spouse who remarried after age 57 but before December 16, 2003 had to apply by December 15, 2004.
If you receive DIC (Dependency and Indemnity Compensation) — file VA Form 26-1817 with the Veteran's DD214, through a lender or by mail to the regional loan center listed on the form.
If you do not receive DIC — file the Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits, VA Form 21P-534EZ, with the DD214, your marriage license, and the death certificate, mailed to: Department of Veterans Affairs, Pension Intake Center, PO Box 5365, Janesville, WI 53547-5365.
Start here: va.gov/family-and-caregiver-benefits/housing-assistance/surviving-spouse-home-loan

★ Children no. Surviving spouses, ask.

Question 13

What kind of VA-backed loan will I need to buy a home?

A VA-backed purchase loan, through a private lender — with one real exception.

VA: "You'll go through a private lender, like a bank or mortgage company, to get this loan. We'll guarantee part of the loan against loss, which will allow your lender to give you better loan terms, like the option to pay no down payment."
VA spells out the condition on that: "No down payment as long as the sales price isn't higher than the home's appraised value." If the appraisal comes in under the contract price, that gap is cash — see Question 5 on asking for a reconsideration of value.
va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/loan-types/purchase-loan

Correction — the exception. If you are a Native American Veteran, or a Veteran married to a Native American, buying, building, or improving a home on federal trust land, you use the Native American Direct Loan instead. VA makes that loan directly — there is no private lender. Call 888-349-7541 (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, or email NADL@va.gov. A Veteran in that situation who follows the fact sheet to a bank gets turned away for no reason.

You have to live in it. VA: "You will live in the home you're buying with the loan." You certify that you intend to occupy the home when you close. A VA loan is not for an investment property or a vacation house, and the certification you sign at closing is a real one.

★ Primary residence. Every time.

Question 14

What if I need more information?

Four ways in. Use whichever one fits your day.

VA loan technician — 877-827-3702 (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. Behind on a mortgage? Select 6.
VA Benefits Hotline — 1-800-827-1000 (TTY: 711), 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
Native American Direct Loan — 888-349-7541 (TTY: 711) or NADL@va.gov.
If you need an interpreter — call 800-698-2411 and select 0. That reaches a VA call center agent. Then tell the agent you want a language interpreter to join the call. That line is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

On the TTY number. VA's older fact sheets call 711 a "Hearing Impaired TDD line." It is not a TDD line. 711 is the nationwide access number for Telecommunications Relay Service. Dial 711 and the relay operator connects your call.

★ Somebody answers. Let them.

Why I rebuilt this. VA's fact sheet is dated April 2025 and I am publishing this in September 2026. Six of its answers had gone narrow or stale in that time — the COE document list, who picks the closing company, whether a debt waiver restores your entitlement, the surviving-spouse funding fee rule, the loan limits, and which loan a Native American Veteran on trust land actually uses. Every one of those, left alone, talks a Veteran out of something he earned. That is the only reason this page exists. I bring the truth, simple and to the point. I have nothing left in this world than my word.