VA Home Loan Pro Reveals ONE Secret Every Veteran Needs To Know!

What's up guys. Today we're breaking down the VA handbook. It's where we get all our information in order to use the VA home loan. It talks about eligibility requirements, qualification requirements, and it really breaks everything down that lenders need to know. So I'm going to talk about the VA handbook and I'm talking about the VA circulars and kind of how experience brings that together and kind of showcase some of that stuff. So without further ado, let me share my screen so you guys can see it. Now, like I tell people, you pretty much go to any search engine and type in VA handbook. Okay. And it's going to pop up, uh, this website right here for the lenders page, VA home loans. Now this is a section that lenders use in order to find out different information. If they need to be able to access like the VA's portal, which like I have access to pulling certificates with eligibility, and it just kind of gives you resources for lenders. Like here's a good example, like the VA home loan and marijuana derived income because you can't use, uh, income from marijuana derived businesses, uh, which is a challenge for some folks. It also outlines the VA buyer's guide, which is kind of like a 30 some odd page document that kind of outlines the VA loan for consumers from the VA. And then we also, and here we have the lenders handbook. That's what the thing we're going to cover. Also the VA circulars and why it's relevant is because the VA handbook is the Holy grail. You can say of all the things that lenders need to know in order to originate a loan. And now, as you guys know, I am a big fan of educating the veteran community around this. And sometimes it's tough because the VA handbook is 616 pages and you have these circulars, which are basically addendums to the handbook that get thrown out there. And a lot of people don't realize that these addendums exist. And then there's also information that the VA doesn't push out that is also available to you. Like the condo waivers is a good example of that, where you don't find it anywhere in here, but you're able to do it. And a lot of you have reached out to me. So thank you for that. Uh, help with your condo documents. Um, here it's also going to outline the regional loan centers where you actually want to reach out to the VA because you need some help with any something. And by far, they're really great with that. And I've touched on this before, but the VA home loan eligibility component, you click right in here and it takes you to the page. You log in through your VA benefits and boom, you have the thing that you need. VA home loan limits just kind of tells you what the limits are. This is another great case when people are like, well, I can't have more than one VA home loan. Definitely. You can remember two sets of rules. We've talked about that on the channel. Uh, if you don't have an outstanding VA loan and you have your full entitlement, you have no limit on your benefits. Now you also have to be able to qualify to afford that. So just kind of keep that in mind as you go through this process. And there's also other reference manuals like, Hey, condo approvals, how to correct the certificate of eligibility, right? So information is here. It's all about if a lender knows what they're doing or not. If you guys have questions or wanting to use your VA home loan, feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to help you be able to do that. And they also talk about, Hey, what's going on with, um, VA home loan volume, like how much is being generated across the country. And normally it's about 25,000 ish a month. So let's go into the VA handbook and kind of understand why this is such an important document for you to understand. Um, and there's also, again, they'll update things on here, right? So you're going to have like a lender's approval guidelines, eligibility and entitlement, the guarantee credit underwriting. So when people are asking, Hey, what's the minimum credit score, we're going to these. Now keep in mind that there's really two layers of a VA home loan. One is going to be the VA handbook itself that the VA publishes out. The second part is going to be, well, yes, they've published this information out, but now what lenders are going to have overlays to this handbook that has everything you need to know about the VA home loan. Right. Um, and then you couple that with experience because, uh, in some one place, it might tell you one thing and another, it might tell you something else, but it's all going to be kind of based on your individual situation. And this is why we always say don't disqualify yourself because there's so many variables when looking at this documentation, right? It's going to show you the process to submit to the VA refinancing, special underwriting, borrower fees. Like how much can you get charged? How much can you get in credits? All of this is here. What the appraisal process looks like, what appraisers look for, what the VA is looking for in its property requirements and what is a notice of value. Uh, all of this stuff is in here. Now, an easier way to search this like for myself is I downloaded the entire manual. So the 616 pages of the VA handbook, because when I want to search for things, just like you want to potentially search for something, you want to be able to pull up the full document and then hit the control F in the PDF document. So it pulls up the, uh, find section. So I'm going to give you guys one easy example of, let's say someone is looking for self employment, um, self employment, right? And it's going to take you right to the guidelines for the VA and what they require, right? So when we do videos, we cross reference this document against any other circulars that may go out there, combine that with experience and do a video. So it makes it a lot easier to understand. So lenders don't, I mean, I'll just be honest. We, if we don't have to request documents, we don't want to, but the VA has set forth what lenders need to get both from the VA handbook perspective. Plus, when you run a file through what's called an automated underwriting system, I have a whole video on that. It's also going to reference if you need tax returns or not. And if self employment is a good example, because you can be a full time W2 employee. And if you never, and let's say you have some self employment income on your tax return, but you don't disclose that to a lender. Here's the challenge that comes up. Lender finds out you're self employed. You didn't submit your tax returns. Now, since you any type of self employment income requires the prior two years of tax returns and a whole bunch of additional documentation. So if you have negative income from self employment income, even if you're W2, that will count against you. So those are things why it's so relevant that you submit all your documents and the lender knows what they're doing to go through that process. So you are set up for success. So here, let's take a look at this. Self employment, right? You need a year to day profit and loss statement. So make sure you also reading up on this, right? Current balance sheet, individual tax returns and check this out, right? So in this second page, it talks about what is how you actually derive that income. And you know, I normally will say that, yes, you can do one year of self employment income. And here is the guideline because most people will tell you, no, it's absolutely just two years. So here, but you have to have more than a year. And you also probably want to have a tax year in order. You probably need a tax year. So less than two years cannot usually be considered stable unless the borrower has previous related employment and or specialized training in something. So like where I've seen this be successful is if somebody's within like maybe a government contracting job, they did it for the military, they transitioned over. So it's another way to be able to do that, right? So things, same thing is going to be the minimum property requirement. So let's take a look at that. So you guys can see kind of where that information comes from. Give me a second here. I got to pull it up. Sometimes it's a, a little bit tricky on that. But also this is going to talk about any type of offsets you can do for like, let's say rental income, right? What do you need for that? That's like another good one for people trying to buy multiple VA home loans because you want to be one step ahead to say, Hey, can we, you know, how can I offset a departing residence, right? Hey, I have income properties. When I'm filing my taxes, because I plan on purchasing another property down the line, how much do money do I need to have? How do my taxes need to be lined up? And again, that's something we can help you with, especially since the tax year is coming up. All of those things are going to be very relevant. And the nice thing is they also give you examples of you know, different scenarios where you can kind of like look through and be like, Hey, this does fit me or it does not. Same thing like multifamily. Let me take, pull this, pull this. Let me see if this is how it comes up. It does not. Let's see. Single family home. Okay. I want to show you guys an example of type of properties that you can purchase. Right. So modular, right. So if you pull up like in modular sections, right. So like when we did a video not too long ago, modular homes, it's going to pull up like, Hey, this is the whole section dedicated towards that. Right. So it's going to outline appraisal things that are required in here. What is required of the property itself. Right. So again, this is why this book is so relevant. Now, let me show you guys the second piece, which is the VA circulars that come out, which are updates to the VA handbook, right? You have to know both of them. So anytime, you know, we are working with a client, you know, with somebody to get a VA loan and an underwriter may come back and say, well, you can't do this. Well, it's like, wait a second. Yes, we can. Because the new updates happen. Like I did a video about, um, second mortgages for assumable loans not too long ago. And still today, I get calls from people watching the video saying like, well, my lender and this person, this person also, you can't do that. Well, yes, you can. The challenge is finding lenders that can find it. Um, and another big piece to this is that these circulars expire. So you also have to be able to track that. And it tells you valid until rescinded. Uh, sometimes they'll have an expiration date, right? That you need to be aware of, uh, like VA funding fee, uh, update, right? So if you feel like, Oh man, my lender's charging me something. Why am I being charged this? You pull up the circular and it's gonna come up. Right. And then some of these are basically saying that it might be just small updates to the program itself up to a circular. Uh, cause like some of these would have expired expiration dates and they've been removed. A good example of that is like the national guard Bureau has expanded VA home loan eligibility. So couple with that. So, but if you guys have questions or you're running into problems working with your lender, feel free to reach out. Always happy to help. And we can also help you with the financing as well. You can schedule a call down below. Hopefully you guys got some good information out of this. Please pass this on, share with the veteran community. Um, and I'll talk to you guys soon.