If you currently serve in any branch of the U.S. military or you’re a veteran, you might be able to get a mortgage backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). These VA home loans come with some notable benefits, like a 0% down payment and the potential for a lower interest rate.

If you’re a service member or veteran who can qualify for this kind of mortgage, it’s almost always the best option to help you buy a house. We want to help you understand how these loans work and what getting one would mean. 

With that in mind, we developed this comprehensive guide to VA home loans. Here’s a look at everything you should know about these specialized kinds of mortgage loans.  

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What are VA home loans?

VA home loans were born as part of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. The goal was to help the people returning from World War II. The government wanted to step in to make sure returning veterans could get the credit they needed to build a good life for themselves and their families. 

As a result, the VA decided it would guarantee mortgages for veterans. That didn’t mean the VA became a mortgage lender itself (although it does directly offer the Native American Direct Loan). Instead, it essentially insured (and still insures) home loans that veterans and active-duty service members take out through this program.

Since its inception, the program for VA home loans has given  mortgage lenders some security. If the veteran or service member fails to repay their mortgage, the VA steps in to pay out a portion of the loan amount to the lender. (Today, that guarantee usually totals 25% of your loan.)

With some certainty that they won’t lose all of their money on VA home loans, lenders are willing to do a few things:

• Offer mortgages with a 0% down payment
• Offer competitive interest rates
• Approve borrowers who might otherwise not qualify for a mortgage

To date, the VA has guaranteed more than 18 million loans through this program. 

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Types of VA home loans

Under the VA’s home loan program, eligible veterans and active-duty service members have a few different ways to access real estate-related money.

For the purposes of this guide, we’re focusing on purchase loans from here on out. 

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The benefits of VA home loans

VA home loans come with a range of serious perks for eligible borrowers. 

To show you how these stack up against your other mortgage options, we’re comparing them against conventional loans and FHA loans. FHA loans get backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Conventional loans are mortgages that aren’t guaranteed by any government agency.

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Who can get VA home loans?

You can break eligibility requirements for a mortgage backed by the VA into three categories. 

• First and foremost, you need to meet the minimum service requirement set by the VA.
• Secondly, the property you want to buy needs to match some standards set by the VA.
• Finally, you need to meet the lender’s criteria. These basically make sure you can afford the home loan.

#1: Service requirements for VA home loans

The big qualifying criteria for VA home loans centers on your time served. We did a deeper dive into this in another article, but we’ll hit the highlights for you here. 

Generally, you can be eligible for a VA loan if you served:

• 90 days during WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or from the Gulf War period to present day
  
  • The 90-day requirement also applies if you served in the Republic of Vietnam in the leadup to the war starting November 1, 1955
• 181 continuous days in any span of time between the aforementioned wars

The VA also offers exceptions to the time-served requirement if you were discharged for a service-related disability, hardship, or something like an involuntary reduction in force. 

In order to qualify for a VA loan, you need to get documentation called a certificate of eligibility (COE). This validates that you’ve met the service requirement that applies to the specific time period during which you serve(d). 

Spouses and eligibility for VA home loans

If you’re married to a veteran or service member and they meet the service requirement for a VA loan, you can usually get on the mortgage with them as a co-borrower.

If you’re the surviving spouse, you might be able to get your own COE. Usually, the VA will back loans for surviving spouses who are receiving or eligible to receive VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC). If your service member is missing in action (MIA), is or was a prisoner of war (POW), or died while in service or because of a service-related disability, you probably qualify. 

Getting your COE 

If you’re eligible for a VA home loan, you have a couple of options for getting your certificate of eligibility. 

If you’re not yet working with a VA lender, you can request the COE yourself. The VA handles this process online now. Head to this webpage to get started. You’ll log into your VA.gov account to request your COE this way. If the VA already has all of the information they need on file, you might be able to get an automatic COE online.

Alternatively, if you’ve chosen a lender, they can handle this process for you. You’re allowed to ask them to submit your application online on your behalf. You will need to give them the required information about your service, though, so sometimes doing this step yourself actually takes less time. 

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#2: VA requirements for you and the property

Before the VA will guarantee your loan, they need to make sure it fits their requirements. It looks at two areas here: affordability of the loan and the property itself.

Loan affordability (residual income)

That means making sure you can actually afford the loan. For this, the VA looks at something called residual income. This is the amount of money you have left over each month after you pay for housing, taxes, utilities, and other debts you have (like student or car loans). If you’re co-borrowing with your spouse, their income counts, too. This helps you pad your residual income numbers. 

The VA breaks up residual income requirements by region and the size of your family. If you’re going to be borrowing more than $80,000, you need to meet or exceed the following residual income threshold:

If you’re not sure of your region, here’s a more granular breakdown:

Northeast:

• Connecticut
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Vermont

Midwest:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin

South: 

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Delaware
• District of
• Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Puerto Rico
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia
• West Virginia

West: 

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Oregon
• Utah
• Washington
• Wyoming

Property requirements

On top of checking for affordability, the VA also checks out the property you want to buy. As part of the process of getting your loan, you’ll need to have the house professionally appraised by someone from the VA. 

Specifically, they’ll be looking for: 

• Use as primary residence: The VA only backs loans for properties in which veterans and service members will live. You can’t use this kind of financing to buy a vacation home or an investment property. 
• Alignment with required property type: You can use a VA loan to buy a:
  
  • Single-family home
  • Multi-family home up to a fourplex as long as you’ll live in one of the units
  • Condo (with a pre-approval or waiver; the VA essentially has to greenlight the condo complex)
  • Manufactured home as long as it’s attached to a fixed foundation
• Satisfaction of MPRs: The big part of the VA appraisal centers on making sure the property meets the VA’s minimum property requirements (MPRs). It needs to be safe and sanitary with key aspects like functional utilities and roofing. The VA has a checklist walking through the basic MPRs to give you a better idea of what’s required here. 

#3: Typical lender requirements for VA home loans

Unless you qualify for a Native American Direct Loan, you get a VA-backed loan through a lender, not directly from the VA. That means you’re subject to all of the lender’s underwriting requirements. 

Basically, the lender wants to see that you’ll be able to pay back what you borrow. 

As a result, they’ll check your:

• Credit score (most lenders want to see 620+)
• Income, and the consistency of that income (e.g., are you still employed?) — the residual income piece from above comes into play here, too
• Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, which measures how much of your monthly income goes to debts, including your potential future mortgage

Lenders use your financial info to decide if they’ll approve you for the mortgage and, if so, what interest rate to charge. 

The better your financial profile looks, the less you’ll spend on interest. Because of that, it can literally pay off to spend some time working on your credit score and lowering your DTI before you apply. 

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VA home loan entitlement: Figuring out how much you can borrow

Unlike other government agencies that back loans, the VA doesn’t put a limit on the dollar amount of the mortgages it guarantees. Still, the sum you can borrow can be capped by two things: the size of the loan that the lender thinks you can afford and your available VA home loan entitlement. 

Your entitlement is the amount of your home loan that the VA is willing to back. Typically, it will back 25% (meaning it will repay the lender 25% of the loan amount if you fail to repay the loan). Getting to that 25% mark is what makes lenders feel comfortable enough to offer you a mortgage with 0% down. 

Full entitlement: First-time borrowers and people who’ve paid off VA loans and sold the home 

If you’ve never had a VA loan before, you should be able to get 25% of your loan amount guaranteed by the VA. 

The first $36,000 is pretty much locked in. The VA calls this your basic entitlement, and you should see it on your COE. 

Still, you need to get 25% of your loan guaranteed by the VA for a 0% down payment. That basic entitlement doesn’t get you too far. It only backs a loan of up to $144,000 ($36,000 ÷ 0.25). 

Since the average American home now costs about a half-million dollars, you need more from the VA. Fortunately, the Department of Veterans Affairs offers bonus entitlement. If you have full entitlement, they’ll usually apply bonus entitlement to get the guarantee up to 25% of the loan amount for which the lender approves you. 

If you’ve used a VA loan before, you can get back to full entitlement by paying off the loan in full and selling the house. If you’re still living in the house, the VA offers a one-time entitlement restoration. 

Partial entitlement: People currently with VA loans or ones still in houses they bought with a VA loan

With a partial entitlement, the bonus entitlement you can use has a ceiling. Specifically, it equals 25% of your county’s loan limit minus the amount of entitlement you’ve already used. 

That’s a little complicated, but going through it step by step should help. 

1. Figure out your county’s loan limit. The VA follows the geographic limits set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). You can find 2026 limits in your area by downloading the spreadsheet with the latest data from the FHFA. The national baseline for 2026 is $832,750. If you live in an expensive area, your local limit might be higher.
2. Multiply the limit by 25%. Let’s take the national baseline as our example. 25% of $832,750 is $208,187.50 (832,750 × 0.25). 
3. Figure out how much entitlement you’ve already used. Pull up your COE and look for the table titled “Prior loans charged to entitlement.” You’ll see how much you’ve used so far in the “Entitlement charged” column.
4. Subtract your entitlement used from your local entitlement limit. In other words, your calculation is [the amount from step number 2] – [the amount from step 3]. 

Once you know your entitlement amount, you can multiply that by four to figure out how much house you can likely get with VA backing. 

This all applies if you’re still in the house for which you used the VA loan, even if you’ve paid your mortgage off in full. 

To restore your full entitlement, you have two options. The VA offers a one-time restoration option, which allows you to keep the house. Or you can sell to keep that one-time restoration option on the table for the future. 

If you want to borrow more than your remaining entitlement allows, you potentially still can. You just need to be ready to make a down payment on your mortgage. 

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The VA funding fee: The upfront cost of VA home loans

The majority of VA loans require the borrower (that’s you) to pay a one-time funding fee. It’s your way of contributing to the VA loan program (whether you like it or not). 

The amount you have to pay here depends on how much money you put up for your down payment and whether you’ve used your VA loan entitlement in the past. 

The government periodically updates the funding fees for VA home loans. Currently, the funding fee situation for people getting a VA loan is:

An example can help you understand how this works. 

Let’s say you’re buying a $450,000 house and it’s your first time getting a VA loan. If you take advantage of the 0% down payment, you’ll need to borrow the full $450,000 through your loan. As a result, your VA funding fee would be $9,675 ($450,000 × 0.0215). 

Alternatively, let’s say you decide to put 5% down, or $22,500. In this case, you’ll only need to borrow $427,500. And your down payment drops you down a VA funding fee bracket. All of that brings your funding fee total to $6,412.50 ($427,500 × 0.015). 

Exceptions to the VA funding fee

Not all veterans and service members have to cover this added loan cost. The VA offers exemptions to the following people:

• Those getting or who are eligible to get VA compensation for a service-related disability 
• Surviving spouse who are getting Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) 
• Those who received a proposed or memorandum rating that says they’re eligible to get compensation because of a pre-discharge claim
• Active-duty service members with a Purple Heart

If you end up getting VA compensation for a service-related disability after your loan closes, you might be able to get a refund for your funding fee. 

Paying the VA funding fee

If you’re required to pay the VA funding fee, you have two options here. You can:

1. Pay it upfront at the closing table.
2. Roll it into your mortgage amount (but that means paying interest on it). 

Usually, it makes financial sense to pay the funding fee when you close if you can afford it. Make sure you don’t wipe out your savings, though. Homeownership can come with unexpected and sudden costs. Your water heater could break tomorrow, and you don’t want to find yourself in a bind. If you’ll be tight on cash after closing, it might be smarter to finance your funding fee through your mortgage. 

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Getting started with VA home loans

For most veterans and service members, VA home loans offer a path to homeownership — or buying their next place — with financial advantages over other kinds of mortgages. The trick here is that not every lender offers VA loans. 

That doesn’t mean it will be hard to find this kind of mortgage, though. In fact, so many VA lenders exist that it’s important you weigh rate quotes from each to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Evaluate not just the interest rate, but fees, customer service, and other key factors, too. 

To help you get started, we offer a rate table showcasing current rates from leading lenders that offer VA loans. To get the most accurate info, input your details — like your zip code and credit score range — into the top bar. The resulting high-level view gives you a way to see what different companies are offering. This helps you zero in on the top options for your specific situation.

Then, get rate quotes and compare them. Closely evaluating your options can save you thousands on your VA home loan. 

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VA home loan FAQs

What is the limit on a VA home loan?

Technically, the VA doesn’t set a cap on how much you can borrow with a loan it backs. 

That said, the lender will set a ceiling based on how much mortgage they think you can afford to repay. On top of that, if you’ve already used part of your VA entitlement, you might have a maximum loan amount based on local limits set by the FHFA. 

How do I figure out if I’m eligible for a VA home loan?

We have a guide that lays out the service required to qualify for a loan backed by the VA. If you’re still not sure, you can reach out to the VA at (877) 827-3702 or through the Guaranty Portal.

Do I need a down payment with a VA home loan?

No, that’s the big benefit of this type of mortgage. Because the VA guarantees 25% of the loan, lowering risk for the lender, you can get a mortgage with 0% down. 

How do I get a VA home loan?

You don’t get these loans directly from the VA. Instead, you’ll go through a lender that works with the VA. Our table of current VA rates lays out some VA lenders who might be right for you.   

If I’ve already used a VA loan, can I use it again?

Yes, but the amount of your loan that the VA will guarantee could be limited. If you’ve fully paid off your VA loan and sold the house or you applied and were approved for a one-time entitlement restoration, you should be able to get the VA to guarantee 25% of your loan. That qualifies you for a 0% down payment with the lender.

If you still have a VA loan outstanding or you’re still in the house without entitlement restoration, you have partial entitlement. We explained how to calculate how much of a mortgage the VA will guarantee in the section above titled “Partial entitlement: People currently with VA loans or ones still in houses they bought with a VA loan.”

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