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Buying where you are headed

Most people buying with a VA loan are not buying where they live now. Orders move you, or you are leaving service and going somewhere new. Here is how that works when your lender is not down the street.

Written by Sean Goudreau, Mortgage Loan Officer · NMLS #326155 · Rate

Can you use a lender who is not local?

Yes, and on a VA purchase it matters less than people expect.

A mortgage is a national product. The underwriting rules are the same in North Carolina as they are in Massachusetts, and the VA's requirements do not change by state. What changes is the appraisal market, the closing process, and the local customs around who does what. None of that requires your lender to be nearby.

What does matter is whether the lender works VA files regularly. A local lender who closes two VA loans a year is a worse choice than one three states away who closes them every week. The program has enough specific rules that unfamiliarity shows up in the file, usually as a cost you never find out about.

I work nationally. Where I am licensed directly, I originate the loan myself. Where I am not, it runs through a colleague at Rate and I stay on your file from the first call to the closing table.

What about finding an agent?

I keep a network of agents in the markets I work in, and I will introduce you to two or three rather than one. Working style matters, and the right agent for one buyer is the wrong one for another. You should get to choose.

What they have in common is what I check before anyone goes on that list. Have they actually closed VA transactions, and how many. Do they understand the VA's minimum property requirements well enough to steer you away from a house that will not appraise. Do they know how PCS timelines interact with a closing date. Will they take a call from me when something needs sorting out.

That last one matters more than it sounds. Most problems on a purchase get solved by a lender and an agent talking directly, and an agent who does not return calls turns a small issue into a lost house.

Agents who do not clear that bar do not get referred, regardless of how much business they send me.

Where I work

What is different about buying on orders?

Three things, and none of them are about the loan.

The timeline is compressed and it is not yours. Report dates do not move because a closing slipped. That argues for starting earlier than feels necessary, and for a Certificate of Eligibility pulled before you have picked a house rather than after.

You are often buying a place you have barely seen. That raises the stakes on the inspection and on the agent, because they are the two people looking at the property when you cannot. It is also why the VA's minimum property requirements are worth understanding before you write an offer, not after the appraisal.

And you may not be there long. A purchase that makes sense over ten years does not automatically make sense over three. That said, the VA benefit is built for exactly this situation: you can keep the house and rent it out, and use remaining entitlement to buy at the next duty station.

Headed somewhere new?

Tell me where and I will tell you what to expect there. No credit pull, no application.

No credit pull or application. Sean will reach out personally.

Sean Goudreau

Mortgage Loan Officer

NMLS #326155

Rate

465 Waverley Oaks Rd Ste 200

Waltham, MA 02452

Company

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