With a Veteran mortgage loan you can buy a home for up to $417,000(more in some areas) with no down-payment.

Conventional loans require an average down-payment of 5% -20%. Although there are some $0 down-payment conventional loan programs available, the interest rate on these conventional programs is higher and the programs are credit score based. This is not the case with Veteran mortgage loans. Eligibility for a Veteran mortgage loan is not based on your credit score and you pay the same low rate whether you are making a 5% down-payment or no down-payment at all.

Veteran mortgage loans do not require you to have mortgage insurance.

Compare this to conforming conventional loans which do require you to have mortgage insurance if you are making less than a 20% down-payment. Because a veteran mortgage loan does not require mortgage insurance you will save what could be hundreds each month over a conventional loan.

If you have less than perfect credit you are likely to get a lower rate with a Veteran mortgage loan than with a conventional loan.

Because the VA does not have minimum credit requirements, and offers up a 25% guarantee on veteran mortgage loans, lenders are more willing to on a borrower who doesn’t meet their ideal credit profile. Once again a Veteran mortgage loan offers option where they would not exist with a conventional loan.

A Veteran mortgage loan is assumable.

Most people don’t realize that a Veteran mortgage loan can be passed from one eligible party to another. This helps in a few ways. First a great interest rate can be preserved. If the Veteran mortgage loan was taken out during a period of very low rates a subsequent buyer can assume the payments at the much lower rate (provided they are eligible for a Veteran mortgage loan). Second, a home that is under a Veteran mortgage loan can be passed down to subsequent generations. This is a great thing for many service men and women who’s parents also served faithfully in the armed forces.

There is no prepayment penalty on a Veteran mortgage loan, meaning that you can refinance or sell your home at any time without having to pay a penalty.

This is very important for active duty military families who move with regular frequency. Because a Veteran mortgage loan has no prepayment penalty, borrowers have greater flexibility when they need it, not when the lender says they can have it.

Perhaps one of the more overlooked aspects of a Veteran mortgage loan is that they allow you to have a higher debt ratio than conventional loans.

Your debt ratio is a crucial factor in the loan qualification decision. During the qualification process they lender assesses your ability to repay the veteran mortgage loan. The debt ratio is used to evaluate the amount of payment responsibilities that you have outside of your housing costs. For most conventional loans you must have a debt ratio below 36%. Again because of the guarantee offer by the VA, It will be easier to qualify for a Veteran mortgage loan if your debt ratio exceeds the standard 36%.

With a Veteran mortgage loan the seller is allowed to pay all of your closing cost up to 6% of the loan amount.

A conventional loan only allows the seller to pay your closing cost up to 3% of the loan amount. Because of the ability to finance out to 100% with a Veteran mortgage loan, this means that in some cases a home can be purchased with zero out of pocket expenses. Imagine not being responsible for paying thousands of dollars at the closing table to move into you new home. With a Veteran mortgage loan you can!

Once you have a Veteran mortgage loan you can use a streamline program to refinance to a lower interest rate and save on the monthly payments.

Currently a Veteran mortgage loan is the only type of loan that allows you to drop your interest rate without having to go through an appraisal. And should rates improve significantly again you can do a streamline refinance of the Veteran mortgage loan again with no cash out of pocket at closing.

If you have equity in your home you can do a “cash-out” refinance of your Veteran mortgage loan and take out equity (up to 90% in most cases) to consolidate debts and make improvements to the home.

This is a great option for a borrower who has lots of equity in their home, but may not have perfect credit. With a “cash-out” refinance of the Veteran mortgage loan those who might not be eligible for a traditional home improvement loan, now can make those long needed home improvements.

A Veteran mortgage loan can be either a fixed rate or a Hybrid ARM.

With the flexibility afforded with a Veteran mortgage loan borrowers are better able to choose the program that is right for them. Should you be planning to move from your home in 3 years a 3/1 VA Hybrid ARM is the solution. Maybe your duty station requires a 5 year stay. A 5/1 Hybrid ARM suits your situation perfectly. Perhaps you are buying your dream home. A low fixed rate for either 15 or 30 years is the answer for you. Whatever the situation a Veteran mortgage loan has flexible options to suit the needs of today’s eligible veterans.

Interest rates on a Veteran mortgage loan follow very closely with their conventional cousins and in some cases can be found even lower.

With interest rates currently at all time lows there has never been a better time to get your Veteran mortgage loan.