Your VA home loan, all on one page

Earlier service periods have their own minimums, and a discharge for a service-connected disability can qualify with less time. VA makes the final determination from your records.

There are three ways to get it:

1. Through us. The lender requests it online through VA's system for lenders.
2. Online on VA.gov.
3. By mail with VA Form 26-1880, which takes longer.

What VA may ask for: a DD214 for veterans; a statement of service signed by your commander, adjutant or personnel officer if you are serving now; for the Guard or Reserve, discharge papers or a statement of creditable years; for surviving spouses, the veteran's DD214 and VA Form 26-1817 (with DIC) or 21P-534EZ (without).

Our step-by-step COE guide

You may qualify if you receive, or are eligible for, certain Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), or if your spouse is an active-duty service member missing in action or held as a prisoner of war.

A surviving spouse who receives DIC pays no funding fee. The loan works like any other VA loan: no down payment with full entitlement and no monthly mortgage insurance.

You certify that you will live in the home. VA's handbook treats a reasonable time as generally within 60 days of closing; a later date needs an explanation the lender accepts.

A VA cash-out refinance also needs you to live in the home. An IRRRL only needs you to have lived there before, so a home you now rent out can still be refinanced with one.

The fee is figured on the loan amount, not the price, and can be paid in cash or added to the loan. On a purchase it is the only cost that can be added to the loan.

Figure your fee

• Veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability.
• Those eligible for that compensation who receive retirement or active-duty pay instead.
• Surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
• Service members with a proposed or memorandum rating, issued before closing, on a pre-discharge claim.
• Active-duty service members who show evidence of a Purple Heart on or before closing.

If VA later awards compensation with an effective date before closing, the fee may be refunded. A rating effective after closing does not bring a refund.

Conventional loans add private mortgage insurance with less than 20% down. FHA adds an annual premium, for the life of most loans. USDA adds a yearly fee of 0.35% for the life of the loan. VA adds none.

In its place, VA charges the one-time funding fee, unless you are exempt. Your Mortgage Plan shows the difference in dollars.

The lender's own charges are limited to a flat fee of no more than 1% of the loan, in place of other origination charges, plus discount points if you choose them. You may also pay reasonable, customary amounts for listed items such as the VA appraisal, the credit report, title, recording, a survey, flood certification, hazard insurance and the first tax and insurance deposits.

In Southwest Colorado, fees usually run about $3,000 to $3,500 in fees, plus prepaid taxes and insurance. Taxes and insurance vary widely from home to home, from about $600 a year in taxes and $800 in insurance to about $3,000 of each, so they move your upfront cash more than the fees do.

VA does not limit what a seller pays toward your normal closing costs. Under a temporary VA variance in effect since August 10, 2024, you may also pay a reasonable and customary fee to your own buyer's agent; that fee is not included in the loan.

VA caps seller concessions at 4% of the reasonable value on VA's Notice of Value. Concessions are things beyond normal closing costs, such as the seller paying your funding fee, paying off a debt of yours or prepaying your hazard insurance.

Normal closing costs paid by the seller do not count toward the 4%.

In mid-October 2026, locked 30-year VA rates averaged about 0.36 percentage points below conventional rates in the Optimal Blue indexes. That is a national average, not an offer and not our rate.

Your own rate depends on your file and the day you lock; your Mortgage Plan shows it beside your other options.

Since January 1, 2020 (the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019), VA sets no loan limit for a veteran with full entitlement. Above $144,000, VA guarantees up to 25% of the loan.

The loan still cannot be more than the lower of the price and the appraised value. VA's example: a $450,000 pre-approval, a $400,000 contract and a $375,000 appraisal cap the loan at $375,000.

You have full entitlement if you have never used it, or if it has been restored.

When part of your entitlement is tied up in another VA loan, VA works the rest from the county's one-unit conforming limit:

1. Take the county's one-unit limit ($832,750 in most of Colorado) and multiply by 25%.
2. Subtract the entitlement already charged, from your COE.
3. Most lenders lend up to four times what is left with no down payment.

Example. $832,750 × 25% = $208,187.50. Less $50,000 in use leaves $158,187.50. Four times that is $632,750 with nothing down. For a $700,000 home, your entitlement and a down payment together need to cover 25% of the loan, funding fee included: $17,951.52 down. The loan with its 3.3% after-first-use fee ($22,507.60) is $704,556.08, and 25% of it is $176,139.02: $158,187.50 of entitlement plus $17,951.52. Some lenders figure it more simply, as 25% of the amount above $632,750: $16,812.50.

Work out your remaining entitlement

VA sets no maximum debt-to-income ratio. 41% is VA's standard; above it, the lender looks closely at residual income, the money left each month after the house payment, debts and taxes.

Above 41%, the loan can still be approved: when residual income is at least 20% over VA's guideline, no extra review is needed; otherwise the underwriter's supervisor must justify the approval in writing.

VA compares what is left each month with a guideline for your family size and region. Colorado is in VA's West region. For loans of $80,000 or more:

Larger families have their own figures. It is a practical test that can help a family with a higher debt ratio but a healthy budget.

VA sets no minimum credit score. Lenders set their own, and they differ, so we match you with a lender whose rules fit your file.

VA asks for a careful look at the whole credit history rather than a score cutoff. We talk through your credit before we pull it, and we order rapid rescores at no cost to you when they help.

A VA loan above $832,750 works like any other VA loan when you have full entitlement: VA sets no limit. Lenders set their own maximums for larger loans and may ask more of credit and savings, which is where comparing lenders matters.

With entitlement in use, a loan above four times your remaining entitlement usually needs a down payment, so that your entitlement and the down payment together cover 25% of the loan, funding fee included. See Remaining entitlement.

The appraiser comes from VA's own roster, not one the lender picks. The result is VA's Notice of Value, which sets the most the loan can be and the base for the 4% concession limit.

The appraiser also checks the minimum property requirements. If something needs fixing, the report says so, and it is usually repaired before closing.

Under VA's Tidewater process, when the value looks likely to come in below the contract price, the appraiser notifies the lender's point of contact before finishing the report. We then have 2 business days to send sales the appraiser may not have seen.

If the value still comes in low, we can request a reconsideration of value, and you can renegotiate the price or pay the difference in cash.

VA's minimum property requirements (MPRs) ask that the home be safe, structurally sound and sanitary, and meet the standards for a permanent home in its area. What the appraiser most often notes:

• Roof: keeps moisture out with reasonable life ahead. A defective roof with three or more layers of shingles needs the old layers removed before it is replaced.
• Heat: enough for healthful, comfortable living. A wood stove as the main heat needs a permanent conventional system that keeps plumbed areas at 50°F or more.
• Water: a continuing supply of safe drinking water and hot water, meeting the local health authority's standards, or EPA's where there are none.
• Sewage: a septic system or sewer that disposes of waste without a nuisance or health risk.
• Wood-destroying insects: the appraiser reports any sign of insects, fungus or dry rot, beside any inspection VA requires.
• Peeling paint, pre-1978: defective paint on a home built before 1978 is treated as lead-based and must be corrected, such as by cleaning and two coats of non-lead paint.
• Crawl space: access, free of debris, vented, and no standing water or excessive dampness.
• Utilities: each unit has its own service, or a separate shut-off where units share it.
• Access: safe access by an all-weather road. A private road needs a permanent easement and a maintenance agreement.

VA's handbook chapter on MPRs was revised for appraisals ordered after May 1, 2026. When we hear of likely issues, we review the inspection against the MPRs early, so repairs can be planned.

Appraisals, in a 2-minute lesson

• 1 to 4 units, when you live in one of them.
• Condos in a project VA has approved. Look up a project on VA's condo report, or send us the address and we check it.
• Manufactured homes on a permanent foundation, titled with the land. A manufactured home not permanently affixed has its own 1% funding fee.
• New construction, and buying a home and improving it.

VA's condo report · Manufactured homes, explained

A private well needs safe water that meets the health authority's standards. A shared well needs enough capacity for each home, a permanent easement and a recorded well-sharing agreement. A spring or cistern is acceptable only where it is customary and the only feasible source, with your written acknowledgment.

Tell us early about a well, a shared road or a cistern so we can plan for the appraisal.

Wells and septic · Buying land and acreage

A VA loan can include the cost of energy efficiency improvements, such as insulation, windows or solar, and can go above the home's reasonable value by that amount.

Up to $3,000 with documented costs. Up to $6,000 when the increase in the monthly principal and interest is no more than the expected drop in utility costs.

The loan is based on the value once the work is done. It fits a sound home that would not pass the MPRs as it stands, such as one with a roof near the end of its life or an old furnace. Lenders set the details (contractors, draws, a contingency reserve), so we compare lenders that offer it.

VA rehab loans

The Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan replaces your VA loan with a new one, usually at a lower rate, with less paperwork. Moving an adjustable rate to a fixed one is allowed even if the rate goes up.

Divide the refinance costs by the monthly savings. VA requires the fees and costs to be recouped within 36 months of the new loan. The funding fee, taxes, insurance and prepaid items are not counted.

Run the IRRRL numbers

An IRRRL must lower the principal and interest payment, shorten the term or move an adjustable rate to a fixed one, and meet VA's rate-drop test. A cash-out must meet at least one of VA's listed benefits, such as removing mortgage insurance, a lower rate or payment, a shorter term, or a loan at 90% of value or less.

The lender gives you a comparison of the old and new loans within 3 business days of the application and again at closing; on a cash-out, it also shows the home equity being taken out.

A VA cash-out replaces your current loan with a new VA loan. A Type I cash-out is no larger than the payoff, usually to move a loan into VA; a Type II takes equity out.

• Any current loan: VA, FHA or conventional.
• You live in the home.
• A full appraisal, income and credit review.
• Funding fee 2.15% first use, 3.3% after, unless exempt.
• When the loan being paid off is a VA loan, the same wait: 210 days after its first payment due date, and 6 consecutive monthly payments.

VA cash-out refinance

Refinancing an FHA or conventional loan into VA removes the monthly mortgage insurance, even with little or no cash taken out. It is a VA cash-out (Type I when the loan is no larger than the payoff), so the net tangible benefit and its disclosures apply.

You can restore used entitlement when you still meet the eligibility rules and one of these applies:

• You sold the home and paid that VA loan in full.
• A qualified veteran assumes your loan and substitutes the same amount of their entitlement.
• You paid the loan off and still own the home. This one can be done only once.

We request it with your COE. You can also request it on VA.gov or with VA Form 26-1880.

If you have paid a VA loan off in full and still own the home, for example after a refinance into another loan type, you can restore that entitlement one time.

If you keep your first home, as a rental after a move for example, the entitlement in use stays with it. What is left can back a new VA loan on the home you move into, worked from the county limit. See Remaining entitlement.

The new loan carries the later-use funding fee: 3.3% with under 5% down, unless you are exempt.

A buyer who qualifies can assume your VA loan, its rate and its balance. Unless the buyer is a veteran who substitutes their own entitlement, yours stays with that loan until it is paid off, which matters if you plan to buy with VA again.