VA Home Loan: The Complete Guide (2026)

Q: Do VA loans require PMI or a minimum credit score?

VA loans never require private mortgage insurance (PMI), even with zero down — the VA guaranty replaces it. The VA itself sets no minimum credit score; each lender sets its own credit standards, which is one reason it pays to apply with more than one VA-experienced lender.

Q: How much is the VA funding fee in 2026?

For a purchase with less than 5% down, the funding fee is 2.15% of the loan amount on first use and 3.3% on subsequent use. It drops to 1.5% with 5-9.99% down and 1.25% with 10% or more down. IRRRL refinances are 0.5%. Veterans receiving VA disability compensation and certain others are exempt entirely.

Q: Can someone assume my VA loan?

Yes. VA loans are assumable — a qualified buyer can take over your existing loan and its interest rate, paying only a 0.5% assumption fee. The buyer does not have to be a veteran, but your entitlement stays tied up in the loan unless the assuming buyer is a veteran who substitutes their own entitlement.

1. What the VA Loan Actually Is

First thing to get straight: the VA doesn't lend you money. A VA loan comes from a regular private lender — a bank, credit union, or mortgage company. What the VA does is guarantee a chunk of that loan. If you default, the VA covers part of the lender's loss.

That guaranty changes everything about how the lender prices your risk. Normally, a borrower with no down payment is a lender's nightmare, and they protect themselves by charging private mortgage insurance and higher rates. With the federal government standing behind the loan instead, the lender doesn't need any of that. The result is the single best mortgage product available to anyone, anywhere — and you earned access to it with your service.

Key Concept: VA loan = private lender's money + VA's guaranty. The VA sets the rules (eligibility, appraisal standards, fee caps) and backs the loan. The lender sets the rate, underwrites your credit and income, and funds the mortgage.

It's been around since the GI Bill of 1944, and it's a lifetime, reusable benefit. Selling a house and paying off the loan restores your entitlement so you can use it again — there's no one-and-done rule.

2. Why It Beats Other Loans in 2026

I walk recruits and their families through pay and benefits every day, and the VA loan is the one I tell people not to sleep on. Here's what it gets you:

$0 down payment. With full entitlement, you can finance 100% of the purchase price. No saving for years to hit 20%, no scraping together 3.5% for FHA.
No PMI. Ever. Conventional loans with less than 20% down charge private mortgage insurance, often hundreds of dollars a month, and FHA's version sticks around for most of the loan. VA loans never charge mortgage insurance, even at zero down. Over a 30-year loan, this alone can be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Competitive interest rates. The guaranty lowers the lender's risk, and that usually shows up as a lower rate than a comparable conventional loan.
No prepayment penalty. Pay extra principal, refinance, or pay the whole thing off early — no fee, ever.
Assumable. A qualified buyer can take over your VA loan at your interest rate. If you locked a low rate, that's a genuine selling point when rates are higher.
Limits on what you can be charged. The VA caps certain closing costs and restricts which fees can be passed to the veteran. Sellers can also pay concessions on your behalf.
Built-in default protections. The VA has loss-mitigation programs and a financial-counseling mission that conventional borrowers simply don't get (more on the newest program in section 9).

See Your Numbers First

Run your payment with the funding fee, taxes, and insurance built in — before you talk to a lender.

VA Home Loan Calculator

3. Who's Eligible

Eligibility comes down to minimum service requirements, and they differ by component and era. The short version:

Active duty: 90 continuous days of service.
Veterans (Gulf War era to present): generally 24 months of continuous service, or qualifying exceptions (such as discharge for hardship or a service-connected disability).
National Guard: 90 days of Title 10 active service; or 90 days of full-time Guard duty including 30 consecutive days (a path opened by Public Law 116-315); or 6 creditable years.
Reserves: 90 days of active service, or 6 years in the Selected Reserve.
Surviving spouses: if the service member is MIA/POW, or died in service or from a service-connected cause — and you haven't remarried (or remarried at age 57 or older after December 16, 2003).

As a Guardsman myself, I'll flag the part too many of us miss: you do not need a deployment to qualify anymore. The 90-days-full-time-Guard-duty path means a lot of traditional Guardsmen earned this benefit without realizing it.

You prove eligibility with a Certificate of Eligibility (COE), which you can get online, through your lender, or by mail. The full breakdown — discharge requirements, exceptions, and how to pull your COE in minutes — is in our dedicated guide: VA Loan Eligibility & Your COE.

4. Entitlement Basics

Entitlement is the dollar amount the VA promises to repay your lender if you default. It's the engine behind the zero-down benefit, and it works in two layers:

Basic entitlement: $36,000 — covering loans up to $144,000.
Bonus entitlement: covers 25% of the loan amount above $144,000.

Lenders generally want the VA covering 25% of the loan. If you have full entitlement — you've never used the benefit, or you've fully restored it — the VA backs 25% of any loan amount, which is why there's no loan limit with full entitlement. (You still have to qualify on income and credit; the VA isn't co-signing a loan you can't afford.)

If part of your entitlement is tied up in another VA loan, you have partial entitlement, and the math is:

Partial Entitlement: Zero-Down Buying Power

1 Remaining entitlement = 25% × your county's loan limit − entitlement already in use

2 Zero-down buying power ≈ remaining entitlement × 4

3 Want a more expensive house? You can still buy it — you just put down 25% of the amount above your buying power.

Used entitlement isn't gone — it can be restored.

Selling the home and paying off the loan restores entitlement, and there's a one-time restoration option even if you keep the paid-off home. The mechanics (and the mistakes that lock people out of a second use) are covered in VA Loan Entitlement & Restoration.

5. The VA Funding Fee

The trade-off for no PMI and no down payment is a one-time funding fee, paid at closing or rolled into the loan. It keeps the program running without taxpayer appropriations. The current rates took effect April 7, 2023, and are scheduled to hold through November 14, 2031 under 38 U.S.C. §3729:

Purchase / Construction	First Use	Subsequent Use
Less than 5% down	2.15%	3.3%
5% – 9.99% down	1.5%	1.5%
10% or more down	1.25%	1.25%

Other transaction types: cash-out refinance 2.15% first use / 3.3% subsequent; IRRRL (streamline refinance) 0.5%; loan assumption 0.5%.

You may owe nothing. The fee is waived entirely if you receive VA disability compensation, are eligible for it but receive retirement pay instead, are a surviving spouse receiving DIC, have a proposed or memorandum rating before discharge, or are on active duty with a Purple Heart. If you have any VA disability rating, check your exemption before you sign — this is real money.

Notice the table rewards even a small down payment: putting 5% down on a first use cuts the fee from 2.15% to 1.5%. Whether that trade makes sense for you — plus refunds, exemption paperwork, and worked examples — is in The VA Funding Fee, Explained.

6. 2026 VA Loan Limits

Here's the part people get wrong constantly: if you have full entitlement, there is no VA loan limit. Loan limits only matter when you have partial entitlement — another VA loan still active, or entitlement lost to a past foreclosure or short sale.

For partial-entitlement borrowers, the VA uses the FHFA conforming loan limits, announced November 25, 2025 for the 2026 year:

Baseline (one-unit), most counties: $832,750
High-cost county ceiling: $1,249,125
Alaska and Hawaii baseline: $1,249,125

Exceeding the limit with partial entitlement doesn't kill the deal — it just means a down payment of 25% of the difference. County-by-county numbers and worked examples are in 2026 VA Loan Limits by County. And if a bigger budget means considering a move, our best states for veterans rundown is a useful companion read.

7. The Process, Step by Step

Step 1: Get Your COE

Pull your Certificate of Eligibility through VA.gov or let your lender request it electronically — lenders can usually get it in minutes. Don't pay anyone for this; it's free.

Step 2: Get Preapproved

The lender verifies income, credit, and debts and tells you what you can borrow. Get preapproved before house hunting — sellers' agents take VA offers more seriously when a preapproval letter is attached. If you're active duty, remember your BAH counts as effective income for qualification.

Step 3: Make an Offer

Your agent writes the offer with VA financing terms. Despite old myths, VA offers close at rates comparable to conventional ones — an agent who knows VA deals will preempt seller objections before they come up.

Step 4: VA Appraisal & Minimum Property Requirements

The VA requires an appraisal by a VA-assigned appraiser. It does two jobs: establishes the home's value and checks it against the VA's Minimum Property Requirements (MPRs) — the home must be safe, structurally sound, and sanitary. Think working utilities, sound roof, no exposed wiring, no peeling lead paint.

Don't skip the inspection. The VA appraisal is not a home inspection. MPRs catch deal-breakers, not a failing furnace or a slow foundation problem. Pay for your own inspection every time.

Step 5: Underwriting and Closing

Underwriting verifies everything, you do a final walkthrough, then sign at closing. Compare your Closing Disclosure against the Loan Estimate from step 2 — the numbers should match or be close, and you're entitled to ask about anything that grew.

8. Occupancy Rules

VA loans are for homes you live in — not pure rentals or vacation homes. You certify that you intend to occupy the property as your primary residence, generally moving in within a reasonable time after closing (typically around 60 days).

The rules are practical about military life, though:

Deployed? You can still buy. A spouse can satisfy the occupancy requirement, and deployment doesn't break "intent to occupy."
Multi-unit property? You can buy up to a four-unit building with a VA loan, live in one unit, and rent the others. This is the closest thing to a sanctioned investment play in the program.
PCS later? Occupancy is judged at the time you buy. If orders move you in two years, you can rent the home out and keep the loan — and possibly buy your next home with remaining entitlement.

9. What Changed in 2025–2026

If you hit hardship and can't make payments, the help available changed recently — worth knowing even if you never need it.

VASP closed. The Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program stopped accepting new enrollments on May 1, 2025.
The VA Partial Claim Program replaces it. Congress created a permanent partial claim authority in Public Law 119-31, signed July 30, 2025. The VA can take your missed payments — up to 25% of the unpaid principal balance — and set them aside as a junior lien, letting you resume your normal payment instead of facing foreclosure.
Timeline: servicers can begin submitting partial claims on June 15, 2026 — this month, as of this writing.

The takeaway: if you fall behind on a VA loan, call your servicer and the VA (the loan program's home-retention staff exist for exactly this) before missing payments piles up. The toolbox is real, but it works best early.

10. Choosing a Lender

Every VA loan runs through a private lender, and lenders are not interchangeable. Same borrower, same house, same day — rates and fees can differ by thousands of dollars. Here's how to shop like it matters, because it does:

Get quotes from at least three lenders. Federal research has shown borrowers who shop save meaningfully; borrowers who take the first quote leave money on the table. Pull all quotes within a short window so rate movement doesn't muddy the comparison.
Compare Loan Estimates line by line. Every lender must give you the same standardized three-page Loan Estimate form. Look at the rate, the lender fees in Section A, and the APR together — a "low rate" propped up by fat origination fees isn't low.
Use VA-experienced lenders. A lender who does VA loans every week knows the appraisal timelines, the MPR fixes, and how to keep a deal alive. A lender who rarely touches VA can cost you the house.
Negotiate. Lenders expect it. Showing one lender a competitor's Loan Estimate is the single most effective rate-negotiation move available to you.
Ignore the patriotic branding. Eagles and flags in the logo say nothing about price. Judge the Loan Estimate, not the marketing.

11. Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a VA loan more than once?

Yes. The VA loan is a lifetime benefit, not a one-time deal. Selling the home and paying off the loan restores your entitlement for the next purchase, and in many cases you can hold two VA loans at once using remaining entitlement.

Heads up: the funding fee rises from 2.15% to 3.3% on subsequent zero-down uses. Details in our entitlement restoration guide.

Do VA loans require PMI or a minimum credit score?

No PMI, ever — even with zero down. The VA guaranty replaces the role mortgage insurance plays on conventional and FHA loans.

The VA itself sets no minimum credit score; each lender sets its own standards. That's one more reason to apply with more than one VA-experienced lender — a "no" from one is not a "no" from all.

How much is the VA funding fee in 2026?

For a purchase with less than 5% down: 2.15% of the loan amount on first use, 3.3% on subsequent use. It drops to 1.5% with 5–9.99% down and 1.25% with 10%+ down. IRRRL refinances are 0.5%.

Veterans receiving VA disability compensation — plus several other groups — are exempt entirely. See the funding fee guide for the full exemption list.

Can someone assume my VA loan?

Yes. VA loans are assumable: a qualified buyer can take over your loan at your existing interest rate, paying a 0.5% assumption fee. The buyer doesn't have to be a veteran.

One catch — your entitlement stays tied up in the loan unless the assuming buyer is a veteran who substitutes their own entitlement. Factor that in before agreeing to an assumption.