Buying New Construction With a VA Loan and the One Question to Ask Before You Fall in Love With the Model

The Question That Saves Veterans From a Difficult Conversation Later

New construction is appealing for a lot of reasons. Everything is new. You get to choose finishes. There is no competition from other buyers making offers on the same resale. For veterans using their VA loan benefit a new subdivision can be an excellent option and there is one question that needs to be answered before any of that excitement gets too far along.

Is the builder VA registered?

Why This Matters and Why It Catches Veterans Off Guard

Not every new construction community is set up to work with VA financing. Builders must be approved by the VA to participate in VA loan transactions and not all of them have gone through that process. Some communities work exclusively with preferred lenders offering conventional or FHA financing. Others work with VA but only under specific conditions.

Finding out that the builder does not work with VA financing after a veteran has already walked the model home, selected a lot, and mentally placed their furniture in every room is a genuinely rough conversation. The emotional investment that builds during a model home tour and a floor plan selection is real and discovering the financing does not work at that stage creates stress and disappointment that is entirely avoidable.

What Travis Does Before His Clients Fall in Love With a Floor Plan

Travis checks VA registration status with the builder sales office at the very beginning of the process before his clients get emotionally attached to anything. It is a simple question and the answer determines whether the community is worth pursuing with VA financing before any time or energy is invested in the selection process.

If the builder is not VA registered the conversation happens before the model home tour rather than after the lot deposit. If the builder is registered the process can move forward with confidence that the financing and the property are compatible.

What Veterans Should Do

If you are considering new construction and planning to use your VA loan benefit make sure someone is asking this question on your behalf before you fall in love with a model. DM Travis Egan directly with any questions about VA financing for new construction or anything else in the VA loan process. He is here to help. Semper Fi.

Sources

VA.gov
MilitaryOneSource.mil
ConsumerFinancialProtectionBureau.gov
MortgageNewsDaily.com
Investopedia.com