VA Loan Advantages in 2026: Zero Down, No PMI & Buy More Home

Uh, Patriot Nation, welcome back. It's 2026. Time is flying by. We are back in the saddle. I'm going back to my roots here because I'm going to talk about VA loans. I've got a number of family members and relatives that have served in all the different branches of the military. So, we're going to talk about the VA loan today because that's quite frankly the easiest and best loan to use when you're trying to buy a home. It's got all kinds of advantages which some people don't even take advantage of. So, we're going to cut through all the nonsense and you're going to be well equipped at the end of this video to understand and feel comfortable using the VA loan. Pass it along if it could help friends or family members. And as I always like to say, let's kick off this rodeo right now. I'm Kevin Fagan and I am the mortgage patriot nestled here just above San Antonio, Texas and Spring Branch. uh serving all you proud Texans and all you great folks all around the country. Another great one today because again we're going to talk about VA loans and all the advantages uh in using them and you're going to see that there's a distinct difference between using a a VA versus an FHA or conventional loan for even a USDA loan for example. All the advantages are stacked rightly so in the VA loan column. So let's get in all that content right now. So let's use all this information in the context of a $300,000 example. So, in other words, we're we're going to buy as your first or second home a $300,000 home, be it wherever you're located, and you're going to try to use your VA loan. So, in comparison to a conventional or an FHA loan, the down payment uh is is with is the star attraction of the VA loan. In a conventional setting, you need to come up with at least 5% down. So, on a $300,000 house, 5% that's $15,000 in a conventional loan. That's not the end of the world, but that's that and that's not bad, but that's still $15,000 you'd rather not spend. Now, that does include a closing cost. That's just a down payment. Now, with an FHA loan, a little bit better. You're allowed to put down only three and a half% on a $300,000 home. That's 10,500. A little bit better. A little bit less out of pocket. Not so bad. But, uh, on the VA loan, the big uh advantage is zero. Zero down payment. So, that $300,000 house you're putting down in the first bucket of down payment. Zero. Now, that still includes closing costs, but that's a great savings right out of the gate. And that's the chief benefit of a VA loan, zero down payment. The other second big advantage of the VA loan is it allows for more debt that you might have personally uh across your accounts. So, what are we saying here? For example, if you have if your household is earning about $80,000 either by yourself or through, you know, combination with your spouse, you can afford about a $300,000 house, at least in the state of Texas anyway. And so, how do we break all this down? In a conventional loan, if you have $80,000 and divide that by 12 to get a monthly figure, that's about $6,666 per month. In a conventional loan, you're allowed about 50% debt compared to that number. So, in other words, you can you can have about including your new housing payment about $3,333 compared to $6,666 worth of income can be expressed in debt. That's in a conventional loan. A v FHA loan says we'll we'll allow you to have a little bit more debt. Now, and by debt, we're talking about on top of your new housing payment. We're talking about student loans, car payments, credit cards, other installment loans, what have you. That's all your debt. Okay? In a FHA, we're saying you can go about 55% of the entire uh monthly income. So, you're allowed about $3,666 of debt, about 300 more than the conventional setting. But the VA says, "Hey, we're going to cut you more slack. We don't, you know, we do care if you have a lot of debt, but we're going to we're going to formulate it different." They call it residual income. Totally different formula than the other two. Don't need to go into it because it'll get caught up in the weeds here. But the residual income formula basically says you can have maybe $4,000 or more dollars in monthly debt and still qualify for that same $300,000 house. So big giant advantage number two of the VA allows you to have more debt on your balance sheet than the other loans combined. Great benefit. Very big benefit number three on a VA loan is the total elimination of any monthly mortgage insurance premium. Now, what does that even mean? And why do I care? Well, you care. Trust me, because in a conventional loan or an FHA loan, if you're not putting down 20%, then you have to be insured and you have to pay on a monthly basis that what they call a monthly mortgage insurance premium. Okay? in a conventional loan and a and an FHA loan, that number on a $300,000 house is going to be a minimum a minimum per month you're paying of about $132 per month. So, in other words, there are lots of payment streams that go into the the total payment of of a home. You have principal and interest. You have property taxes. You have property insurance. You have HOA dues. And lastly, you have the monthly mortgage insurance premium. With the F with the VA loan, that totally goes away. So, you're saving at least in the case of VA versus conventional and FHA, at least $132 per month just by eliminating that monthly mortgage insurance factor. That's a giant number and adds up greatly over time. So, let's pull back just a second before I go into some more benefits and talk about conceptually what we've just said. So, with the use of a VA loan as opposed to the conventional FHA loan on an $80,000 household income, you can buy more home than by far than in a FHA and a conventional. What are we talking about here? Well, on conventional loan on $80,000, at least right now in the state of Texas, you can buy about a $280,000 house. With an $80,000 household income on an FHA loan, you can buy about a $300,000 house. So about $20,000 more. With the VA loan, given its expanded abilities, you can buy about a $320,000 house. So you can see if you can el if you're eligible for the VA loan, then you can buy quite a bit more home than the other two options. Incredible again benefits. And it's not just related to uh eligibility for you know active and past service people. Spouses of course of surviving uh veterans could also be eligible to buy a home using a VA uh their VA eligibility of their spouses. Just because you don't serve currently or are retired from the military doesn't necessarily mean that you don't qualify. Now the last uh enormous benefit to the VA loan is is is kind of conditional and it's based upon your disability percentage. So, I know a lot of you that are retired military do have a what they call a disability percentage and it's typically 10 starts at 10% and it goes all the way to 100%. I, for example, my son-in-law who lives with us, he's 100% disability, a VA retiree. And so, in the state of Texas and a lot of states, if you have a 100% disability percentage, they completely wave the property tax figures, which is a giant savings. So, a lot of people come from all over to Texas and other states that provide this these kind of discounts u if they have 100% disability uh to receive that giant exemption. So, in the case of a $300,000, you know, once again on an $80,000 uh income, uh you're saving gosh maybe $500, $600 a month in what would be property taxes because of the exemption. Now, some states allow for, you know, they kind of do a pratus. So, in other words, they start in maybe 70% or 80% uh disability percentage. It allows to take off certain amount of monies per, you know, for the property tax. So, each state's going to be slightly different, but just know that if you have a high uh disability percentage, likely depending on the state, you're going to get some form of discount on your property taxes, that's going to save you a bundle a bundle of money as well. So, that's the last and greatest benefit of the VA loan. So, those are the big benefits of the VA loan. And you can see they're very considerable. And so, let's close with this. As I understand, of course, military folks, you move around, especially if you're active, maybe every couple years, right? And so, the VA loan is constructed, I think, uh, very strategically to be able to string together a portfolio of homes if that's if that's your goal. And I I believe everybody should be into wealth creation. And the easiest way to do that, if you look at all my videos, is to acquire real estate. And particularly with with the advantages of the VA loan. So, in other words, on a $300,000 house, uh the cash to close, since you're not putting down a down payment, the closing costs that are going to be involved, the actual check you're going to write at closing on $300,000 house, again, at least in the state of Texas, is going to be about $8,000 or less. A lot of times, we get it down to almost practically zero through the use of what they call seller concessions. So the check you're going to write at closing is very small. So what does that necessarily mean for you? After say two years you're going to be transferred from say San Antonio, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee for example. You can use your eligibility yet again and keep listen very carefully and keep that VA loan in place or even you know uh change it to a conventional loan but basically use the VA again to acquire a second home and keep the existing home as a rental. I've seen lots I've helped people lots of times do this very strategy. So after say about 10 years in the military, they've acquired three or four or even five homes and and their out-of pocket cost each time is very minimal because the down payment is zero and the closing cost can be lessened through seller concessions. So that's another discussion in of itself. Fact, look at this video right here I did a long time ago on how to acquire, you know, rental homes using a VA loan. Very interesting. My name is Kevin Fagan. I'll answer any of your VA loan questions. and let's let me help you get into a house with you and your family and just uh share this again with your friends and anybody that could be serviced and help with this information and let's make it a great one folks. Kevin Fagen mortgage patient on your side.