Home Buying?

Question:

I am a Veteran and I am waiting for the appraisal and closing to move into the home I want in Houston, Texas. I would like to know if that can be in days rather than 4-6 months I was told. Can it be in a week if needing a home?

 

Jim's Reply:

How long your closing takes isn't a function that VA is involved in. Your VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE) is issued to you almost as soon as you ask for it. The COE tells any lender you choose that you are a vet and you do not have to make a down payment along with a handful of other advantages to you.
 

The COE doesn't approve you to make a purchase. Once you have the COE you still must go through the usual loan approval process with the lender of your choice. How long that will take is up to that lender and their usual approval process. If you are creditworthy and you have all your financial and employment records ready and available for a lender to examine them, the usual lender approval process can be done in a day or less. 
 

Once you have a loan approved...you'll get a pre-approval letter with an amount from your lender...then is the time to start shopping for your home. Find a real estate agent or just go out on your own and find the house you want to buy. There will be mandatory inspections by the lender and the VA and that may take a few days to schedule, or it may be done very quickly. A lot of this will depend on where you are and the type of home you want to buy.
 

Once you've made an offer and the offer is accepted, closing the deal can happen very quickly. From this point on it's just a matter of crossing t's and dotting i's and getting signatures on documents. 
 

I think that if you make all the proper preparations to be prepared for the credit checks by a lender that once you have a letter of credit in hand that you could choose a property and close in a week. That's fairly aggressive and I'd say most folks would take a month or so. 
 

Good luck in your new home!