VA Loan Credit Tips For California VA Home Loan Applicants

Credit issues are one of the major reasons I see eligible active military members and veterans from using their VA loan benefits to get a VA loan to buy a new home or refinance. There are a few very simple things you can do to improve you score dramatically before or even after you apply VA Loan. I’m going to just hit some of the top secrets of raising your credit score. And even if you think you have “bad credit”, you can even sometimes get a VA loan without doing anything as we allow you to have as low as a 600 credit score for 100% VA loans.

So now on to the tips:

1. Do not ever be late on anything that reports to the credit bureaus

What few realize is if you MUST be late on something, be late on your cell phone, your rent, or your utilities for example….but NEVER be late on items that report to your credit such as credit cards, student loans and auto loans. These items report to the credit bureaus where cell phones, utilities and rent payments do not report to your credit

2. Keep your credit cards at 30% or LESS than your credit limits

The credit bureau penalizes you for going over 30% of your credit limits. So keep you cards paid down low or spread the balances around to other cards so you are at 30% or below on everything. Be careful of store cards with low credit limits of say $400 where you owe $350. This will hurt your score.

3. Do not close out older active accounts

If you want to close out credit cards, close the newer ones. Do not close out older cards. The credit scoring system gives you credit for the longer you have had accounts open and paid on time.

4. Try to limit credit inquiries to few or none when applying for your VA loan

Every time a creditor pulls you credit it can lower your score 2-5 points. When you are applying for a loan, try to limit applying for new credit cards, auto loans, store cards, etc….

So those are a few tips to help you keep your credit score high so you can get your 100% VA loan that is only available to you because of your military service. And also, make sure when you start out the VA loan approval process you get a “tri merge mortgage style credit pull”. The consumer credit reports available from the bureaus or from other web sites have different scoring systems than mortgage oriented credit reports. The very best way to start the VA home buying or refinancing process is to have a mortgage company do a mortgage style credit pull, we can do this for you.

And here are some of the incredible and unique advantages of VA Lending for California VA Home Loan applicants:

The VA loan limit in many counties of California can go up to $700,000 and above. So you can still get a jumbo VA loan to buy in the more expensive coastal areas of CA such as San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Orange County and more.
VA loan interest rates are still hanging around their historic lows
VA lending requires NO down payment. They are 100% financing loans. All other loan types such as FHA and conventional require down payments!
VA homeloans have NO monthly mortgage insurance (unlike FHA loans and conventional that do)
The guidelines are very flexible to qualify VA loan. For a VA loan credit does not need to be perfect and debt ratios are much more flexible than FHA or conventional
VA loan streamline refinances allow you to easily drop into a lower rate if you currently have a VA loan

Give me a call (858-922-7899) or email (homeloan8@gmail.com) if you have any questions or want to apply for a VA loan.

Warmest Regards,

Rob Chomentowski

Sr. Loan Officer (and VA specialist)

858-922-7899

homeloan8@gmail.com