[CaptJohn]

Originally Posted by chief5686

Could someone tell me why The Villages makes it so hard for a Disabled Vet to use there VA loan to buy a home there. We were told that we can not buy a new home with a VA loan because the builder will not deal with the VA due to how long it takes.
Put a bid on a per-owened home Sunday and even though our offer was better was told because we were using the VA for financing the seller took the lesser offer. Was also told that since the VA has the seller pay for certain closing cost when I do close on a home I will have to reimburse the seller with cash for these closing items.
Gee was wrong there? We can lose life and limbs for you but you dont want us to buy a home.
This was told to me by one of The Villagers Realtors.
Please help me get into the Villages with a VA loan?

to the TOTV forum!

You're blaming the wrong people. The problem is the VA.
I was a real estate broker for 40 years and specialized in VA/FHA foreclosures and that has always been a common thread everywhere to buying/selling houses unless they were specifically built to preapproved VA specs. In the VA's quest to look out after your interests, they, being typical government, shoot themselves and you in the foot (pardon the expression). They force sellers to pay certain costs and won't let you pay them as in a NORMAL transaction, thereby raising the cost to sell and lowering the net proceeds to the seller. It is a hassle dealing with them and the Villages is used to quick turn overs. I'm sure if the VA wasn't such a problem, the Villages would love to sell more houses to veterans using the VA loan.

On preowned, you can raise the offering price to compensate for the lower net proceeds to seller but the house may not appraise for that if it's too much. It used to be (and I emphasize that), you could waive some of the requirements and that would be OK with the VA, but again, you lose time in that process and in real estate, time is of the essence. It would also help if the VA was more efficient. (It took my uncle who served in WWII 50 years to get his disability acknowledged). I'm not sure that a waiver is still OK these days of overkill. Good luck in your searching. I would look for a very, very VA savvy real estate agent. PS. They're hard to find.