Hawaii Real Estate and VA Home Loans

Hawaii Real Estate and VA Home Loans

By: David Kucic RA
CRS, GRI, ABR, e-PRO, AHWD
First Sergeant, USA (Retired)
Tropic Lightning Real Estate, Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii Military Relocation Expert and VA Specialist

Hawaii Real Estate can be purchased by military service members, retirees, reservists and National Guard using the VA Guaranty Home Loan.

One of the first steps to take is to obtain your "Certificate of Eligibility" or COE.  This can be done one of 2 ways.

•1)      Fill out VA Form 26-1880 and mail it along with proof of military service to:
VA Loan Eligibility Center
PO Box 20729
Winston-Salem, NC 27120

•2)      A VA approved lender can obtain the COE from the Automated Certificate of Eligibility computer system.  If you are new to the military or if you had a break in service or transferred from reserves to active duty you may want to check early in your process because you may need to mail off for it which is a time consuming process.

The maximum allowable limit for calendar year 2007 is $625,500 in Hawaii only.  The other 49 states have their own limitation.

This does not mean that you can buy a $625,500 house!  You will still need to get approved for a loan which will be based on your income and debts.  You may also get qualified using the residual income calculation.

If you choose to use your VA Loan Eligibility to purchase real estate in Hawaii, you will have to pay a VA Funding Fee.  This fee is 2.15% of the purchase price added on to the loan.  For example, if you purchase a Hawaii property for $300,000, you will pay $6,450 for the VA funding fee.  This makes your total loan amount $306,450.  The good news is that you can roll the VA funding fee into the total loan amount so there is no additional payment such as with a conventional loan and its PMI or Private Mortgage Insurance.

The VA funding fee is waived completely for veterans that are at least 10% disabled.  Reservists and National Guard also have a different funding fee.  If you have previously used your VA loan eligibility to buy a home in Hawaii or any other state, you will pay an increased rate for the funding fee.

The VA home loan will allow you 100% financing with no Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI, competitive interest rates and lenient standards for qualifying you for a loan.

Those are a few of the basics of the loan program.  The VA home loan is becoming very popular right now and sellers are happy to accept the loan when selling their Hawaii properties.

For additional Hawaii Real Estate information, check out http://www.davidkucic.com/