VA Loans for California and Hawaii Home Owners 

Franklin Advantage offers VA mortgages. Whether you are refinancing your current home or buying your first home; if you’re on active military duty, a reservist, or a veteran, you may be entitled to the best home loan available today.

Helping Veterans Since 1944

In 1944 the United States Congress passed “The Servicemen's Readjustment Act”. Under the law the VA is authorized to guarantee or insure home, farm, and business loans made to veterans by lending institutions. Over the history of the program, 18 million VA home loans have been insured by the government.

Until 1992, the VA loan guarantee program was available only to veterans who served on active duty during specified periods. However, with the enactment of the Veterans Home Loan Program Amendments of 1992, program eligibility was expanded to include Reservists and National Guard personnel who served honorably for at least six years.

Is a VA Loan Right for You?

Choosing the right loan can be very confusing; especially in this complex and ever changing market. There are a lot of options and extraordinary opportunities today. A VA loan may be the program that can help you buy or refinance your home.

Contact us or Apply now and let a VA work for you.

Buying a Home with Your VA Benefit

California and Hawaii VA eligible home buyers can use VA benefit to buy their home with:
* No down payment.
* No monthly mortgage insurance
* Easier credit qualifying
* Easier income qualifying

VA helps California and Hawaii eligible home buyers who cannot afford a conventional down payment of 20% or who cannot qualify with the more stringent underwriting guidelines of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

First Time Buyers Use Their VA Benefit  

The VA’s home loan benefit was established to help service men and women who put their private lives on hold while they served our country. By not requiring a down payment, not requiring mortgage insurance, expanding credit and income criteria, the VA’s home loan tries to achieve parity for our service men and women.   

Franklin Advantage offers a FREE first time home buyers guide, 10 Easy Steps to Buying a Home. It's informative, easy to read and best of all, it's FREE!.
 
* Send me my "Free Guide to Home Ownership" 

Lower Your Payment with A VA Loan

If you are looking to lower your interest rate and your monthly mortgage payment, you may want to consider an IRRRL (Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loan). You may see it referred to as a VA streamline or a VA to VA. 

 * No appraisal or credit underwriting package is required by VA. Most investors, however, require credit report anyway.  
 * An IRRRL may be done with "no money out of pocket" by including all costs in the new loan or by making the new loan at an interest rate high enough to enable the lender to pay the costs.

You can use an IRRRL to lower your interest rate and convert your existing VA guaranteed adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) to a fixed rate mortgage.

Use a VA Loan for a Cash-Out Refinance 

If you are looking to refinance and receive cash back to help pay for bills/expenses, you may want to consider the cash-out refinance.
 * A VA loan will allow you to cash out up to 100% of your home’s value
 * Your current home loan does not need to be a VA loan

IRRRL - VA's Streamline Refinance

Lower your payment and reduce the interest rate on your current home loan. Home owners with current VA loans in good standing may further qualify for a IRRRL - streamlined refinancing with less paperwork, and without an appraisal.

A VA Energy Efficient Mortgage Can Save You Money

VA's Energy Efficient Mortgage program (EEM) helps homebuyers and homeowners save money on utility bills by enabling them to finance the cost of adding energy efficiency features to new or existing housing as part of their VA insured home purchase or refinance mortgage.

Franklin Advantage can put your VA benefit to work for you if:

New Home Purchase
* You're a first-time homebuyer
* You have less than 20% for a down payment
* You have out grown your current home

Refinancing
* You would like to get cash out of your home
* You need to lower your payment, but don't have a lot of equity
* You would like to refinance your home without PMI

Qualifying 
* You don't need down payment
* Allowed 2 years after a bankruptcy
* Allowed 2 years after a foreclosure
* Allowed 2 years after a short sale

VA General Guidelines

Debt to Income Ratios:
VA does not calculate debt to income ratios like Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac or even FHA loans. The VA Underwriter looks at the Veterans disposable income after monthly expenses. This is a more precise method of determining the borrower’s ability to pay their mortgage. The VA does not apply a “one size fits all” debt ratio.

Reserves:
Unlike conventional financing, VA does not require the borrower to have a minimum of two months mortgage payment s in funds after the close of escrow.

Appraisal:
The VA requires a physical home appraisal (except in the case of IRRRL’s)

Credit:
VA allows for more aggressive credit underwriting than conventional financing:
* Home purchase or refinance allowed just two years after a bankruptcy
* Home purchase or refinance allowed just two years after a foreclosure
* Home purchase or refinance allowed just two years after a short sale

New Higher VA Loan Limits:
* The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 went into effect as of March 6, 2008 and allowed the VA to increase loan limits for new purchases and refinancing through the VA.
* The VA loan maximum limit was increased from $417,000 up to $700,000.
* In many higher cost areas (Los Angeles, Orange and San Francisco Counties) the limit is as high as $1,094,625

Other General Guidelines:
* No Down payments
* Cash out refinances to 100% of your home's value
* FHA will use a cosigners income in calculating debt ratios even when the cosigner will not be living in the home.

How Does the VA Guaranty Work

A guaranty is protection VA offers a lending institution for giving you a loan. (It means the VA makes up for the lender's loss if the loan has to be foreclosed.) If the loan is foreclosed, the house is sold so the lender can get its money back. But sometimes the lender can't get all the money back. This is because the borrower's debt and the foreclosure costs add up to more than the house is worth. That's where the loan guaranty comes in. VA makes up the difference to the lender.

VA loans are avaialble through out Hawaii and California including Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and San Diego County.