Veterans Tips: Using VA Benefits to Refinance Your Home

The truth is a home is nothing more than a building, but a home is like a sponge, and it absorbs life. There is something special about your home; it has treasured memories, which is the reason you need to protect it. One way to protect your investment, especially if you are going through financial difficulties, is to use your VA benefits to refinance it. The following are some tips that may help you do just that. image

Finding the Right Lender

The first thing you should do is find the right loaning company. There are a lot of choices out there, but it is important for you to stick with a lender that has a lot experience, especially with VA benefits like Flagship Financial or others.

What you want to look for is a company that is backed by the government, which ensures that the loans are much more secure. It is also important to look for a team that actually seeks to connect with you. Big companies hardly take the time to know your particular situation, meaning they are less informed to help your specific needs.

Understanding Your Refinancing Choices

The next thing you want to concentrate on is understanding the types of choices you have. In essence, you only have two options when it comes to using your VA benefits to refinance your home. The first one is called an Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan, though it is sometimes shortened to IRRRL. Of course, loaners may just call it a VA Streamline refinance.

This particular loan has a few benefits to consider. The first is that most of the paperwork of refinancing is waived. The second benefit is that you can choose to add the closing costs to the mortgage payments. It may seem like you are paying a little more after refinancing, but it will only be for a while. You should see a significant drop after you are finished paying for the closing costs.

The other option that you have is the Cash-Out Refinance. This is the most coveted type of refinancing option because you may get the opportunity to refinance up to 100 percent of your home’s value. This usually means that you will get a lot of money for improvements or what not.

Getting a Little More

You may not know this, but being a veteran also gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the Energy Efficient Mortgage. This option gives you the opportunity to get additional money, which could be up to 6,000 dollars. All you have to do is get an energy audit to see what kind of energy improvements you can make to your home, which could include rewiring or other upgrades.

Hopefully these tips can get you going in the right direction and help you successfully use your veteran benefits to refinance your home.