Military & VA Home Buying Insider Insights
Breaking a Lease on Military Orders to Buy a Home
Yes, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) lets you end a residential lease early, without an early termination charge, when you receive orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of at least 90…
Buying a Home While Deployed: VA Loan Occupancy, Power of Attorney and Closing From a Distance
Yes, you can buy a home with a VA loan while you're deployed: federal law lets your spouse's occupancy count when your active-duty service keeps you from moving in, and the signing can happen through a power of…
Buying a 2-to-4 Family Home With a VA Loan in Monmouth or Ocean County
Yes, you can buy a two-, three- or four-family home with a VA loan, as long as the property is going to be your home. VA lists homes of up to 4 units among the things its purchase loan can buy, and its underwriting…
Buying New Construction With a VA Loan in New Jersey
Yes, you can buy a newly built home with a VA loan, either by purchasing it from a builder who finances the construction or by using a VA construction loan to build one. The VA appraisal still has to support the price,…
Can You Use a VA Loan More Than Once? Restoring Your Entitlement
Yes, you can use a VA loan more than once. VA restores your entitlement when you sell the home and pay off the loan, when a qualified Veteran assumes your loan and substitutes their own entitlement, or one time if you…
Does BAH Count as Income for a VA Loan? Budgeting BAH at the Jersey Shore
Yes, your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) can count as income on a VA loan: VA's underwriting regulation lets a lender treat a military housing allowance as continuing income when it's documented, and because BAH is…
Can You Keep Your VA Home and Buy Another? How Remaining Entitlement Works
Yes, you can often keep the home you bought with a VA loan and buy another one with a second VA loan, as long as you can afford both loans and the new home will be where you live. What you can borrow with no down…
New Jersey's 100% Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption: What to Know When You Buy
If VA has certified you as 100% permanently and totally disabled from your active-duty service, and you were honorably discharged, New Jersey exempts your main home from property taxes. When you buy, you file Form…
New Jersey's $250 Veteran Property Tax Deduction: Who Qualifies and How to Apply
New Jersey gives honorably discharged veterans with active-duty service a $250 deduction off their property tax bill every year, and you apply on Form V.S.S. with your town's tax assessor or tax collector. The detail…
NJ Property Tax Deferment for Deployed Service Members: How It Works
New Jersey lets a resident service member who is deployed for active service in time of war, or a Guard or Reserve member mobilized for federal active duty, put off the property taxes that come due on their home during…
What Does a VA Appraisal Check? Minimum Property Requirements in New Jersey
A VA appraisal does two jobs: it gives an opinion of what the home is worth, and it checks the home against VA's minimum property requirements, the basic condition standards a home has to meet for a VA-backed loan. In…
What Is the VA Funding Fee, and Who Doesn't Pay It?
The VA funding fee is a one-time fee on a VA-backed home loan, and on a first purchase with less than 5% down it's 2.15% of the loan amount. You don't pay it at all if you receive VA compensation for a…
VA Home Loan Benefits for Surviving Spouses in New Jersey
Many surviving spouses can use the VA home loan benefit, generally when they're eligible for or receiving certain Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), and those receiving DIC don't pay the VA funding fee. In…
Can Someone Assume My VA Loan? VA Loan Assumptions in New Jersey
Yes, someone can assume your VA loan, which means the buyer takes over your existing loan instead of getting a new mortgage, but the loan servicer has to approve the buyer first, and in some cases VA does too. Anyone…
VA Loan Limits in 2026: Do They Apply in Monmouth and Ocean County?
If you have full VA entitlement, VA doesn't set a loan limit at all, so the 2026 county limit of $1,209,750 in Monmouth and Ocean County doesn't cap what VA will guarantee for you. The county limit matters when part of…
VA Loan Occupancy Rules: When You Have to Move In, and Renting It Out Later
A VA purchase loan is for a home you're going to live in: you certify, when you apply and again at closing, that you intend to move in personally within a reasonable time after you buy it. Federal law makes room for…
VA Specially Adapted Housing Grants: Adapting a Home in New Jersey
VA's Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and Special Home Adaptation (SHA) grants help Veterans and service members with certain service-connected disabilities buy, build or change a permanent home, with maximums for…
Can You Buy a Condo With a VA Loan in New Jersey?
Yes, you can buy a condo with a VA loan, but the condo project has to be VA approved, not only your unit. You can check a project yourself on VA's condo search at lgy.va.gov, and if it isn't listed, the project has to…
Buying a Home in Monmouth or Ocean County on PCS Orders
Buying a home on PCS orders works best when you plan backward from your report date: get your VA Certificate of Eligibility and pre-approval first, shop before you arrive, use any house-hunting time your command…
How Do You Get a VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE)?
You can request a VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE) three ways: online at VA.gov, through your lender, or by mail on VA Form 26-1880. What you need to send depends on your service: a Veteran needs a DD214, someone on…
PCS Orders: Should You Sell or Rent Your New Jersey Home?
Whether to sell or rent your New Jersey home on PCS orders comes down to three numbers: what you'd net from a sale now, whether the rent covers the full cost of owning from a distance, and what keeping the home does to…
Selling Your Home to a VA Buyer in New Jersey: What Sellers Should Know
Selling to a VA buyer works like most sales, with three differences: the home has to meet VA's minimum property requirements at the appraisal, the contract carries a VA escape clause tied to the appraised value, and VA…
The VA Appraisal Came In Low. What Now?
When a VA appraisal comes in under your contract price, you have four options: ask for a Reconsideration of Value, renegotiate the price, pay the difference in cash at closing, or use the VA escape clause to walk away…
What Is the 4% Rule on a VA Loan? Seller-Paid Closing Costs Explained
The 4% rule on a VA loan limits seller concessions to 4% of the home's reasonable value, the value VA sets from the appraisal. Ordinary closing costs the seller agrees to pay are a separate bucket, and VA doesn't cap…