VA Loan Requirements in 2026: The Complete Eligibility Guide

Service Eligibility: Who Qualifies and for How Long

Every potential VA borrower's first question is whether their service meets the VA's minimum thresholds. The answer depends on when you served and how that service ended, and it involves several exceptions and edge cases worth understanding in detail.

Era-Based Active-Duty Thresholds

The VA has established different minimum service lengths depending on the era of service, and these thresholds reflect the changing nature of military obligations over the decades. Understanding which threshold applies to you is the starting point for the entire eligibility conversation.

If you served in the Gulf War era, which began in early August and continues through the present, the standard is 24 continuous months of active duty, or the full period for which you were ordered to active duty, whichever is shorter. There's also a 90-day minimum within that: even if your ordered period was shorter than 24 months, you need to have served at least 90 days to qualify under this threshold.

If you served in the period between the Vietnam era and the start of the Gulf War era, you face a similar standard: 24 continuous months of active duty. If you were discharged before completing 24 months, 181 days of active duty also meets the threshold, as long as you completed your full ordered period.

Vietnam-era service brings a shorter requirement: 90 days of active duty was sufficient. And for veterans currently on active duty, the threshold is 90 continuous days of service.

One detail that changes the picture significantly is what happens when service ends before those thresholds are met. VA eligibility guidance covers several early-discharge exceptions. If your discharge was for a service-connected disability, hardship, a reduction in force, or at the government's convenience, meaning the military made the decision to end your service, you may still qualify. I've worked with veterans who assumed they couldn't use the benefit because their service was cut short, and once we dug into the actual circumstances, several of them qualified under one of these exceptions.

National Guard and Reserve Members

Guard and Reserve service qualifications follow a separate track, one that a surprising number of lenders aren't fully versed in. There are two independent ways a Guard or Reserve member can qualify.

The first path is six creditable years of service, combined with either continued service or an honorable discharge. Those six years don't need to include any active-duty deployment. A member who spent six years completing monthly drills and annual training, and was never activated for federal service, can qualify through this path alone.

The second path is 90 days of non-training active duty under Title 10 orders. Title 10 activations cover deployments, domestic response operations, and other federally ordered service. Under this path, the total years of service don't matter: if you were activated for 90 days on Title 10 orders, you qualify, even if you haven't reached six years of service.

What makes this valuable for borrowers is understanding that these are two independent alternatives, not requirements you have to meet simultaneously. Either six years of creditable service or 90 Title 10 days; whichever you've achieved first opens the door.

For Guard and Reserve members applying for a COE, the right supporting documentation depends on your current status. Separated members typically use their DD-214. Members who are still serving may need to provide a DD-220, an annual point statement showing creditable retirement points, or a commander's statement of service confirming your service dates and status.

The Scale of the Benefit

VA loan benefits have supported homeownership for active military, veterans, and their families for over eight decades. The VA has guaranteed 29 million home loans since the program's inception, with approximately 4 million active VA loans outstanding today. That scale reflects the appeal of zero down payment, along with the fact that the program has continually expanded its eligibility criteria to cover more service categories and circumstances over time.

Certificate of Eligibility: Three Ways to Get It

The Certificate of Eligibility, or COE, is the official document confirming that your service history meets VA requirements. No COE means no VA loan. It's a non-negotiable starting point. The good news is that most borrowers get one faster than they expect, and the process is considerably simpler than most assume.

Three Paths to Your COE

The lender's Web LGY system. This is the path most VA borrowers use today, and for good reason. VA-approved lenders like AmeriSave have direct access to the VA's Loan Guaranty (LGY) system and can pull a COE during the loan application process, often within minutes. VA data shows 99.8% of COEs are issued within three days, and a large portion come back almost instantly through this channel. If you're working with an experienced VA lender, this is the path of least resistance.

Online through VA eBenefits. The VA's eBenefits portal allows eligible veterans to request and download a COE directly. This gives you the option to have documentation in hand before you even approach a lender, which can be useful if you want to confirm your eligibility before starting a home search.

Mail, using VA Form 26-1880. The traditional paper route still exists for borrowers who can't access the digital options or run into issues with the other two paths. It's significantly slower (plan on several weeks), so treat it as a backup option for when the digital paths aren't available to you.

Supporting Documentation by Service Category

The documents that support your COE application depend on your service status.

If you're separated from service, you provide your DD-214, the document that summarizes service dates, character of discharge, and other essential information. This is the single most important document in your eligibility package, and having a clean copy on hand before you start the mortgage process saves time later.

Active-duty service members don't have a DD-214 yet, so they provide a signed statement of service prepared by a commanding officer or adjutant. The statement needs to include your name, Social Security number, date of birth, entry date on active duty, any lost-time periods, and the name of the command providing the information.

Guard and Reserve members provide documentation that matches their current status: a DD-214 if separated, or a DD-220, point statement, or commander's letter if still serving.

Surviving spouses face a more document-intensive process, which is covered separately below.

What If Your COE Has an Issue?

Sometimes a COE comes back with a note about remaining entitlement rather than full entitlement, or it returns with a request for additional documentation. These situations simply open a more detailed conversation about your entitlement status. A lender experienced in VA loans will know how to interpret what the COE shows and walk you through any next steps.

Down Payment and PMI: How Zero-Down Works

This is the feature that draws most people to VA loans, and it's real: VA data consistently shows that nearly 90% of VA-backed purchase loans are made with no down payment. No private mortgage insurance is required, either. Understanding why requires a quick look at how entitlement works.

The Entitlement Mechanism

VA entitlement is the portion of any loan the VA guarantees to your lender if you default. If you have full entitlement, meaning you've never used a VA loan, or you've paid off a prior VA loan and had entitlement restored, the VA will guarantee 25% of whatever loan amount you qualify for based on income and credit. There's no cap on that loan amount.

That guaranty is what eliminates the down payment and PMI requirements. On a conventional loan without 20% down, a lender requires PMI to protect against default. The VA's 25% guaranty to the lender provides equivalent protection, without you putting up any cash or paying a monthly insurance premium. Your obligation is the funding fee, a one-time charge, rather than ongoing mortgage insurance.

The VA doesn't set a cash reserve requirement at the program level. Individual lenders may have their own overlay requirements on reserves, but those vary by lender. If you're concerned about reserves as a qualifying factor, ask the specific lender what their guidelines require.

When Zero Down Isn't Automatic

The zero-down benefit applies when you have full entitlement. If you have remaining entitlement, because you've used VA benefits before and still have an active VA loan, you may need a down payment to cover any gap in the guaranty calculation. That math is covered in the loan limits section below. Zero down is the norm for most VA borrowers, and it depends on your entitlement status specifically, alongside your baseline program eligibility.

The PMI Contrast

The absence of PMI is a major financial difference between VA and conventional purchase financing. On a conventional loan with less than 20% down, PMI typically runs between 0.5% and 1.5% of the loan balance per year, depending on the borrower's credit profile and down payment amount. On a $350,000 loan, even at the low end of that range, that's $1,750 per year ($146 per month) added to the housing payment indefinitely until the loan balance drops to 80% of the original purchase price. For VA borrowers, that line item simply doesn't exist.

Credit Score: What the VA Sets vs. What Lenders Add

This is an area where a lot of misinformation circulates, and it genuinely matters for veterans who've had credit challenges.

The VA sets no minimum credit score. That's documented policy in VA Pamphlet 26-7, the official VA Lender's Handbook. The handbook directs lenders to evaluate a borrower's complete credit history and payment patterns rather than using a score cutoff to accept or reject applications. The VA program was designed to extend homeownership access to veterans across a wide credit spectrum, including those whose financial history reflects the disruptions that military service and transitions can cause.

How Lender Overlays Work

What individual lenders add on top of VA guidelines are called overlays, which are lender-specific requirements that go beyond the minimum VA standards. Credit score minimums are among the most common overlays. One lender may require a 580 minimum; another may require 640 or 660. Neither number comes from the VA. Both come from the lender's own risk tolerance and secondary market considerations.

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The practical implication is that a borrower who doesn't qualify at one lender may qualify at another, because the VA's own guidelines don't exclude them. If you've been told you don't meet a lender's minimum, that's a lender-specific overlay, set by that one company's risk policy. Talking to a lender like AmeriSave, who is willing to work with your full credit history rather than applying a hard score cutoff, may produce a different result.

What VA Underwriters Actually Look At

Under VA Pamphlet 26-7 credit analysis guidance, lenders evaluate overall creditworthiness through several lenses:

Recent payment history: How you've handled credit obligations in the last 12 to 24 months matters more than older negative marks. A veteran who had financial difficulties during a difficult period but has rebuilt credit behavior since then looks different than a borrower with no pattern of recovery.

Derogatory events: Bankruptcies and foreclosures don't permanently disqualify a borrower; the VA has waiting periods and circumstances-based guidelines for how underwriters evaluate these situations.

Reason for credit events: Underwriters can consider documented reasons for past credit problems. Service-related financial disruptions, medical events, or divorce are among the circumstances that can be weighed in context.

Overall credit pattern: Are debts being paid consistently? Is there a track record of responsible credit use alongside the problems? The pattern matters more than any single number.

Credit history still matters, and a lender is still making a risk decision. But the VA framework creates more room for individualized assessment than a hard score cutoff allows.

Income, DTI, and the Residual Income Test

Debt-to-income ratio is the standard most borrowers are familiar with. VA underwriting uses DTI too, but the program's primary standard is residual income, a more comprehensive measure of what a household can actually afford.

The DTI Context

Debt-to-income ratio measures what percentage of gross monthly income goes toward documented debt payments. For most conventional and government-backed loan programs, DTI is the central qualifying threshold. The VA uses 41% as a guideline, but treats it as a flexible trigger for further review rather than a hard cutoff.

Residual Income: The Real Standard

Residual income is what remains from your monthly gross income after subtracting federal income taxes, the full proposed housing payment (including principal, interest, property taxes, and insurance), and all monthly debt obligations. The VA requires that this remaining amount, the money available for actual household living expenses, meet regional minimums based on family size and loan amount.

The VA Lender's Handbook establishes these minimums for loans of $80,000 or more. For a family of four:

• Northeast: $1,025 per month

• Midwest: $1,003 per month

• South: $1,003 per month

• West: $1,117 per month

These figures reflect the realistic cost of maintaining a household (food, utilities, transportation, healthcare, clothing) after the mortgage and all documented debts are covered. The VA's logic is straightforward: a family that clears their mortgage and debts but has almost nothing left over is a higher default risk than the DTI ratio alone would suggest.

Worked Example A: Two Residual Income Scenarios

Illustrative scenario: a veteran family of four in the Midwest. Gross monthly income of $6,500. Federal income taxes: $1,100 per month. Proposed housing payment: $2,200 per month. Other monthly debts (car loan and student loan): $300 per month.

Scenario 1: DTI under the 41% threshold:

Residual income = $6,500 minus $1,100 minus $2,200 minus $300 = $2,900 per month

Midwest minimum for a family of four on this loan: $1,003

$2,900 comfortably exceeds $1,003, so residual income passes.

DTI = ($2,200 plus $300) divided by $6,500 = 38.5%

DTI is under 41%. No additional compensating factors required. The file passes both tests.

Scenario 2: DTI above 41%:

Now assume the proposed housing payment rises to $2,800 per month, with all other inputs unchanged.

Residual income = $6,500 minus $1,100 minus $2,800 minus $300 = $2,300 per month

DTI = ($2,800 plus $300) divided by $6,500 = 47.7%

DTI is now above 41%. When that happens, the VA requires residual income to reach at least 20% above the regional minimum, not as a hard denial, but as a compensating-factor standard.

Adjusted minimum = $1,003 multiplied by 1.20 = $1,204 per month

$2,300 exceeds $1,204, so residual income still passes, even at a 47.7% DTI.

This is the core distinction between VA and most conventional underwriting. A DTI above 41% raises the bar on residual income rather than ending the application outright. If actual household cash flow after all obligations is strong enough, the loan can still be approved.

Income Types That Count, and Tax Gross-Up

VA underwriting guidelines recognize a broad range of income sources. Two allowances specific to military compensation matter here.

Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence are both countable income. Because federal law exempts these allowances from federal income tax, lenders are permitted to gross them up when calculating qualifying income by multiplying the non-taxable amount by 1.25 to convert it to a taxable-income equivalent. For an active-duty borrower receiving substantial housing and subsistence allowances, this adjustment can significantly increase qualifying income and improve the residual income calculation.

VA disability compensation is also countable income. Veterans whose service-connected disability rating generates a monthly payment include that in the income picture, and because disability compensation is also non-taxable at the federal level, it may be eligible for the same 1.25 gross-up treatment depending on lender guidelines.

Common Income Documentation Needs

The goal in income documentation is establishing stable, recurring, and verifiable income. For most borrowers, that means two years of tax returns, W-2s or 1099s, and recent pay stubs. Military borrowers may also provide their Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) to document base pay and allowances.

Self-employment income, part-time income, and disability compensation each come with their own documentation requirements; your lender will be specific about what they need. What matters is that the income you use to qualify is real, documented, and consistent.

Funding Fee: Rates, Calculation, and Exemptions

The VA funding fee is the mechanism that keeps the VA home loan program self-sustaining. Rather than using taxpayer appropriations to cover losses, the program collects a one-time fee at closing (or rolled into the loan balance) that funds the guaranty reserves. It's the trade-off that makes zero down payment and no PMI possible at scale.

Understanding the fee structure helps you plan your transaction accurately. The rates depend on your loan type, down payment, and whether this is your first or subsequent use of the benefit.

Funding Fee Rate Schedule

For purchase loans, first use of VA benefits:

• No down payment: 2.15% of the loan amount

• With at least 5% down: 1.50%

• With at least 10% down: 1.25%

For purchase loans, subsequent use:

• No down payment: 3.30%

• With at least 5% down: 1.50%

• With at least 10% down: 1.25%

For an Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan (IRRRL): 0.50%

For a cash-out refinance, first use: 2.15%

These rates became effective in April of a recent year following a legislative update and remain in place as the current schedule.

Full Exemptions from the Funding Fee

Several categories of borrowers pay no funding fee at all:

Veterans who receive VA disability compensation for a service-connected disability are fully exempt. If you're receiving a monthly disability payment from the VA because of a condition connected to your service, the funding fee doesn't apply to you, regardless of the loan amount or down payment.

Surviving spouses who receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation are exempt as well.

Active-duty service members who have been awarded the Purple Heart are exempt.

Veterans with a pre-discharge proposed disability rating from the VA are also exempt. This provision covers veterans still in the discharge process whose claims haven't been finalized. If the VA has issued a proposed rating before your discharge paperwork closes, the exemption applies.

If you fall into any of these categories, confirm your exemption status with your lender before closing. Funding fee exemptions need to be documented and reflected correctly in the loan file.

Worked Example B: Rolling the Fee Into the Loan

The most common approach is to roll the funding fee into the loan rather than paying it at closing. Here's how that plays out on a real purchase:

Illustrative scenario: $350,000 first-use purchase loan with no down payment, at an illustrative interest rate of 6.5%.

Funding fee = 2.15% multiplied by $350,000 = $7,525

Total loan balance with the fee rolled in = $350,000 plus $7,525 = $357,525

At 6.5% over 30 years, rolling in $7,525 adds approximately $47 per month to the payment.

Now compare that to a conventional borrower buying the same $350,000 home with less than 20% down. A conventional borrower in this situation would owe private mortgage insurance. At an illustrative PMI rate of 0.5% annually, a reasonable mid-range figure for a borrower with solid credit and a modest down payment, annual PMI cost is $1,750, or about $146 per month.

The VA borrower adds $47 per month from rolling in the fee. The conventional borrower adds $146 per month from PMI. The VA borrower saves roughly $99 per month on insurance-equivalent costs alone, and that's before accounting for the down payment. The conventional borrower also had to bring cash to closing for the down payment, while the VA borrower brought zero.

There are additional closing costs associated with VA loans that interact with this picture: how seller concessions work, what fees are permissible, and how lender credits can offset costs. AmeriSave's VA Loan Closing Costs page covers that ground in detail.

VA Loan Limits Today: Full vs. Remaining Entitlement

VA loan limits are widely misunderstood, and for many borrowers, the correct answer is that no limit applies at all.

Full Entitlement Means No Loan Limit

If you have full entitlement, you have no VA loan limit. The VA will guarantee 25% of any loan amount you can qualify for based on income, credit, and residual income. Full entitlement applies when you've never used a VA loan, or when a prior VA loan has been paid off and entitlement has been restored.

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VA home loan limit guidance states this position explicitly. If you have full entitlement and qualify for a $900,000 purchase on your income, you can finance it with no down payment. There's no ceiling on the VA's guaranty for this group.

Remaining Entitlement and How the Limit Calculates

Remaining entitlement comes into play if you've used VA benefits and still have an active VA loan that hasn't been paid off. In this situation, VA loan limits do apply, and the relevant limit is the county conforming loan limit established annually by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

For the current period, the FHFA baseline conforming loan limit is $832,750. High-cost counties reach up to $1,249,125. These figures are published annually and take effect for VA loans the same way they apply to other conforming loan programs.

The remaining entitlement formula works like this:

Remaining entitlement = (county conforming loan limit multiplied by 0.25) minus previously used entitlement

Worked Example C: Remaining Entitlement with a Down Payment

Illustrative scenario: A veteran previously used $50,000 of VA entitlement on an earlier loan that remains active. The county limit is the current baseline.

Remaining entitlement = ($832,750 multiplied by 0.25) minus $50,000 = $208,188 minus $50,000 = $158,188

This veteran wants to purchase a home for $700,000. For a zero-down VA loan, the VA must guarantee 25% of the purchase price:

Required guaranty coverage = $700,000 multiplied by 0.25 = $175,000

Coverage shortfall = $175,000 minus $158,188 = $16,812

To use VA financing on this purchase, the veteran would need a down payment of approximately $16,812 to cover the gap between remaining entitlement and required coverage. That's a real out-of-pocket cost, but it's far less than the $140,000 a conventional lender would require to reach 20% down on a $700,000 purchase.

Run this math before you shop if you fall into this group. If you've used VA benefits before and still have an active loan, get a clear picture of your remaining entitlement before house hunting. Our VA Loan Entitlement page covers the full mechanics of entitlement restoration and bonus entitlement calculations in detail.

Multi-Use VA Loans: Understanding Subsequent Use

You can use VA loan benefits more than once. The benefit isn't single-use. After you pay off a VA loan, you can apply to have entitlement restored and use the program again, even on a new primary residence purchase. The funding fee rate for subsequent use is higher on zero-down loans (3.30% versus 2.15% for first use), but the program access remains.

If you already have an active VA loan and want to use VA financing on a new property, for example when relocating for work, that's possible in some circumstances, but it requires enough remaining entitlement or sufficient down payment to cover the guaranty gap. These situations benefit from a detailed upfront analysis with an AmeriSave loan officer before you start shopping.

Property Rules: Eligible Types, Occupancy, and MPRs

VA loans can be used on a range of property types, but not everything qualifies. The rules are designed to make sure you're buying a home you'll actually live in as your primary residence.

Eligible Property Types

VA purchase loans cover:

• Single-family residences

• Condominiums in VA-approved projects

• Townhouses

• Properties with up to four units, where you occupy one unit as your primary residence

The four-unit provision deserves attention. You can purchase a duplex, triplex, or fourplex using VA financing and rent out the remaining units, as long as you move into one unit as your primary residence. This can be a compelling wealth-building strategy: rental income from the other units offsets or potentially covers the mortgage payment, and you still benefit from VA financing terms on the full purchase.

Condominiums and the VA Approval Requirement

Condominiums carry an additional layer of eligibility review beyond the individual borrower's qualification. The entire condo project, not just the individual unit, must be approved by the VA. The VA maintains an approved condo project database that borrowers and agents can search online.

If the project you're interested in isn't on the approved list, a spot approval may be possible, but it adds time to the transaction and isn't guaranteed. The practical advice: check VA condo project approval status early in the search process, before you're emotionally invested in a specific unit. Discovering a condo isn't VA-approved after an offer is accepted creates unnecessary pressure.

Occupancy Requirements

The occupancy rule is straightforward for purchase transactions: you must certify intent to occupy the purchased property as your primary residence, and must do so within a reasonable time after closing. You can't use a VA loan for a vacation home or a pure investment property.

There's a limited exception in the refinance context: the IRRRL (Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan) allows refinancing a property the veteran previously occupied but has since moved out of. For purchase loans, though, the VA enforces occupancy as a real, verified condition of the loan.

Minimum Property Requirements

Any property financed with a VA loan must meet the VA's Minimum Property Requirements, a baseline standard covering safety, structural soundness, and sanitary conditions. A VA-certified appraiser assesses these conditions as part of the appraisal process, and properties that don't meet MPRs may require repairs before the loan closes.

The MPR assessment happens as part of the VA appraisal itself. Veterans should still get an independent home inspection, since the appraisal checks baseline safety and soundness for the lender while the inspection gives you, as the future owner, a full picture of the property's condition. For the complete MPR checklist and appraisal process detail, our VA Inspection and Appraisal Requirements article covers that ground thoroughly.

Surviving Spouse Eligibility

Surviving spouses of veterans who died in service or from service-connected conditions have access to VA home loan benefits, and the eligibility rules in this area involve several distinct categories and documentation paths. Getting these details right matters.

Who Qualifies as an Eligible Surviving Spouse

The following categories are eligible:

The un-remarried surviving spouse of a veteran who died while in service or from a service-connected disability is eligible without qualification.

If you remarried after age 57 and on or after the December 16 statutory cutoff date Congress set for this provision, you retain eligibility. This provision was added by legislation to prevent older surviving spouses from losing benefits solely because they remarried in later life. The age threshold and the date cutoff are both required; remarriage before age 57, or before that December 16 cutoff, doesn't qualify under this provision.

There's a third pathway worth knowing about: if your spouse was totally disabled from a service-connected condition for a specified period before death, even if that disability wasn't the direct cause of death, you may still qualify. This non-service-connected death pathway requires establishing both the marriage and the veteran's qualifying disability history, which makes the documentation more involved, but it's a legitimate route to eligibility in its own right.

Documenting Eligibility as a Surviving Spouse

The COE application process for surviving spouses differs depending on whether the applicant receives Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.

DIC recipients file VA Form 26-1817 along with the veteran's DD-214. This is the more straightforward path, because DIC status already establishes the qualifying relationship and the veteran's service-connected death.

Non-DIC applicants file VA Form 21P-534EZ, the application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and related accrued benefits. Supporting documents include the marriage license and the veteran's death certificate. For surviving spouses pursuing the non-service-connected death pathway, additional documentation establishing the veteran's disability history and duration will also be needed.

These applications aren't difficult to complete, but they do require gathering specific documents, and it's worth having everything organized before starting the application process. An AmeriSave loan officer experienced in VA loans for surviving spouses can walk you through exactly which forms and documents apply to your situation.

Funding Fee Exemption for Surviving Spouses

Surviving spouses receiving DIC are fully exempt from the VA funding fee. This exemption applies automatically once the lender confirms DIC status in the loan file. If you're a DIC-receiving surviving spouse, make sure your lender documents this correctly; the fee shouldn't appear on your Loan Estimate or Closing Disclosure.

Non-DIC surviving spouses who qualify through other eligibility pathways should confirm with their lender whether the exemption applies to their specific situation.

The Bottom Line

VA loans are built on a straightforward idea: people who've served deserve access to stable homeownership on terms that reflect their contribution. The program delivers on that through a combination of benefits that most other loan programs can't match: zero down payment for most eligible borrowers, no ongoing mortgage insurance, no hard credit score floor, and underwriting that evaluates real household cash flow rather than just a debt ratio on paper.

The eligibility requirements are real. Service thresholds, discharge types, COE documentation, entitlement status, funding fees, and property rules all apply. But they're navigable. The VA's eligibility framework is built to extend access to as many qualified veterans as possible, and the residual income test means that borrowers with strong actual cash flow can qualify even when conventional DTI ratios would be a concern.

Every veteran's situation is different. The entitlement math for a veteran buying their second home looks nothing like the math for a first-time home buyer with full entitlement, and a Guard member qualifying through Title 10 activation follows a different documentation path than a 20-year active-duty retiree. Surviving spouse requirements diverge too: a DIC household faces different COE requirements than a non-DIC applicant.

If you're not sure where you stand, the right move is to have an actual conversation with a lender experienced in VA underwriting, not just one who offers VA loans as a checkbox on a product list. AmeriSave's Certified Approval process can help you understand your eligibility, calculate your funding fee, model your residual income picture, and determine what a purchase price looks like in practice for your financial situation. Your questions are valid, and deserve answers you can trust.