VA Loans in Texas

Why Choose a VA Loan in Texas

Few states match the military presence of Texas. Fort Cavazos near Killeen is one of the largest Army posts in the world, Fort Bliss spreads across El Paso, and Joint Base San Antonio ties together Lackland, Randolph, and Fort Sam Houston in a city that calls itself Military City USA. Add NAS Corpus Christi on the Gulf, Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Dyess in Abilene, Goodfellow in San Angelo, and the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, and you have hundreds of thousands of Veterans and active-duty families spread across the state. The VA home loan benefit is one of the strongest tools they have for buying a home, whether that is in San Antonio, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Houston, Austin, or a smaller base town. A VA loan asks for no down payment on a primary residence, carries no monthly private mortgage insurance (PMI), and usually comes with a lower rate than a comparable conventional loan on the same buyer.

The Benefits of VA Loans for Texas Veterans

The VA home loan benefit was built to make buying a home easier and cheaper for the people who earned it, and that edge matters across Texas markets.

• No down payment required on a primary residence
• No monthly private mortgage insurance (PMI), ever
• Lower rates than a comparable conventional loan on the same profile
• A 500 minimum credit score on VA purchases and cash-out
• The VA funding fee is waived for Veterans with a 10 percent or higher service-connected disability
• Most of our borrowers close in about 2 to 3 weeks

Who Qualifies for a VA Loan in Texas

The VA loan program covers Veterans, active-duty service members, eligible National Guard and Reserve members, and surviving spouses who have not remarried before age 57. Active-duty service members usually qualify after 90 days of continuous service in wartime or 181 days in peacetime, while National Guard and Reserve members typically qualify after 6 years of service or after 90 days under a federal Title 10 mobilization. You need a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) along with income, asset, and credit documentation, and we pull your COE directly from Department of Veterans Affairs records during your application so you never have to chase it down. Eligibility is federal, so it works the same whether you are buying near Fort Cavazos, in San Antonio, or anywhere else in Texas.

Texas Property Tax Benefits for Veterans

Texas leans hard on property tax because it charges no state income tax, which makes the Veteran exemptions especially valuable. A Texas Veteran with a 100 percent service-connected disability rating, or a rating of individual unemployability, owes no property tax at all on a residence homestead, and a surviving spouse can keep that total exemption. Veterans rated between 10 and 90 percent receive a partial exemption that removes a set amount from the home’s appraised value and scales with the rating. On top of that, the standard residence homestead exemption lowers the taxable value for every owner-occupant. Each county appraisal district processes these exemptions, and we are glad to point you in the right direction during your loan.

VA Loans Across Texas

We help Veterans and military families buy and refinance from the Gulf Coast to the Panhandle to the border. Reach out any time at 800-697-4371.

Refinancing a VA Loan in Texas

If you already have a VA loan, the VA IRRRL streamline refinance can lower your rate without an appraisal, without income verification, and without asset verification, and our No Score IRRRL has no minimum credit score as long as you have been no more than 1x 30 days late in the past 12 months. If you would rather pull equity than just lower the rate, a VA cash-out refinance lets a qualified Veteran access home equity, though Texas has its own rules on home equity lending that your loan officer will walk through with you before you commit.

Why Work With PBT Bancorp

We have spent years helping Veterans and military families across the country, and we bring that same service-member-first approach to every Texas loan.

• An FDIC member bank and a wholesale broker, so we close in-house or shop your loan across more than 35 wholesale lenders
• A 500 minimum credit score on VA purchases and cash-out, through our wholesale lenders
• A No Score IRRRL with no minimum credit score for the right refinance
• We pull your Certificate of Eligibility (COE) and handle the VA paperwork for you
• Most loans close in 2 to 3 weeks instead of the 30 plus days you often see at larger lenders
• Over 3,000 military families helped, licensed in all 50 states

Texas VA Loan FAQs