Making Your Military Moves Seamless with PBT Bancorp

Buying and selling around your PCS orders

When your orders come through you usually do not get a generous window, and you are often trying to sell at your old duty station and buy at the new one inside the same few weeks while you report for duty. At PBT Bancorp we build the whole loan around that reality, so we get you pre-qualified upfront and keep your file moving so closing lines up with your report date instead of fighting against it. Many of the larger lenders take 30 days or longer to close a loan, but we are able to close in 2 to 3 weeks from start to finish, and sometimes faster if your timeline requires it. That difference of a week or two is the difference between sleeping in your own home and putting your family in a hotel while you wait on an underwriter.

Why the VA benefit fits a military move so well

A VA loan lets eligible buyers finance 100% of the purchase price with no down payment when you have full entitlement, which matters a great deal when your savings are already going toward the move itself, the deposit on a rental, or the gap before your household goods show up. There is no private mortgage insurance (PMI) the way conventional and FHA loans require, so your monthly payment stays lower, and that lower payment is one reason your Basic Allowance for Housing tends to stretch further on a VA loan than it does on almost anything else. You also do not have to chase down your Certificate of Eligibility (COE) on your own, because we pull it for you as part of getting you qualified, which is one less thing on your plate during an already busy season.

We lend nationwide, so the next move is easier too

We are licensed in all 50 states, so wherever your next set of orders sends you we can help with that loan the same way we helped with this one. A lot of service members like working with the same loan officer move after move, because by then we already know your file, your entitlement, and how you like to communicate, and that history takes a real chunk of stress out of the next PCS. You are not starting over with a stranger at a call center every few years, you are picking up the phone and reaching someone who remembers your last closing.

Flexible credit when a move has shaken things up

Moves are expensive and they can leave a dent in your credit, so the lender you choose really matters here. Most lenders want to see a 640 or higher, but at PBT Bancorp our minimum credit score is 500 on VA purchases and cash-out refinances, which means we can often help families that a bigger lender already turned away. We are an FDIC member bank and a wholesale broker with access to over 35 wholesale lenders, so we can shop your loan and find pricing that fits your situation rather than handing you one rate and sending you on your way. Of course the higher your score the better your pricing will typically be, but a lower score does not automatically shut the door.

Refinancing after you settle in

If you already have a VA loan and rates have dropped since you bought, the VA IRRRL (sometimes known as a VA streamline loan) is one of the easiest ways to lower your monthly payment, with no appraisal, no income verification, and no asset verification required. We also have a No Score VA IRRRL program that does not require a credit score at all, the only requirement is that you have been no more than 1x 30 days late in the past 12 months, so we can often close loans that most other lenders are not able to. Refinancing a $300,000 VA loan from 6.5% to 6.0% could lower your payment by around $100 per month, money that goes a lot further put toward your family than it does sitting in a lender’s pocket.

Let us help make the move easier

Our team has decades of experience working with Veterans and has helped over 3,000 families find their home or refinance and save money, and we would be glad to do the same for you. Give us a call at 800-697-4371 or complete our online pre-qualification form, and we can usually tell you where you stand in about 15 minutes so you can focus on the rest of your move.

PCS move questions we hear