VA Home Loans · Placer & Sacramento
The VA home loan is the strongest financing benefit in American housing. It is also the one most often misunderstood by listing agents, quietly steered away from by lenders who find it inconvenient, and left on the table entirely. Aaron works VA files across Placer and Sacramento counties and knows how to get them closed.
No down payment required with full entitlement
No monthly mortgage insurance — ever
A broker who will defend your offer, not apologize for it
Let's confirm your eligibility.
The benefit
The VA does not lend you money. It guarantees a portion of the loan, which is why a lender can offer terms no conventional program can match. Here is what that guarantee is worth in practice.
No down payment required
Eligible buyers with full entitlement can finance a primary residence without a down payment. No other mainstream loan in America does that — and in a market where saving a down payment is the single hardest part, it is decisive.
No monthly mortgage insurance
Every other low-down-payment loan charges monthly mortgage insurance. VA does not, ever. Over the life of a loan that is often the largest dollar advantage of the whole benefit, and it is the one most buyers underestimate.
No VA county loan limit
Congress repealed VA county loan limits for veterans with full entitlement effective January 1, 2020, under the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act. Individual lenders still set their own maximums, which is exactly the kind of thing a broker shops for you.
The funding fee — and who never pays it
VA charges a one-time funding fee that varies by service category, prior use, and whether you put money down. It is waived entirely for veterans receiving VA disability compensation, for certain Purple Heart recipients serving on active duty, and for eligible surviving spouses. When it does apply it can usually be financed into the loan.
You can use it more than once
The benefit is not one-and-done. Entitlement can be restored after you sell and pay off a VA loan, and in some situations you can hold two VA loans at the same time using remaining entitlement — a real option for a PCS move.
The loan is assumable
With VA and lender approval, a qualified buyer can assume your VA loan and its terms when you sell. Depending on where rates sit years from now, that can be a genuine selling advantage most listings will not have.
Advocacy
The benefit is excellent. The execution is where veterans get let down. These are the four places it happens, and what a lender who actually works VA does about each one.
The "sellers do not like VA offers" myth
You will hear it, sometimes from a listing agent, occasionally from your own. It is mostly a leftover from decades ago plus a handful of badly run files. What actually spooks a seller is uncertainty: a lender who does not answer the phone, an appraisal nobody explained, a timeline nobody defended. That is a lender problem, not a VA problem. Aaron gets on the phone with the listing agent, walks them through the timeline, and makes your offer the one they stop worrying about.
The VA appraisal is also a property inspection
A VA appraiser checks value and also checks the home against the VA Minimum Property Requirements — safe and sanitary, working mechanicals, sound roof, safe access, no obvious health hazards. A fixer a cash buyer would take as-is can get flagged. Knowing this before you write the offer is the difference between negotiating a repair and losing your deposit clock.
Tidewater — the step almost nobody tells you about
When a VA appraiser is heading toward a value below the contract price, VA has a formal process that lets the lender submit additional comparable sales BEFORE the appraisal is finalized. It is called Tidewater, and it has saved a lot of deals that otherwise would have died on paper. If your lender does not know to watch for it and respond inside the window, you simply lose that chance. We watch for it.
And if the value still comes in low
There is a reconsideration-of-value route afterward, and there are negotiating paths that do not require you to hand over cash you do not have. Nothing is guaranteed. But you should have someone working the process on your behalf instead of forwarding you a PDF and wishing you luck.
The part nobody runs for you
A VA loan takes the down payment and the mortgage insurance out of the equation. That is enormous \u2014 and it also means the rest of the ownership cost carries more weight than it does for anybody else. Two homes at the same price, ten minutes apart in Placer or Sacramento County, can be thousands of dollars a year apart on taxes, special assessments, utility territory and insurance. That gap is bigger than most of the shopping decisions you will agonize over.
California's Disabled Veterans' Property Tax Exemption
If you are rated 100 percent service-connected disabled, or are compensated at the 100 percent rate for individual unemployability, California reduces the assessed value of your principal residence. For the 2026 lien date that is $180,671 off assessed value under the basic exemption with no income test, or $271,009 under the low-income exemption if household income is at or below $81,131. An unmarried surviving spouse may also claim it. You file form BOE-261-G with your county assessor \u2014 the basic exemption is a one-time filing, the low-income version must be refiled by February 15 each year.
And here is the catch nobody mentions: the exemption reduces the value-based portion of your property tax. It does not apply to direct levies or special taxes. So if you buy in a Mello-Roos community \u2014 Twelve Bridges, Whitney Ranch, Fiddyment Farm, Folsom Ranch \u2014 that CFD charge stays on your bill in full. A veteran who assumes the exemption wipes out the tax line can be badly surprised by the first bill. The fix is simple: know what is on the parcel before you write the offer.
Run the address before you write the offer.
HiddenHomeCost.com pulls the parcel-level data for a specific address \u2014 the real special taxes, the utility territory, the fire-zone posture, the post-sale reassessment \u2014 and shows the complete monthly cost of that house rather than principal and interest alone. It is free and takes about a minute. For a VA buyer it often reveals that the older home nobody was excited about is genuinely cheaper to own than the newer one at the same price. Bring the number back and Aaron will build the plan around it.
Local knowledge
Your eligibility comes from your service, not your address \u2014 you can use it anywhere in the region. But these are the communities veterans and active-duty buyers ask about most, and each has its own cost profile.
North Highlands
Grew up around the former McClellan Air Force Base. Mid-century homes, some of the most attainable prices in the county, and a long-standing veteran community.
North Highlands home loans →Antelope
Right on the Sacramento/Placer line and priced like Sacramento County. Newer tract housing, which is also where Mello-Roos is genuinely worth checking before you offer.
Antelope home loans →Citrus Heights
Built-out, older, essentially no special taxes, and centrally placed for commuters heading toward Mather, downtown, or up Highway 65.
Citrus Heights home loans →Lincoln
The short run up Highway 65 toward Beale. Beautiful newer neighborhoods — and the Placer county tract where the special-tax question matters most.
Lincoln home loans →Folsom
Close to Mather and the Sacramento VA Medical Center, strong schools, SMUD power. Folsom Ranch is newer and carries CFD special taxes worth pricing in.
Folsom home loans →Carmichael
Larger lots along the American River, older housing stock, and the kind of no-CFD tax profile that quietly beats a newer home at the same price.
Carmichael home loans →Buying in the foothills \u2014 Auburn, Colfax, Newcastle? Get a homeowners-insurance quote at the same time as your pre-approval. Fire-zone pricing there can move your qualifying payment as much as the loan itself does, and it is the single most common late surprise on a foothill purchase.
Aaron has worked with Placer and Sacramento buyers since 2010, and as a broker he shops multiple lenders rather than selling one company's shelf \u2014 which matters on VA, where lender overlays and maximums vary a lot. If the VA loan is your best move he will show you why. If something else beats it for your situation, he will tell you that too.
Eligibility generally comes from qualifying service — veterans, active-duty service members, many National Guard and Reserve members after enough qualifying service, and certain surviving spouses. The VA sets the service requirements, and they differ by era and component. The clean answer is to pull your Certificate of Eligibility, which Aaron can usually request for you in minutes. Eligibility comes from your service, not from where you buy.
The Certificate of Eligibility, or COE, is the VA document confirming you qualify and showing how much entitlement you have available. Most COEs can be pulled electronically by a lender in a few minutes. If yours needs manual review — which happens with some Guard and Reserve records and some older service — it can take longer, which is exactly why you start this before you go shopping, not after you are in contract.
For an eligible buyer with full entitlement buying a primary residence, VA does not require one. That is the core of the benefit. Putting money down is still optional and can reduce the funding fee, so it is worth running both ways. Aaron will show you the comparison rather than assuming.
VA county loan limits were repealed for veterans with full entitlement effective January 1, 2020. That said, individual lenders set their own maximum loan amounts and their own guidelines above certain thresholds, and if you have used part of your entitlement already the math changes. As a broker, Aaron shops those lender limits instead of being stuck with one company’s ceiling.
The funding fee is waived for veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability, for veterans who would be entitled to that compensation but for receiving retirement or active-duty pay, for certain Purple Heart recipients serving on active duty, and for eligible surviving spouses. Categories and amounts are set by the VA and change over time, so confirm your status — and if a fee was charged when it should not have been, it can be refunded.
Yes. Entitlement can be restored once a prior VA loan is paid off and the property sold, and there are situations — a permanent change of station being the common one — where remaining entitlement supports a second VA loan while you still hold the first. It is worth an actual conversation because the entitlement math is the part people get wrong.
California reduces the assessed value of a qualifying veteran’s principal residence. For the 2026 lien date the basic exemption is $180,671 off assessed value with no income test, and the low-income exemption is $271,009 if household income is at or below $81,131. It requires a 100 percent service-connected disability rating, or compensation at the 100 percent rate due to individual unemployability, and an unmarried surviving spouse may also claim it. You file form BOE-261-G with your county assessor. The basic exemption is a one-time filing; the low-income exemption must be refiled annually by February 15. Important limit: it reduces the value-based portion of your tax bill only — it does not apply to direct levies or special taxes, so Mello-Roos and CFD charges are still owed in full.
CalVet is a separate home-loan program run by the California Department of Veterans Affairs, and for some California veterans it is worth comparing against a VA-guaranteed loan. They are different products with different structures. Ask about it — the right answer depends on your situation, and you deserve to see both rather than whichever one the person in front of you happens to sell.
Yes. Cali Mortgage serves veterans and active-duty buyers across Placer and Sacramento counties — North Highlands, Antelope, Citrus Heights, Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Folsom, Carmichael and the surrounding communities, including buyers commuting to Beale and to the Sacramento VA Medical Center at Mather. Call 916-365-2661.
It usually takes minutes, it costs nothing, and it settles the question before you fall in love with a house. Call Aaron and he will pull it with you and walk through what your entitlement actually supports.
Not eligible for VA? The FHA page is usually the next place to look. Already own and want to lower your rate or term? Start with refinancing.
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