The VA home-buyer guide for Central Florida

The VA home loan is the strongest financing benefit available to a civilian buyer in the United States, and it is routinely misunderstood by everyone involved in a transaction — including agents. This guide covers how it works, and then spends most of its length on the part that actually costs VA buyers money in Central Florida: the property condition standards.

Who qualifies for a VA loan?

Veterans, active-duty service members, certain National Guard and Reserve members, and some surviving spouses. Eligibility is proven with a Certificate of Eligibility, which your lender can usually pull in minutes.

The service requirement depends on when and how you served. Broadly:

• Active duty, wartime: generally 90 continuous days.
• Active duty, peacetime: generally 181 continuous days.
• National Guard and Reserve: generally six years of service, or 90 days of active-duty service under Title 10.
• Surviving spouses: of a service member who died in the line of duty or from a service-connected disability, subject to remarriage rules.

These are summaries. The VA determines eligibility, not your lender and certainly not your agent — the Certificate of Eligibility is the document that settles it.

What entitlement actually means

Entitlement is the amount the VA guarantees to your lender if you default. It is not a loan amount and it is not a budget — it is the reason a lender will finance 100% of the price without mortgage insurance.

The distinction matters because entitlement is what determines whether you can buy with nothing down, not how much house you can buy. A buyer with full entitlement has no VA-imposed loan limit; the ceiling is what the lender will approve on income, credit and the appraised value.

A buyer with partial or remaining entitlement — most often someone who still has an active VA loan on another property, or who had a previous VA loan foreclosed — can still buy, but a down payment may be required on the amount above what the remaining entitlement covers.

Do you really buy with zero down?

Within your entitlement, yes. A VA purchase can be financed at 100% of the appraised value, with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance.

The absence of mortgage insurance is the part buyers underestimate. On a conventional loan with less than 20% down, private mortgage insurance is a real monthly cost that buys you nothing. A VA loan replaces it with a one-time funding fee that can be financed into the loan. Over the first several years, that difference is usually worth considerably more than the funding fee costs.

One thing zero down does not do is remove the need for cash. You still need funds for the deposit, the inspection, and any costs the seller does not cover — and in a competitive market, a buyer with some cash available has options a buyer with none does not.

The VA funding fee

A one-time fee paid to the VA that keeps the program running without taxpayer subsidy. It can be financed into the loan, and a significant number of buyers are exempt from it entirely.

The fee is a percentage of the loan amount, and it varies with two things: how much you put down, and whether this is your first use of the benefit. The structure in effect since April 2023:

Note what the table shows: putting 5% down cuts the fee substantially, and on a repeat use it more than halves it. That is a calculation worth running rather than assuming zero down is always the right answer.

Percentages and exemption rules are set by the VA and do change. Confirm the current figures with your lender rather than relying on any website, this one included.

What the VA appraisal is actually doing

Two jobs at once: establishing the property’s value, and confirming it meets the VA’s Minimum Property Requirements. The second job is what surprises people.

A conventional appraisal is a valuation. A VA appraisal is a valuation plus a condition screen, performed by an appraiser assigned through the VA’s own system rather than chosen by the lender. The result is a Notice of Value, and it can come with conditions that must be satisfied before the loan can close.

If the value is likely to come in below the contract price, the appraiser issues a Tidewater notice first, giving the listing side a short window to provide supporting comparable sales. That window is genuinely useful — but only if the agents on both sides know what it is and respond inside it.

Minimum Property Requirements: what actually fails

MPRs exist to confirm a home is safe, structurally sound and sanitary. In Central Florida, a small number of them account for most of the repair conditions I see — and every one of them is visible before you write an offer if you know to look.

This is the section worth reading twice. A VA buyer who loses an appraisal to a condition issue has usually already paid for an inspection, spent two weeks under contract, and lost their place in a moving market. The fix is not a better appraiser — it is knowing what the appraiser will flag before you commit.

Roof condition and remaining life

The most common single issue. The VA does not publish a hard age limit, but an appraiser is looking for a roof that will remain serviceable for a reasonable period and is free of active leaks. In this climate, asphalt shingle roofs age faster than in most of the country. A roof near the end of its life is also, separately, an insurance problem in Florida — many carriers will not write a new policy on an older roof at all, which can end a purchase even if the VA is satisfied.

Wood-destroying organisms

Florida requires a wood-destroying organism report on VA purchases, and the cost generally cannot be charged to the buyer. Subterranean termite activity is common here. Evidence of active infestation, or of past damage that was never repaired, will produce a condition.

Standing water, drainage and grading

Water must drain away from the foundation. Chronic ponding beside a slab, a downspout discharging against the house, or a negative grade in a side yard are all things an appraiser can and does note — and all things you can see on a first walkthrough if you look down instead of at the kitchen.

Peeling paint on pre-1978 homes

Lead-based paint was banned in 1978. On any home built before then, defective or peeling paint — inside, outside, on the soffit, on a detached garage — must be remediated. Central Florida has plenty of pre-1978 inventory, particularly in older parts of Sanford, Longwood and Orlando.

Mechanical systems that work

Heating must be adequate and functional. Electrical and plumbing must be safe and operational. Exposed wiring, an open junction box, a non-functioning water heater, or a panel brand with a known safety history will all draw attention.

Access, egress and the envelope

The property needs safe, permanent access from a public or private street. Crawl spaces and attics need access and adequate ventilation. Broken windows, missing handrails on stairs, and unsafe decking are straightforward failures.

Can you buy a condo with a VA loan?

Only if the condominium project is on the VA’s approved list. The unit qualifying is not enough — the whole association has to be approved.

This catches Central Florida buyers regularly, because a lot of attractive inventory in Altamonte Springs, Casselberry and parts of Orlando is condominium. Approval status is searchable on the VA’s portal, and a project can be approved, expired, or never submitted.

A project can be submitted for approval, but the timeline is measured in months and depends entirely on the association’s cooperation. It is not a realistic path inside a normal contract period. Check approval status before you tour, not after you fall in love with a unit.

Using a VA loan on new construction

Yes, with conditions. The builder must be registered with the VA and have a valid builder ID, and the home must still pass a VA appraisal against the same Minimum Property Requirements.

Buying new with a VA loan is common in Seminole County, where there is active construction across Sanford, Oviedo and the Lake Mary corridor. The practical issues are usually not VA rules but builder process: lender incentives tied to the builder’s preferred lender, contract terms that heavily favour the builder, and the fact that the agent in the model home works for the builder.

If you are considering a new build, read the new-construction representation guide before your first site visit. Registering your own agent afterwards is usually not possible.

Will a seller accept a VA offer?

Yes — and the resistance you hear about is mostly folklore from the 1990s. What kills VA offers today is a weak offer, not the loan type.

The persistent myths are that VA loans are slow, that the appraisal is harsher, and that the seller ends up paying for everything. In practice a VA purchase closes in a comparable window to a conventional one, the appraisal adds a condition screen rather than a stricter valuation, and the fees a buyer cannot pay are a short list that is negotiated like any other term.

What actually makes a VA offer competitive:

• A full lender pre-approval, not a pre-qualification, from a lender with genuine VA volume.
• Realistic dates. Building the VA appraisal timeline into the contract rather than promising a schedule you cannot hold.
• A listing agent who has been told, in advance, how the process actually runs — most of the resistance is uncertainty, not preference.
• Choosing properties that will pass. This is the quiet one, and it is most of the battle.

Using the benefit more than once

The VA benefit is not a one-time entitlement. It can be restored after a VA loan is paid off, and in some circumstances you can hold two VA loans at the same time.

Restoration applies when the prior VA loan is paid in full and the property is sold. Entitlement returns and you buy again as if it were the first time — though the funding fee moves to the subsequent-use rate unless you are exempt or put 5% or more down.

Second-tier entitlement lets a buyer keep an existing VA-financed home and purchase another with the remaining entitlement. It is used most often on a permanent change of station. The maths is specific to your situation and your lender should run it before you start looking.

There is also entitlement substitution: another VA-eligible buyer assuming your loan and substituting their entitlement for yours, releasing yours entirely. That matters if you ever sell a home carrying a low-rate VA loan — see the assumable mortgage guide.

Buying VA in Central Florida specifically

Two local factors shape a VA purchase here more than anything in the VA’s own rules: roof age and its effect on insurability, and HOA-heavy inventory.

Insurance is the constraint people do not plan for. The Florida market has tightened considerably, and roof age is the single biggest factor in whether a policy can be bound at all. A home can satisfy the VA and still be effectively unbuyable because no carrier will write it. Get an insurance quote early — in parallel with the inspection, not after it.

HOA fees change what you can afford. Much of the newer inventory across Lake Mary, Oviedo and Winter Springs carries an association fee, and it counts in your debt-to-income calculation. Two homes at the same price can approve very differently.

Where VA buyers tend to do well here: newer construction in Sanford and Oviedo, which clears the roof and MPR questions cleanly; townhomes near the SunRail corridor; and well-maintained 1990s and 2000s single-family inventory in Lake Mary and Longwood where the roof and systems have already been updated once.

The process, step by step

1. Get your Certificate of Eligibility. Your lender can usually pull it electronically the same day.
2. Get fully pre-approved by a lender that closes VA loans regularly. Volume matters more than rate at this stage.
3. Set a realistic budget including HOA fees, taxes and an insurance estimate — not just principal and interest.
4. Tour with MPRs in mind. Roof, drainage, panel, visible plumbing, paint condition on older homes.
5. Write the offer with dates that accommodate the VA appraisal, and with the fee allocation handled explicitly.
6. Inspection and WDO report. Both, always, regardless of how new the home is.
7. VA appraisal. Ordered through the VA system. Watch for a Tidewater notice and respond inside the window.
8. Resolve any conditions on the Notice of Value.
9. Clear to close, then close. Occupancy is generally expected within 60 days.