Today the Texas Veteran’s Land Board announced that the new Texas Vet Housing Assistance Program loan limit is $417,000, up from $325,000.   They also increased the land-only program to $100,000, up from $80,000.  That’s how Texas takes care of our military veterans!

For more information, see www.texasveterans.com.

Rebecca Queen with RE/MAX is holding a homebuyer seminar for military veterans this Thursday, April 12th, from 5:30pm to 6:30pm with a brief presentation at 6pm.  Active duty and retired military veterans are invited to come by and ask any and all questions about buying a house.  The VA Team will be present to answer financing questions.  Rebecca will address property search and acquisition questions.  We will also be joined by the Veterans’ representative for Williamson County who has a wealth of information on other veteran resources.  All veterans and ...

Today we officially launched our VA Marketing Portal for all of our Realtor partners who have taken Chad’s VA training classes.  This portal includes all kinds of marketing material for immediate download, including letters to send to your database of veterans and non-vets, “snippets” of information to add to your newsletters, articles on VA and Texas Vet financing, social media ideas, etc…. To gain access, please attend one of Chad’s VA training classes coming soon.  The next upcoming class is always posted at www.chadbowman.com/classes!  Are ...

Here we are at 11/11/11: Veterans Day. Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day as a way to honor those who served in all American wars. Per the Census Bureau there are roughly 22 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million ...

Realtors, are you looking for a great class to get a solid understanding of VA loans and working with veterans?  If so, join us on December 9th at the Williamson County Association of Realtors (WCAOR) in Round Rock for Chad’s VA Home Loans MCE class.  Simply click here to read about this class and to register online.  Email me if you have any questions at all!

Remember the VA funding fee reductions I told you about in a previous post? They were supposed to go into effect in October, but the VA moved the date to November 18th.  Well, it turns out the Congress and the VA are not on the same page.  They have since pulled the changes completely and said to all of us VA lenders and veterans, never mind, we’re just going to stick with the same funding fees we’ve had for years.  Bottom line, forget about all those changes ...

Last week the U.S. Senate passed a $182 billion spending bill for fiscal year 2012 that reflects a bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee in September.   The bill includes the restoration of funding for housing counseling programs under HUD, including counseling for seniors obtaining a reverse mortgage.  According to the executive director of the Coalition for Independent Seniors (CIS)  “America’s seniors, looking to capitalize on their equity wealth to maintain their financial independence will still have access to consumer protections like housing counseling if this bill becomes law.” ...

Today I would like to extend a warm welcome to Melissa Giles, the newest member of our United Lending team.  Melissa is a licensed Loan Officer and experienced Loan Officer Assistant who will be supporting my team full-time from loan origination to funding.  It is great people like Melissa who are helping The VA Team at United Lending grow to the next level while maintaining our responsiveness and quality delivery that our customers have come to count on.  Welcome aboard Melissa!

Realtors…  Please join us at Austin Title on Spicewood Springs Road October 25th, 2011 for VA training.  You will learn:

One hour of MCE credit for $10 and it’s FREE if you don’t need the credit.

Use this link to register online:  VA Home ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs released a Bulletin today regarding the processing times for Certificates of Eligibility. A vast majority of the time, a veteran’s Certificate of Eligibility (COE) can be obtained online by the veteran or veteran’s lender, so processing time is just a couple of minutes.  However, when the veteran has had a prior VA loan or is eligible only due to serving in the Reserves or National Guard, discharge papers need to be uploaded or mailed to the VA to obtain a COE.  The Bulletin issued by ...