VA Purchase and Refinance Guidelines after COVID forbearance

How to Qualify for a VA Purchase or Refi After Forbearance

Helping Veterans Impacted by COVID-19

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit everyone hard. Millions of lives disrupted.

The economy shuddered to a slow roll in a very short period of time, and millions of families are experiencing financial hardship.

This hardship is amplified if you are a homeowner with a mortgage payment.

On March 27th, 2020 the Federal CARES Act was passed to offer a clear path to payment relief options for homeowners impacted by the near Nationwide shutdown.

If you have a VA home loan, your loan is Federally backed and covered under the CARES Act.

The CARES Act clearly defines the path to payment relief through forbearance. What it does not tell you is what your options are for buying or refinancing if you went into forbearance because of COVID-19.

This article explores recent guidance released by the Veterans Administration that clears up many questions about access to a Veteran’s home loan entitlement after being in a COVID-19 forbearance.

I have to say that the Veterans Administration did a really good job here providing comprehensive guidance.  The VA was, once again, very generous in its efforts to encourage and protect homeownership in the Veteran community.

Homeowner Protection Under CARES Act

The Federal CARES Act only covers homeowners whose loans are Federally backed.  Under the umbrella definition of Federally backed is FHFA (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac), FHA, VA & USDA.

FHFA has been pretty clear about their 40% of the market by providing a clear pathway to forbearance and then out of forbearance into deferment or repayment, whichever is best for the homeowner.

On July 3oth 2020, the VA came out with very specific guidance regarding using your home loan entitlement even though you recently experienced a COVID-19 related financial hardship.

The following is a translation of the official VA guidance.  I tried to remove all of the “lender-speak” so it’s easier to understand your rights in plain language.

Our goal with this article is to empower Veterans so that misinformed or inexperienced loan officers are not preventing you from using your VA home loan benefit during these unprecedented times.

If you would like to review the original source document, you can view Circular 26-20-25 here.

Need a Second Opinion? Click Here for Help!

CARES Act Forbearance Impact on VA Purchase & Refinance Loans

This guidance specifically addresses the challenges that otherwise eligible Veterans may experience if you have experienced a temporary financial hardship due to COVID-19, which ultimately resulted in mortgage forbearance. 

Homeowners with a VA home loan are covered under the CARES Act.

This law specifically grants mortgage forbearance as a safety net in the event that you either “directly or indirectly” experience financial hardship from the COVID-19 emergency.  Requesting temporary mortgage payment relief under the CARES Act is incredibly easy.

Excerpt from the CARES Act:

See Public Law 116-136. Under section 4022 of the CARES Act, a borrower with a “Federally backed mortgage loan” who is experiencing a financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the COVID-19 emergency may request a forbearance on such loan.

A borrower can obtain forbearance by:

(i) submitting a request to the borrower’s servicer and

(ii) affirming that the borrower is experiencing financial hardship during the COVID-19 emergency. The forbearance must be granted for up to 180 days and must be extended for an additional period of up to 180 days at the request of the borrower.

The forbearance must be granted for up to 180 days and must be extended for an additional period of up to 180 days at the request of the borrower.

Forbearance must be offered upon the borrower’s request, regardless of delinquency status. 

Effective Dates

  • The guidance in this Circular is effective immediately and applied to any loan closed on or the day after this Circular is signed.
  • The policies outlined in this Circular will remain in place until further notice or the Circular is rescinded.
  • This Circular is rescinded on July 1, 2021.

COVID Related Underwriting Flexibilities

Lenders should continue to follow all applicable VA policies using good judgment and flexibility in originating VA-guaranteed loans for Veterans who invoke CARES Act forbearances.

If you have experienced financial hardship caused by COVID-19, VA is temporarily waiving certain regulations and policy requirements to help Veterans and the private sector to secure home loans.

Have Mortgage Questions? We Can Help! Click Here

The flexibility that VA underwriters have now to act in the best interest of the Veteran is one of the most powerful features of the VA Veteran home loan.

Unfortunately, this is also the reason why so many loan officers and lenders get it wrong.

In an effort to help as many Veterans as possible to take advantage of their home loan benefit, VA approved underwriters are encouraged to use common sense and their own discretion when making decisions to approve or deny a Veteran’s application.

But not all loan officers, underwriters, or lenders are created equal.  Not even close.

For this reason, we encourage Veterans to ONLY use professional advocacy groups like VettedVA to connect with experienced, passionate VA mortgage experts.

A Veteran’s options are literally limited to the experience and willingness of the loan officer and underwriter to fight for your loan approval if you are unable to breeze through with automated underwriting.

VA Purchase and Cash-Out Refinance Flexibilities

Veterans who are affected by COVID-19 should still be afforded the opportunity to utilize their earned VA home loan benefits.

For this reason, the VA is temporarily relaxing certain credit underwriting policies for VA-guaranteed purchase and cash-out refinance loans.

While lenders must continue to follow VA’s underwriting standards generally, lenders should not use a CARES Act forbearance as a reason to deny a Veteran a VA-guaranteed loan.

If you are a Veteran that experienced a COVID-19 related hardship, you must provide reasons for the forbearance and document that this temporary hardship has been resolved and you are able to make your normal monthly payment moving forward.  

VA will not consider a Veteran as an unsatisfactory credit risk, based solely upon the fact that the Veteran received some type of credit forbearance or experienced some type of deferred payment during the COVID-19 national emergency.

VA reminds lenders instead to continue to review and evaluate all applicable credit qualifying information, like residual income, debt-to-income ratios, credit, and assets.

Although deferred payments may not be considered for credit risk purposes, your lender will include the monthly obligation if the debt remains active after closing the new loan.

Need a Second Opinion? Click Here for Help!

This means that if you have deferred auto payments, or credit card payments on your credit report at the time of application, while you will not be penalized for receiving payment relief, the regular payment cannot be ignored when calculating your debt to income ratio.

Expert Answers

If you have questions about forbearance, please see our special project – ForbearanceReport.org

Please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel if you find this kind of information helpful.  Feel free to share with anyone you know that may also benefit from staying up to date with mortgage and real estate news.

If you would like to be introduced to someone that I know and trust to talk about a new purchase or refinance loan, click on any of the graphics in the sidebar or any of the Vetted VA links within the article.

If you have questions or comments about this article, please do so below!  I answer all comments.

About the Author

Scott Schang

A 20+ year veteran of the Mortgage and Real Estate industry, I am passionate about educating and empowering consumers. I have been writing about consumer protection issues and making sense of complicated real estate and mortgage topics on this website since 2007

Do You Have Questions About Qualifying?

Find a Mortgage Expert Near You

Find a Mortgage Expert by State

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawai'i

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

South Dakota

Tenessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Washington DC

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

  • George says:

    I am a veteran, I have a VA loan, I was on forbearance, I am off forbearance. I made my first mortgage payment 1/1/22. How soon can I do a refinance with cash out I am in SC. Thank you kindly.

    • Scott Schang says:

      Hi George, as long as you made 6 on-time payments prior to your forbearance, there is no waiting period. Many lenders are saying 6 months, but this is a misreading of the underwriting guidelines.

      If you would like, I can introduce you to a VA loan expert I know and trust that can help in SC. Just shoot me an email at scott@findmywayhome.com and I’ll make the connection. The person I have in mind is a Veteran as well, and he’s the business owner.

      THANK YOU for your Service! I hope this helps?

  • SheliaTaylor says:

    I am a spouse of a deceased veteran. Can I apply for a Veteran loan for $3,000 to buy a car ? My income is $804.00 monthly.

  • John Jones says:

    if I am on a forbearance plan with me lender and I want to refi can i or is there a wait time before i can i have untill the end of march 2021 before it ends but i dont want to wait that long to refi causee i am in need of a little cash out my credit score is below the 620 mark if there is a lender out there let me know please

    • Scott Schang says:

      Hi John, first and foremost, THANK YOU for your Service! VA will allow you to refinance after forbearance as long as you are in a position to qualify for the new mortgage.

      Shoot me an email to scott@findmywayhome.com and let me know what State you’re in. Refinancing after forbearance is a pretty new thing. While the VA has offered guidance on how to do this, not all lenders are going to know how to, or be willing to do the necessary research to determine what your options are.

      I will connect you with someone that I know and trust, and we’ll try to figure out what this path looks like for you.

      I hope this helps?

  • Gloria Lawrence says:

    What about if your forbearance was prior Covid do you still wait 12 months? Want to move out of state. Sick husband wants to be closer to family. Our forbearance ended Feb 2020. We have charge offs and collections. Have paid more on mortgage since. paid off truck, 2 installments and 2 credit cards. Plan to sale current home.

    • Scott Schang says:

      Hi Gloria, VA does not have a waiting period necessarily, you just have to document that you are no longer experiencing the hardship that caused you to go into forbearance in the first place. VA offers many options for paying back the skipped payments as long as things are back to normal.

      I can introduce you to someone that I know and trust that is an expert with VA financing. It’s unlikely that anyone is going to have experience with this specific guideline yet, but someone that knows the ropes can navigate this question for you and get you an accurate answer about your options.

      If you would like, shoot me an email to scott@findmywayhome.com and let me now what State you’re moving to?

      I hope this helps, and THANK YOU for your Service to our Country 🙂

  • Emit Newsome says:

    I lost my spouse in 2015, lost my Kidney functions in May 2019, my daughter is now my care taker and helping me financially, she is a Real Estate Agent and business is slow due to Virus. Most Mortgages under writers stated they can’t use her income because she is not on the deed. Can’t find an Under writer with common since for approval. I am currently with Caliber Home Loans, they put me in a Forebearance program but, when program expires they want the balance paid in full, that is impossible, that is why I was put in the program I don’t have the income to pay every month. Need someone to understand, will be able to start paying again when the Economic gets back on tract. Need the monies I owe be added to the end of my Loan then I can start all over again, don’t want to loose my home, I am a Veteran.

    • Scott Schang says:

      Hi Emit, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your spouse and your health issues. And I really want to say THANK YOU for your Service to our Country.

      Is your current loan a VA loan? If it is, you are eligible for up 360 days forbearance under the CARES Act, and the VA will be very aggressive about trying to keep you in your home.

      I know it doesn’t help at all, but I would ask you not to worry until you cross that bridge. Many States are just now coming out with legislation to fill the gaps where the CARES Act did not cover.

      If you have a VA loan now, you can definitely rest easy, even if Caliber is your servicer. If you have a Federally backed mortgage (Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac conventional, FHA, VA or USDA) you cannot be required to make up all those payments at one time.

      The challenge right now is that many of these customer service people do not actually know what options are available to people. They may have been recently hired to deal with this crisis, probably working remotely, and working off a script.

      Again, I know this is really scary. There are a lot of people out there that will fight for you and will not let you fall. The simple fact of the matter is, right now, the servicers probably are not telling you all of your options because they may not even fully understand what all of your options are.

      I’m thinking out loud here, but you sound like you may be retired? Do you have any pension, social security, military, or disability income coming in?

      I would like to introduce you to a mortgage expert that I know and trust that specialized in VA underwriting guidelines. If that’s ok, can you shoot me an email to scott@findmywayhome.com, let me know what state you live in, and I will connect you?

      I hope this helps?