Are VA loans really harder to close than conventional? No. The data has shown for years that VA loans close at comparable rates to conventional, often faster than FHA. The “harder to close” reputation is mostly bias dressed up as experience.
If you sell anywhere near a military installation — Fort Eisenhower, Bragg, Benning, Stewart, Hood — you’ve heard listing agents tell their sellers to “hold out for a conventional offer.” You’ve watched buyers’ agents reluctantly write VA offers like they’re filing a claim. Most of it is folklore. And it’s costing both sides money.
I run The McBride Team in Columbia County, GA, twenty minutes from Fort Eisenhower. PCS season runs hard from April through August every year. We work hundreds of military families through transactions, and we’ve watched perfectly good deals fall apart because an agent — usually on the other side — didn’t actually understand the loan product they were negotiating against.
Here are the seven myths I hear most, and what I tell agents to say instead.
Myth 1: VA loans take longer to close
They don’t. Average closing times for VA, FHA, and conventional loans have been within a few days of each other for years. ICE Mortgage Technology’s monthly Origination Insight reports have shown this consistently — VA frequently closes faster than FHA.
Where VA can slow down is the appraisal. VA assigns appraisers from a panel and the timeline depends on local panel availability. In Augusta, our average VA appraisal turnaround is roughly the same as conventional. In thinner panel markets it can lag. Either way: it’s a known variable, not a mystery.
What to say instead: “VA closes on the same timeline as conventional in our market. Here’s the appraisal turnaround we’re actually seeing.”
Myth 2: The VA appraisal will tank the deal
VA appraisals follow Minimum Property Requirements (MPRs). MPRs are not exotic. They cover safety, soundness, and sanitation: working systems, safe access, no peeling paint on pre-1978 homes, no obvious structural issues. If a house is broadly mortgageable, it usually meets MPRs.
The agents who get burned here are the ones listing homes with deferred maintenance and hoping a conventional appraiser will be lenient. That’s not a VA problem. That’s a listing problem.
What to say instead: “Let’s pre-walk the property against MPR criteria so we know what we’re dealing with before any offer comes in.”
Myth 3: VA buyers can’t compete in multiple-offer situations
This one’s the most expensive myth on the list. A VA buyer with a strong pre-approval, escalation clause, appraisal gap language, and a clean offer is competing on the same playing field as anyone else. Veterans can also offer non-allowable closing costs from their own funds where permitted, can do appraisal gap coverage, and can waive contingencies the same way other buyers can.
The lift on the buyer’s agent is to actually structure the offer competitively instead of submitting the lowest-effort version of it.
What to say instead: “Here’s how we structure a VA offer to be at least as competitive as a conventional one — and here’s why the seller should care.”
Myth 4: Sellers always pay more on a VA deal
The non-allowable fees on VA loans (the so-called “VA non-allowables”) are real, but the list is shorter than people think and the dollar amount is usually modest. The bigger driver of seller cost in any transaction is the negotiated concession package, not the loan type.
Sellers who reflexively reject VA offers based on “extra costs” are often turning down stronger net positions than they realize. Run the numbers, then have the conversation.
What to say instead: “Let me show you the actual seller-side cost difference on this offer versus the conventional one. It’s usually smaller than people assume.”
Myth 5: VA buyers have to put zero down, so they’re weaker
A VA buyer can put zero down. They don’t have to. Plenty of veterans put 5%, 10%, or more down to reduce the funding fee and lower their payment. Down payment is not a proxy for buyer strength on a VA loan. Pre-approval depth, debt-to-income, residual income calculations, and reserves are.
If you’re a listing agent comparing offers, ask the buyer’s lender for a real conversation. Don’t pattern-match on the down payment line.
What to say instead: “Let’s get the lender on the phone for two minutes and talk about buyer strength. Down payment isn’t the right proxy here.”
Myth 6: If they have a VA entitlement, they’re new to homeownership
Plenty of veterans are on their second, third, or fourth VA loan. Entitlement restoration, partial entitlement, and bonus entitlement are all in play. Some of the most experienced buyers I work with are E-7s and O-3s on their fourth PCS, who could close a transaction faster than half the agents in town.
Treating military buyers as inexperienced is condescending and it costs you the relationship. They talk to each other.
What to say instead: Whatever you’d say to any buyer with multiple transactions under their belt. They’ve been through this.
Myth 7: I don’t need to learn this — my lender will handle it
This is the one that should sting. Your lender handles the loan. You handle the strategy, the negotiation, and the listing presentation. If you can’t articulate why a VA offer is competitive, you’re not negotiating — you’re transcribing.
If you sell within driving distance of any military base, VA fluency is table stakes. The agents who win the military buyer market in Augusta, Killeen, Fayetteville, and Norfolk are not the ones with a VA-specialist designation on their card. They’re the ones who can sit across from a seller and explain, in 90 seconds, why this VA offer nets the seller more than the conventional one stacked next to it.
A quick checklist before your next VA transaction
Before writing or accepting a VA offer, run this:
Pull the buyer’s most recent COE status from their lender
Confirm the lender’s average VA closing timeline in your market
Pre-walk the property against MPRs (or have your inspector do it)
Build a side-by-side seller net sheet comparing the VA offer to any competing offers
Identify which non-allowables apply and price them in
Ask the lender about funding fee exemptions (disability rating, surviving spouse)
Five of those six steps take less than 30 minutes total. None of them require a designation.
FAQ
Q: Do I need a VA-specific designation to work with military buyers? No. Designations don’t hurt, but they’re not what closes deals. What closes deals is fluency with the loan product, a lender who actually answers the phone during PCS season, and a willingness to do the seller-side translation work.
Q: How do I get more VA referrals from military families? Show up where they are: spouse Facebook groups, base-area community pages, and the relocation officers on installation. Don’t pitch. Answer questions. The military spouse network refers more business by word of mouth than any paid lead source I’ve ever paid for.
Q: What’s the single biggest mistake agents make with military buyers? Assuming the timeline is flexible. PCS orders are not flexible. If a buyer has report-no-later-than dates, your closing strategy bends around those dates, not the other way around.
Want to work in a military market without learning all of this the hard way?
That’s most of what we do at The McBride Team. Fort Eisenhower keeps Columbia County in constant motion, and our systems are built around military timelines, VA fluency, and the relocation network that keeps referrals coming. If you’re working a military market — or thinking about moving into one — let’s talk.
Found this useful? Send it to an agent who’s writing a VA offer this week.
Go sell something. — Noah
Noah McBride | Broker | The McBride Team — 706.701.5940 | Guiding you home
