Personal Experience in Trying to Get a VA Home Loan

My personal experience with trying to buy a home with a VA Home Loan Guarantee is one that has left me wondering if the program really works in helping veterans purchase a home. I qualified with my income and credit to purchase a house for around $280,000 from the bank that I was using for the VA Home Loan. However, the downfall came when the appraisal time came and there were no local appraisals that perform VA appraisals. So the VA regional office in Virginia sent an appraiser from out of state to conduct an appraisal in West Virginia.

The appraiser didn't even conduct a thorough appraisal or look at the house plans for the home I was going to purchase. The home that was appraised is around 2500 square feet and the VA appraiser didn't even use like comparables to base their market value. The home is brand new and was in the process of being built. After the appraiser appraised the house way below what it costs to build the house I requested a field review from another person that conducts these for the VA. However, this appraiser was not from the local area and wouldn't change the first appraisal because he was going on vacation and in a hurry to get it over with. This second appraiser wasn't supposed to see the first appraisal, but his appraisal price was the same as the first VA appraiser. Makes me wonder what type of shady business is he VA Loan Program conducting?

The bank that I was working with stated that the VA appraiser from Virginia has undervalued all appraisals in the area and had cost the bank at least five VA loans this year. I never saw the appraisal or had any conversations with the appraiser even though I'm paying for the appraisal and I still had to pay $450 dollars for without any communication from the VA.

Personally, I feel that the appraisal is just a personal opinion of someone without any real merit to the value of a home. If you qualify income and credit wise then you should be able to obtain a loan to buy a house. However, just because of two lazy and incompetent VA Loan appraisers I had to acquire another loan with hirer costs for the same home that they undervalued.

Hopefully nobody else will have to deal with such incompetence from the VA Home Loan Guarantee program that I had to go through even though they're supposed to help Veterans. The appraisal that the VA appraiser gave to the bank killed the whole deal even though their appraisal was inaccurate and just a personal opinion.
If you do try to get a VA Home Loan ask that they don't call any appraiser from Roanoke, Virginia because the one that they'll send is truly an idiot.

Source:

Personal Dealing with the VA Home Loan Program