I'm Carlos Scarpero, a mortgage loan originator with Edge Home Finance, LLC in Dayton, Ohio. My NMLS is #1674385 and my cell is 937-572-3713. I run a free online community called VA Loans Made Easy, and this is the tour: what is inside it, what it costs (nothing), and who actually gets something out of it.
Short version. It is a classroom full of my VA loan videos, a section of calculators, a free copy of my book, a few resources other people built that I thought were worth keeping, and a chat area where you can ask me a question and get an answer. If you are using your VA benefit and you keep running into confusing answers, that is what I built it for.
Take the 30 second mortgage quiz to see if you qualify
On this page
The classroom is set up as courses, so you can start at the beginning or jump straight to the part that applies to you. When I built it I organized it around the calls I actually get.
Because most of the people who call me have already been told no somewhere else, and when I ask which rule they failed, nobody can tell them. Usually it is not a VA rule at all. It is that lender's own overlay sitting on top of the VA rule.
VA HANDBOOK EXCERPT
“VA does not have a minimum credit score requirement.”
That is VA's rule, straight out of Chapter 4. Every score number you have been quoted, 580, 600, 620, comes from a lender, not from VA. That distinction is the whole reason the guidelines course exists, and it is the difference between being told no and being told no by one particular lender.
Source:
VA Lender’s Handbook (Pamphlet 26-7) – Chapter 4: Credit Underwriting, Topic 7
If that sounds like your situation, the guidelines lessons in the community go through this the same way I would on the phone, and I have written it up here too in how to get a VA home loan with bad credit.
There is a whole calculator section, and it goes past the usual payment calculator. Bonus entitlement, mortgage payment, affordability, rent versus buy, refinance, conforming loan limits, net proceeds, temporary buydown, and a home value lookup.
Most of these also live on my site if you would rather not join anything to use them. They are on my mortgage calculators page.
Want the lessons, the calculators and the book without paying anything?
Join VA Loans Made Easy and start with the Start Here guide.
Yes. My book, VA Loans Made Easy, is for sale on Amazon, and members get a copy inside the community at no charge. If you want it without joining, there is also a book page here on my site.
When someone else has built something genuinely useful for veterans, I add it instead of rewriting it. Two examples you will find in the Disabled Veteran Resources section: a webinar on maximizing VA disability benefits from Dr. Steven Crane, and a lesson on property tax waivers by state.
There is also a Fix Your Credit section with credit building material from My Credit Guy, who is who I refer to when a file needs credit work before it can move.
Property tax exemptions in particular are worth your time if you have a disability rating, because the rules are set state by state. I keep a state by state breakdown on this site as well.
Take the 30 second mortgage quiz to see if you qualify
That is what the chat area is for. Post your question and you will get an answer from me or from someone else in the group who has been through it. One tip: include the actual numbers and dates. "Will I qualify?" is hard to answer. "Chapter 7 discharged in March 2024, 640 score, $6,200 a month gross, one car payment" is easy to answer.
You will get the most out of it if you are somewhere in this list.
If you would rather skip the reading and just find out where you stand, the VA Loan Pathfinder walks your scenario through in a couple of minutes.
Nothing. The classroom, the calculators, the book copy and the chat are free. The only thing you would ever pay for is a physical copy of the book, and only if you want one.
Go to the community, join, then open the Start Here guide and run whichever calculators match what you are trying to do. If your situation is complicated, post it in the chat and I will look at it.
And if you would rather just talk to a person, call or text me at 937-572-3713 or take the 30 second quiz and I will follow up.
A walkthrough of VA Loans Made Easy, my free VA loan community: the classroom lessons, the calculator section, a free copy of my book, and a chat area where you can ask me a question and get an answer.
The VA handbook now counts an unpaid non-medical collection at 5% of the balance divided by 12 months. A $10,000 collection drops from $500 to about $42.
Can you use a VA loan on a deed-restricted affordable home? What VA’s resale-restriction and marketability rules require, and what to check before you sign.
Take the 30 second mortgage quiz to see if you qualify
