We have a VA loan for 199,000 that was acquired in 2004. We would like to purchase another house on our next PCS and do not want to sell this current house. How much VA loan can we still be approved for? Thanks for any input.

I believe that you have to occupy any house that you have a VA loan on. I think they make you prove the house was either paid off or sold before they will let you take out another VA loan on a different house. You might check with the VA though to make sure. I'm sure that they could answer that with just a call to 1-800-827-1000.

The 2008 Freddie Mac conforming loan limit is now $417,000. So basically if they would let you have two loans running concurrently then you should have the remainder of that available, minus your current loan.

Not a 100% on this, but from my recent research, you have to occupy the residence and you can only have one VA Loan at a time and cannot open a new one until the previous one has been paid. I read about a person that allowed someone to assume their VA Loan and now they have to wait until they refinance or pay off the loan to be able to use their VA privileges again.

Actually, you can have multiple VA loans as long as the house next house you are buying will be your residence. You can have up to $417,000 dollars in VA loans so in your case, you will be capped at $218,000 including financed VA funding fees. The difficult part you will have is teaching your loan officer that it is doable because it is not very often that it is done. You will have to have had full eligibility to begin with on your original purchase.

Paul
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I know this to be true!, I bought a home at my next duty station with VA before my current VA loan was satisfied. From my understanding there are at least two tiers to VA eligibility, Tier 1 is used for homes up to $144,000. Tier 2 is anything above that with a cap of more than $400K. My Tier 1 eligibility is zero because of my active loan, the broker was quick to call and let me know that I had no eligibility left. wanting the word from the VA I called them myself and got the low down, my tier 2 was untouched and ready to be used. MortgageGuru is right, it was a bit of a pain to teach the loan officer and or mortgage broker but they were very grateful when they called me back

Veterans with less than full eligibility for a VA guaranteed loan should also check out FHA's program. Eligibile Veterans and Active Mility may be able to rent thier existing home and purchase a second home with 100% financing with FHA's program.