How to buy a house in Virginia: start here
Every step, every cost, and every place a deal can go sideways, in the order you will hit them.
Learning how to buy a house is mostly learning the order. Each step depends on the one before it, and most of the stress buyers feel comes from not knowing what’s next or what it will cost. These pages walk through it the way I run my own files in the Richmond and Chesterfield area: the rule, the number behind it, and the places deals usually stall.
Where to start depends on where you are:
- Just thinking about it: read the home buying process, step by step for the whole sequence and a real timeline. If this is your first house, the first-time home buyer guide for Virginia takes apart the myths that keep people renting longer than they need to.
- Ready to get serious: pre-approval vs pre-qualification shows what a real letter checks and exactly what to send me.
- Not sure what you can afford: the pages under “What you can afford” cover income and debt-to-income, credit, student loans, the down payment, gifts, Virginia’s grants and the full cash you’ll need at closing.
- Already under contract: “Under contract” covers the offer, the appraisal, underwriting, your rate lock and what not to touch until you close.
Every example uses round numbers, so you can check the math yourself. Self-employed, coming back after a bankruptcy, buying with a VA loan or a co-signer, or buying before you sell? Start with “Special situations.”
Start here
Once under contract, I typically close in 30 days or less. The home buying process in Virginia, step by step.
Who qualifies, credit scores, low down payment options, real costs, Virginia Housing grants and a state tax break.
One is an estimate, the other verifies your income, credit and savings. What gets checked and how long it lasts.
What you can afford
Conventional loans allow debt-to-income up to 50%, but my guide is 3 to 5 times gross income. Salary table from $60k to $200k.
FHA wants 580 for maximum financing, VA sets no minimum and many lenders use 620. How to raise yours fast.
Student loans count in your debt-to-income ratio for a mortgage, often even deferred or at $0. How FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac count them.
Less than you think. Down payment rules for conventional, FHA, VA and USDA loans, and what more down really buys.
Family can give on most loans, FHA also accepts a documented close friend, and you need a gift letter plus a paper trail.
Virginia Housing grants you never repay, a Plus Second loan you do, and the Richmond income limits.
Cash to close is your down payment, closing costs, prepaids and escrow, minus credits. How much cash you need to close on a house, with a Virginia example.
The buyer pays most, including recordation tax on the deed and loan, and the seller pays grantor tax. Every line in real numbers.
Under contract
Why a seller credit often beats a price cut, program caps, and what to settle before the appraisal.
Lenders lend on the lower of price or value, so the seller cuts the price, you split the gap or bring cash. What to do, in order.
The mortgage underwriting process checks your income, assets, credit and the property against program rules, then moves from conditions to clear to close.
Once the contract is ratified, for a lock that covers funding day, not signing day. Plus extensions and float-downs.
Buy them only when the monthly savings repay the cost before you’re likely to sell or refinance. The break-even math.
Ask at 80% of the home’s original value, or it ends at 78%. FHA MIP has its own clock; the usual exit is refinancing out of FHA.
No new credit, no car, no job change without a call, no deposits you can’t document, and how to confirm a wire.
Special situations
Generally 2 years after a Chapter 7 discharge on FHA or VA, 4 on conventional, and 2 to 7 after foreclosure.
Two years of returns, how write-offs cut qualifying income, and when a bank statement loan fits.
Eligibility, entitlement and loan limits, the funding fee, PCS moves, buying near Fort Lee and VA refinances.
A co-signer on a mortgage owes all of it. How parents, partners and co-borrowers change income, debts, credit scores and title, and when adding one hurts.
You can buy a house before selling your current one with a contingent offer, a tandem closing, a HELOC or bridge loan, or savings now and a recast later.
Not seeing your situation?
Text me the details. If it’s a question other people will have, it becomes the next guide on this site, with your details left out.
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