Richmond, Virginia mortgage lenders and brokers: the local numbers

If you are comparing Richmond, Virginia mortgage lenders, most of the talk will be about rates. Rates move every day, and they are only part of what a house costs you. The rest is local: the loan limits for this metro, what each city and county charges in real estate tax and when it is due, and what Virginia collects when your deed is recorded. These are the Richmond-area numbers I quote with, as of November 2026.

2026 loan limits in the Richmond area

Every locality in the Richmond metro sits at the national baseline, so this is not a high-cost area, and one table covers the whole region.

HUD sets the FHA figure at 115% of the $615,000 median sale price it uses for the metro, and it is the same in the City of Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Powhatan, Goochland, New Kent, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell. As of November 2, 2026, the 2027 limits had not been announced. The conforming figure usually comes out in late November, and FHA’s usually follows in December.

Two more limits matter here:

• VA loans have no loan limit with full entitlement. If some of your entitlement is tied up in another VA loan, the county limit drives the math: 25% of $832,750 is $208,187.50, the most VA will guaranty here before subtracting what you have already used.
• Virginia Housing’s grants and bond loans stop at a $550,000 price in its Richmond grouping, under the limits in effect for applications since August 1, 2026. The income limits and the trade-offs are on my Virginia first-time buyer programs page.

Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover: tax rates and due dates

Taxes are where houses around Richmond really differ. Each city and county sets its own rate per $100 of assessed value and its own due dates. Here is the table as of November 2, 2026, flagged wherever the locality’s own page did not confirm the year or a date. The last column is the yearly tax on a $400,000 assessment, with the monthly share of your escrow in parentheses.

Your bill is figured on the assessed value, not your price, and the first-year number on a new build is an estimate until the county bills the finished house. I cover both, plus how escrow handles all of these due dates, on my Richmond-area property tax page.

The lowest-priced house can carry the biggest tax bill. I see it when buyers shop across a county line, so I put the tax in the payment before we compare anything.

Recordation and closing costs in the Richmond area

Virginia taxes the recording of your deed and your mortgage. Taxes and government fees are the cost of doing business, but they are not small. By custom the buyer pays the state recordation tax of $0.25 per $100 plus the local one-third that most localities add, on both the deed and the deed of trust, which comes to about one-third of 1% of each. The seller pays the grantor tax of $0.50 per $500 (0.1%) unless the contract says otherwise.

On a $400,000 purchase with a $380,000 loan, that is $2,600 of recordation tax for the buyer before clerk fees, and $400 of grantor tax for the seller. That assumes the price is at or above the assessment and the locality charges the full local share, which your settlement agent confirms on your file.

The regional deed fees you may read about apply in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads by their terms, not in the Richmond region. Everything else, line by line, from title insurance to prepaids, is on my Virginia closing costs page.

Settlement attorneys and title companies: who runs a Richmond closing

In Virginia a settlement agent runs the closing. That can be a Virginia-licensed attorney, a licensed title insurance company or title agent, a licensed real estate broker, a financial institution, or a registered lay settlement agent. Virginia does not require an attorney, and around Richmond most closings run through either a settlement attorney or a title company.

Virginia rules worth knowing before you sign a contract:

• You choose. The buyer or borrower has the right to pick the settlement agent, and a seller may not require a particular one (Va. Code 55.1-1006). Purchase contracts for one to four unit homes must carry a Choice of Settlement Agent notice in bold type (55.1-1007).
• Your money sits in a trust account. Settlement agents hold your funds in a fiduciary trust account, and kickbacks or referral payments for settlement business are prohibited.
• The owner’s title question comes in writing. Before any money goes out, your settlement agent has to tell you that owner’s title insurance may be worth considering, explain the coverage, and get your written answer (Va. Code 38.2-4616).
• New in 2027. Starting January 1, 2027, a settlement agent who knows of a land-use special assessment on the property has to give you written notice before settlement.

USDA around Richmond: check the address first

USDA’s zero-down loan depends on where the house sits. Eligibility is set by the property’s address on USDA’s eligibility map, not by the county name, so I check the exact address before anyone counts on it. USDA’s 2026 moderate-income limit for the Richmond, Virginia HUD metro area is $130,550 for one to four people and $172,350 for five to eight, in effect since July 13, 2026, and the address check also confirms which limit applies. The fees and who it fits are on my USDA loan page.

Buying near Fort Lee, Virginia with a VA loan

Fort Lee (named Fort Gregg-Adams from 2023 to 2025) sits in the Tri-Cities area near Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, roughly 25 to 30 miles from Richmond. The localities around the post share the Richmond-area loan limits, so the $208,187.50 entitlement math above holds there too. Their rates in the table above run from $0.64 in Dinwiddie to as much as $1.27 in Petersburg, and Colonial Heights collects on May 15 and November 15 with no grace period. PCS timing, entitlement and renting the house out at your next move are on my Fort Lee page.

Choosing a Richmond, Virginia mortgage lender: broker or bank

A bank can sell you its own loans. A broker shops a panel of lenders for your file. We all borrow our money from the same place; the difference is what you pay to do it and how well the loan gets run. The full trade is on my broker vs bank page.

I am a loan officer at a licensed mortgage broker, I work out of Chesterfield, and this is how I work with buyers around Richmond:

• It starts with a goal review. A 10 to 15 minute first call about what you want, your timeline and what would keep you up at night. I meet face to face around the Richmond area, or we do it by phone, text or video.
• We only pre-approve, we don’t pre-qualify. A pre-qualification is a guess based on what you tell someone. A pre-approval from me is issued only after your income, assets and credit are documented for underwriting (why the difference matters). It is not a loan approval; the house, the appraisal and final underwriting still have to clear.
• Local numbers from day one. My estimates carry the real county tax rate and the recordation math above, and I confirm the tax figure with the title company or settlement attorney before your numbers are final.
• Everyone hears the same news. At each milestone I send a Mortgage Update to you, both agents and the settlement agent, and bad news comes from me by phone before anyone else hears it.

If you are looking at Midlothian, Chester or anywhere else in the county I work out of, my Chesterfield, Virginia page puts its numbers in one place.

I just always want you seeing real numbers. Around Richmond, that starts with which side of a county line the house sits on.