As a fellow Vet who’s used VA loans twice, I say you spend at least a year mastering everything you can about obtaining a VA Loan.

Sure you could figure it all out in an hour on their web site but if you can stretch your research by a year or two, you’ll likely save money.

Don’t be in such a rush.

Basically VA will allow you to go some predetermind level (same as jumbo threshold?) with zero down. Let’s say that number is 420 for argument’s sake. You want to bid on a 600K home. My recollection is that if you can put 25% of the spread as a down payment, you can still obtain a VA Loan. Verify if this is still the case (and take your time).

So in this example you’d have to put up 25% of the $180 difference.