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my husband and I went to Banco Poplar and they do FHA loans. we unfortunately weren't able to do the VA loan cause we want to buy a condo.

All major banks do them, worked as a mortgage banker for 20 yrs until 2014.. I might help

About how long is the VA home loan process take? Thanks

Depending on many factors 45-60 days

All of the banks say they do them, but after 7 months of dealing with Banco Popular to close, I gave up. I would not wish my experience on my worst enemy.

Honestly, it is better just to rent because every single mortgage bank employee I've had the displeasure of dealing with was completely incompetent for a litany of reasons.

I thought having a VA home loan guarantee certificate would have made the process easier, but it is not true.

I finally sent an email to the 5 bank employees ad 3 realtors involved in my loan that if I did my job this badly, I would be fired a thousand times.

Fortunately, I was able to get all of my closing money back which was sitting in the realtor's escrow account. They apologized profusely and told me that they are having these types of issues with all of the mortgage banks they are trying to close deals with, not just Popular. How true this is I don't know, but it did seem like they just kept coming up with reasons to delay closing. Happened a total of 8 times.

And sorry, there is no way that it is 45-60 days. It took almost 3 months for the VA to just do their inspection/appraisal. I literally just went through this and got my money back two weeks ago. That is the only part of the process that happened quickly.

Did they explain why it took so long?
This should not be happening, the whole thing should take 3 months at most.
I bought my current homes in the states thru VA and the whole things was 6 weeks.
Other than being new employees, incompetence should not be part of it, the banks do more than 1 loan a year so they should know the process well. Maybe it was an issue with that particular branch?

Really not sure Rey.

I asked several times, and it was always we need to redo this paperwork that was missed, we need a new VA certificate, we need this month's full bank statement, before we can close, etc. This was after week after week asking if we were all set and being told yes.

I kept asking all involved to meet in person to straighten it out, and those meeting requests were ignored. It was a nightmare. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

The whole process was so disheartening that I almost left a few weeks ago. Ended up renting a house in Isabela for a year.

Now I am just going to buy some land up in the mountains somewhere and save up to build. I will never go through a bank down here again, not for a house loan. Still not sure if I just ran into a group of muppets that weren't good at their jobs or if someone else wanted the house and they intentionally made it impossible to close. That is certainly what it felt like.

Wow

This is definitely very disheartening    I had hoped to move down there myself and Isabella or western Puerto Rico area and purchase a home with a VA    Very sorry to hear of your experiences I'll be it you have educated me and convince me that I'll just rent    Good luck with your dream of buying land and building your own place that sounds fantastic

Hello everyone,

We had to remove some posts from this thread as advertising on the forum is not allowed.

All the best,
Bhavna

With a VA loan you could buy a property in Puerto Rico. The important thing is to evidence that you are willing to occupy the home as your primary residence. That way you could use you benefit. Lenders can request the Certificate of Elegibility  having in hand your DD-214 form. If you are buying a condo, the condo must be approved by VA and if not the lender could do the process to do it and it might take a couple of weeks. *most lenders don't know how to do it, but is easy. VA allows you to include money for repairs in the loan also. I hope this info facilitate the process of using your VA benefit.  Kind regards,
Danny

My friend, as a Puerto Rican, you just experienced a little bit of the culture of the island.  What you described doesn't only happen with the banks, but with every governmental agency, motor vehicle, hospital, etc.  Trust me when I tell you that this is the norm.  Why do you think our government collapsed.  It is mostly due to mediocrecy and corruption.  The level of corruption in the island is rampant and you also have to be very careful who you['re doing business with.  We used to have only one Electrical Power company in the island that didn't have any competition, a total monopoly, and even like that it went bankrupt and collapsed due to lack of leadership and honest people in the island.  I am not generalizing but I live in the island and most people are like that.  Good luck my friend and welcome to Puerto Rico, where they will take you socks of your feet while still having you shoes on and you won't notice.