Jason Skinrood at Edge Home Finance, LLC - NMLS #180306

06/10/2026

The lender you pick matters more than most veterans realize.

Not because of the company name on the door. Because of whether they actually know VA loans.

The wrong lender will:

→ Miss your funding fee exemption
→ Mishandle your Certificate of Eligibility
→ Panic at a low VA appraisal instead of running Tidewater
→ Not understand entitlement reuse

Any of those can cost you thousands — or kill the deal entirely.

Whether you go with a retail lender, a mortgage broker, or a credit union doesn't matter as much as whether the person sitting across from you actually closes VA loans regularly.

Interview a few. Ask questions. Find someone who knows your benefit as well as you should.

I built a free 48-lesson VA loan course that covers exactly what to ask and what to look for in a VA-experienced lender.

Comment "VA" and I'll send you the link.

22+ years and 1,200+ VA loans closed. Licensed in 13 states.

06/09/2026

A lot of veterans with a conventional loan are paying for private mortgage insurance every month and don't realize they have a way out.

If you're eligible for a VA loan, you can refinance out of that conventional loan and drop PMI entirely.

VA loans don't have monthly mortgage insurance. None.

You don't have to wait until you hit 20% equity, which is the rule that keeps most people stuck paying it.

Here's the part that surprises everyone: the VA classifies this kind of refinance as a cash-out, even if you take zero cash out. That label sounds wrong for what you're doing, but it's just the bucket the VA uses, and it's what determines your funding fee.

I worked with an Army National Guard soldier who did exactly this. He bought on a conventional loan, became VA eligible, and we refinanced him into a VA loan once rates dropped. He lowered his rate and cut $72.54 a month in PMI he no longer had to pay.

It doesn't make sense for everyone. If you've got a low conventional rate and you're not paying PMI, it may not be worth it.

But if you're paying PMI, it's worth running the numbers.

Have a conventional loan and VA eligibility? Read the post for a full breakdown.

Refinance a conventional loan into a VA loan to drop PMI and lower your rate. Here is how the cash-out classification, funding fee, and requirements work.

06/09/2026

Keys in hand.

Last week he closed on his first home, the townhome in Roy.

A police officer, a member of the Utah Air National Guard, and now a homeowner.

Buying your first place is one of the harder things you'll do.

There's the saving, the qualifying, the inspections, the appraisal, the paperwork, and the patience.

He did all of it.

Now there's a front door that's his, and a place to come home to after the shift ends.

Welcome home.

Proud of you.

06/06/2026

Most veterans pay the VA funding fee. But not everyone has to.

You're exempt if you have:

→ A service-connected disability rating (any percentage)
→ Purple Heart recognition
→ Surviving spouse status of a service member who died in the line of duty or from a service-connected condition

On a $400,000 loan, that exemption saves you $8,600 upfront. That money stays in your pocket.

Most loan officers won't ask about your disability rating or Purple Heart status — you have to bring it up. Don't assume they checked.

I built a free 48-lesson VA loan course that walks through exactly how the funding fee and its exemptions work.

Comment "VA" and I'll send you the link.

22+ years and 1,200+ VA loans closed. Licensed in 13 states.

06/04/2026

Sometimes the cheapest way for a veteran to pull cash out of their home is to not refinance at all.

Here's what I mean.

A VA cash-out refinance charges a funding fee of 3.30% on subsequent use. That's 3.30% of your entire new loan balance, not 3.30% of the cash you take. On a $300,000 loan, that's $9,900 added to what you owe.

Most veterans I see are looking for $30,000 to $50,000 in cash. So that $9,900 fee can eat up 20% to 30% of the money they actually wanted, before they pay a dime of interest.

If you're exempt from the funding fee, cash-out often wins easily. If you're not exempt, I've frequently found it's cheaper to leave the low rate on your first mortgage alone and take a second instead, a home equity loan or a HELOC, even at the higher rate a second carries.

It depends on how much you're pulling, the rate spread, and how long you'll hold it. That's the math I run before anyone commits to anything.

I wrote up the full breakdown of when an IRRRL makes sense, when a cash-out makes sense, and when neither is your best move.

VA IRRRL vs VA cash-out refinance, explained by a US Air Force veteran who has closed 1,200+ VA loans. Compare funding fees, rules, and which one fits your goal.

06/03/2026

An Air Force friend of mine just bought his retirement home.

Over the last 20 years, he's owned homes in Tennessee, Maryland, and Utah — and he used his VA loan benefit for every single one of them.

Most veterans don't realize this is possible. They use their VA loan once, assume the benefit is gone, and never tap it again.

Here's the truth: when you sell a home and pay off the VA loan, your full entitlement resets. You can use it again. And again. And again.

Every PCS move. Every life chapter. Every new home.

I built a free 48-lesson VA loan course that walks through exactly how entitlement and reuse work.

Comment "VA" and I'll send you the link.

22+ years and 1,200+ VA loans closed. Licensed in 13 states.

05/26/2026

You don't really know a house until you walk through it.

Sometimes you have to trust your agent, your loan team, and your gut anyway.

That's what this Army soldier and his wife did when they PCS'd out of Fort Riley to JBLM.

They closed about two weeks ago on a home in Puyallup while the move was still in motion.

Long-distance buying is no joke. Tight timeline, a market they didn't know in person, and a whole household still packed up two states away.

Their agent did the legwork on the Washington side, walked them through everything they couldn't see for themselves, and helped them land on a home that actually fit.

Updated, close to parks and shopping, and a manageable drive to base. Exactly what they were after.

The keys have been theirs for a couple weeks now, and the truck is finally making its way across the country.

Congratulations you two. You trusted the process and it paid off.

Welcome to Washington.

05/25/2026

Today is a hard day.

For the service members and veterans who lost someone. The buddy who didn't make it back. The one whose seat was empty on the flight home. The name they still say out loud when nobody's listening.

For the families who lost someone. The spouse who got the knock at the door. The parents who buried their child. The kids who grew up with a folded flag in a shadow box instead of a dad or a mom at the dinner table.

The freedom we live in was paid for by people who never got to come home. We owe them everything. We owe their families everything.

To the ones still carrying that loss today, thank you. For your sacrifice and theirs. We remember them with you.

05/23/2026

"VA loans are too expensive." It's one of the most common things I hear — and it's almost always wrong.

Yes, the VA funding fee is real. But here's what most veterans don't see when they make that comparison:

→ Lower interest rates than conventional
→ No PMI (which alone can save $100–$400 every month)
→ $0 down payment

When you do the actual math over the life of the loan, the funding fee is almost always dwarfed by what the VA loan saves you.

I built a free 48-lesson VA loan course that walks through exactly how to do that math for your situation.

Comment "VA" and I'll send you the link.

22+ years and 1,200+ VA loans closed. Licensed in 13 states.

05/21/2026

Navy Federal released a study that confirms what I see with my clients every week.

They surveyed over 1,000 active-duty service members and veterans this year.

92% knew VA loans exist.

But 55% thought they needed a down payment to use one.

Nearly half didn't know VA rates typically run lower than conventional.

The average respondent believed more than two myths about how the program actually works.

Those misconceptions aren't just trivia. They're keeping veterans in rental apartments for years while they try to save money they don't actually need.

I recently helped an Air Force couple here in Utah who had $60,000 saved for what they thought was their required down payment.

Once they learned they didn't need one, they put $30,000 down to reduce their funding fee and kept the other $30,000 for renovations to their new home.

That's the kind of strategic decision veterans can make when they actually understand the program.

The full breakdown of the study, what the myths are costing veterans, and how to get past the misinformation is on the blog. Link below.

What's the worst piece of VA loan advice you've heard from someone who meant well?

55% of veterans wrongly think VA loans require a down payment, per Navy Federal's 2025 study. The myths costing veterans tens of thousands — debunked.