Texas VLB Land Loan

Hopefully this is allowed but I want to document my process of getting a Texas Veterans Land Board land loan. There's not a ton of info out here on the actual process so I'm hoping my experience can help someone in the future. I'll try to post updates weekly on this thread as things change.

We are hoping to purchase 5 acres of land in West Texas using the VLB Land Loan.

We started the application process on March 1st. My spouse is active duty Army and I am a former Marine (2011-2015). We had to put him as the primary on the loan since he's on PCS orders outside of Texas. They required a letter from his CO confirming his assignment and we had to give a copy of the PCS orders to the VLB as part of the pre-approval process. (If you're a veteran located in Texas, this part wouldn't apply to you but it's nice they were willing to work with us since we're temporarily out of state).

We received the pre-approval on 3/19 with the maximum loan amount of $150,000 and a 5% down payment. As of now (4/2) we haven't paid any fees to the VLB, my understand is the VLB fees will be due when we submit for processing.

Getting a property under contract was quite a challenge. The first realtor we spoke to refused to work with the VLB because they didn't think any land in this county was eligible. The second realtor we spoke to was also unwilling but after many discussions and some persuading, decided to take us on. We just received the signed contract this morning and made a 1% earnest money deposit to the title company.

The next step according to the VLB loan processor is to get the survey done and then submit it along with the contract. The VLB considers this the starting point for them to start actually processing the loan. At the time of our pre-approval, they claimed:

  • Receive both a signed Contract & Survey/plat -send to VLB Survey for review/approval (5 business day turnaround)
  • Approved Survey/Plat- File Moves to Processing/Approval Stage (survey/plat must be approved before file can move to processing)
  • Processing Stage (40 Days)-Appraisal ordered, title requested, tax cert obtained, loan approved
  • Closing (7-10 days)- official loan documents signed fees and figures based on actual amount

We'll hopefully have the survey done within 1-2 weeks and start the appraisal process with the VLB. Our agent is very concerned about this part because they've been burned in the past by the VLB.

Hopefully it goes smooth but I'll keep ya'll posted! If anyone's had experience with the VLB on Land Loans in the past, I'd love to hear any tips or friction you ran into. There's only a handful of posts on the VLB on Reddit that I could find.