Val Nuttall has spent more than twenty years in the mortgage industry, and he will tell you the hardest part of the job was never delivering a difficult answer. It was watching borrowers sit in limbo while somebody three states away decided their file. That experience shaped how he runs Val Mortgages today.
What Separates VA Loans From Conventional Financing
VA loans are a benefit earned through military service, backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs and issued through approved private lenders. The structure is different from conventional financing in ways that matter at the closing table. Qualified borrowers can often purchase without a down payment. Private mortgage insurance, a monthly cost that conventional borrowers carry until they reach a certain equity threshold, is not part of a VA loan. The program also carries its own appraisal process and occupancy requirements, which is where veterans sometimes run into surprises if the person handling the file has not worked with the program often.
Eligibility depends on service history, discharge status, and length of duty, and it is documented through a Certificate of Eligibility. Entitlement can also be restored or reused, which is something many veterans do not realize until someone walks them through it. A lender who handles VA loans regularly knows how those details interact.
Why Working With a Direct Lender Changes the Timeline
Val operates as a direct lender, which means the underwriting happens in house. The person reviewing the file is the person the borrower already spoke with. There is no handoff to a separate department, no waiting on approval from someone the borrower has never met.
That matters in a real estate market where sellers weigh certainty as heavily as price. When questions come up on a VA loan file, and questions always come up, they get answered by someone who can see the whole picture rather than one line of it. Val looks at files other lenders have already passed on. Not every one of them works out. But a file that was declined elsewhere is not automatically a dead file, and he thinks veterans deserve a second set of eyes before they give up on a house.
A Veteran Working With Veterans
Val is a Desert Storm veteran. He understands the benefit from the borrower’s side, not just the lender’s, and he says helping other veterans use what they earned is the part of the work he looks forward to.
The homes vary. A quaint log place outside Saint James. A new build in a city someone moved to for a job. The property type changes, the paperwork changes, and the conversation around a VA loan looks different depending on whether a borrower is buying their first home or using their entitlement for the second time. What does not change is the handoff of the keys.
Val works out of Saint James, Missouri, where he lives with his wife Kimberly. Between them they have a blended family of eight adult children and ten grandchildren, plus two dogs, Charlie, a mini Australian Shepherd, and Gracie, an English Golden puppy who is still learning the rules of the house.
Questions Veterans Ask Before Starting
Most first conversations cover the same ground. How much house does the entitlement cover. Whether a previous VA loan blocks a new one. What the funding fee is and who is exempt from paying it. How the VA appraisal differs from a standard one, and what happens if the property does not meet minimum property requirements.
None of those questions have a universal answer, which is why Val prefers to look at the full file rather than quote a borrower something generic over the phone. Credit history, service record, debt obligations, and the property itself all shape what a VA loan can do in a given situation.
More information about VA loan options and the lending process is available at Val Mortgages, and Val shares updates on recent closings and local market activity through his home loan page on Instagram.
