The Complete Guide to PCSing to El Paso, Texas

Yes, and it counts for more than you think.

BAH is effective income for VA qualifying. Because it is not taxed, lenders can gross it up, often by around 25%, when they calculate your debt to income ratio. A $1,809 BAH can be treated as roughly $2,261 of pre-tax income for that calculation.

It has to be documented on your LES and expected to continue. Same treatment for BAS.

The 41% debt to income "limit" is not a limit. This is the most common thing people get wrong about VA underwriting. VA's regulation says 41% is the standard. Above that, the lender does extra review and writes a justification. But there is a written exception: if your residual income exceeds VA's guideline by at least 20%, no justification is required at all, at any DTI.

Residual income is the real test. It is the money left over every month after your mortgage, your debts, your taxes and your estimated utilities. Texas is in VA's South region, which has the lowest requirements in the country, tied with the Midwest. That is a quiet advantage for buying here instead of San Diego or Fort Carson.

Add $80 per additional family member, up to seven.

So a family of four in El Paso needs $1,003 left over. At $1,204, which is 20% above, your DTI can run well past 41% with no extra paperwork. People get talked out of houses they qualify for because someone quoted them 41% as a ceiling.

One mechanical note that lenders sometimes get wrong: BAH gets grossed up for the DTI calculation, but it is counted at its real, un-grossed-up amount for residual income. Residual income measures actual spendable dollars. More on how lenders decide if you qualify.

VA has no minimum credit score. Not 620, not 580, not anything. Read the regulation and there is no number in it. Every minimum score you have been quoted is that particular lender's own rule. Which means a veteran turned down at one lender can be approved at another with the exact same file and nothing changed.

If you got a no, it was probably a no from one company, not from the VA. That is worth knowing before you give up on this for a year.

In Texas, yes, and the way it works is not what most people assume. Texas is a community property state, which changes the rules.

Your spouse's debts count against you, even if they are not on the loan. VA requires it in community property states. Their car payment, their credit cards, their student loans all go into your debt to income calculation. That is not a lender being difficult, it is a VA rule.

Your spouse's credit score does not disqualify you. The lender pulls their credit to see what they owe, not to judge them. VA's own handbook says a veteran with satisfactory credit can be a satisfactory risk even when the non-purchasing spouse's credit is not. Collections, a bankruptcy, a low score on your spouse's report do not sink your loan. More on how lenders read scores in what credit score you need to buy a house.

But your spouse's income does not count for you. This is the asymmetry, and it catches people. Their debts count against you. Their income does not count for you, unless they are on the loan.

So the math question is simple: does adding your spouse help or hurt? If they have income and little debt, putting them on the loan can help. If they have debt and weak credit, leaving them off does not get you out of the debt, it only gets you out of the credit. Some lenders will offset a spouse's debt where that spouse has documented income covering it, but that is a lender-by-lender practice, not a rule you can count on.

One more Texas thing. Under Texas homestead law your spouse signs the security instrument at closing even when they are not on the loan. Signing that does not make them liable for the debt and does not put them on the mortgage. It is a homestead requirement, and title companies here expect it.

Bring your spouse's numbers to the first meeting. Running this before you apply is the difference between knowing your answer and finding it out from an underwriter.

Usually, yes. VA rates typically run a little below conventional and slightly below FHA, for the same borrower on the same day.

Add that to no mortgage insurance and the gap widens. On a conventional loan with little down you are paying mortgage insurance every month until you have enough equity to drop it. On FHA you are usually paying it for the life of the loan. On VA you never pay it at all.

The rate is not the whole story, the payment is. Compare the payments, not the rates, and ask your lender to show you all three side by side.

You can still buy, and the rules are far more flexible than most people are told.

The base rule is that you certify you intend to occupy the home as your home, and you move in within a reasonable time, which VA defines as 60 days after closing.

Past 60 days, you certify a specific date you will move in and name the event that justifies it. Your PCS orders are exactly that kind of event. VA will generally go out to 12 months with documentation, and essentially not beyond. Renting right now? See buying before your lease ends, including servicemember lease termination rights.

If you are deployed, this is the one that gets soldiers told no when the answer is yes. VA's handbook says deployed servicemembers are considered to be in temporary duty status and able to meet the occupancy requirement, and it says so regardless of whether a spouse is available. A deployed soldier with no spouse and no dependents still satisfies occupancy.

For the signing, you give a power of attorney to your spouse or a family member so they can sign on your behalf. VA accepts a specific or a general power of attorney along with an alive and well statement. If you are deploying and you think you might want to buy while you are gone, set the power of attorney up before you leave. Getting one executed from overseas is the kind of problem that eats two weeks of a contract.

If your spouse moves first and you follow, that works too. Occupancy by your spouse satisfies the requirement while you are still finishing out somewhere else, as long as you occupy within your certified window. Occupancy by a dependent child also works, though the certification has to come from your attorney-in-fact or the child's guardian.

All of these stack. Orders in hand, certify your report date, close by power of attorney if you have to, and either move in when you land or have your spouse move in first.

We have closed this exact scenario many times: spouse arrives in El Paso first, holds power of attorney, signs at closing, and moves in while the servicemember finishes out somewhere else. It is a process, not a wall, and it is one of the things we do most often.

No, and that is worth saying plainly because you will hear otherwise from somebody. It is a misconception, and it costs veterans offers when listing agents repeat it.

What is actually different is that the VA appraisal does two jobs instead of one. It sets the value, like any appraisal, and it also checks the home against VA's condition standards. Same appraiser pool, same market data, one extra checklist.

And the second difference is not a restriction on you, it is a protection for you. VA builds an escape clause into your contract. If the home does not appraise for what you agreed to pay, you can walk and keep your earnest money. No other buyer in El Paso has that. The VA is not making it harder for you to buy a house, it is making sure you do not overpay for one. More on what happens when an appraisal comes in low.

How it works. A VA-assigned appraiser inspects the home. Then a reviewer at your lender issues the Notice of Value, which is the document that actually controls. The Notice of Value carries the number and any repair conditions.

If the value is coming in low, you get a shot before it is final. It is called Tidewater. Before the appraiser finalizes a value below your contract price, they have to notify your lender, and you get two business days to submit additional comparable sales. Two business days is not long. Agents who do not have comps staged and ready lose that window, and once the Notice of Value issues, you are into the slower formal appeal instead.

That is a thing we handle, and it is a real reason to have somebody local who has been through it.

If it is already final, the formal appeal is called a Reconsideration of Value. You submit up to three comparable sales that were not in the original report, with MLS sheets and a written rationale. It takes days to weeks.

And if the value still comes in under your contract price, you have three options. Renegotiate the price down. Pay the difference in cash, because the shortfall cannot be financed. Or walk away with your earnest money.

That last one is not a courtesy, it is federal law. Every VA contract includes an escape clause saying you cannot forfeit your earnest money or be forced to complete the purchase if the price exceeds the value VA established. It has to be in the contract before you receive the Notice of Value, and both you and the seller sign it. In Texas it comes through as the TREC VA addendum.

You have protection on price that no other buyer in El Paso has. Use it.

Less than it used to be. VA changed these rules on May 1, 2026, and most of what is written online about VA repairs is now out of date.

What still matters here:

• The roof has to keep water out and have reasonable life left. This is the one that trips up El Paso most, because our flat and low-slope roofs with elastomeric coatings show ponding and failed coating as moisture entry.
• Heating has to be permanently installed and able to hold 50 degrees where there is plumbing.
• Air conditioning is not required by VA. But if the home has it, it has to work. That is the distinction nobody in this city gets right. A dead swamp cooler or a non-functioning refrigerated air unit is a condition, not because VA requires cooling, but because installed equipment has to be operational.
• Electrical has to be safe. Visible frayed or exposed wiring gets called out every time, which matters in older Central and Five Points homes.
• Drainage and grading have to move water away from the house.
• Water and sewer have to be safe. On a private well the test is good for 90 days. Relevant in unincorporated far East El Paso County.
• Access has to be all-weather, and a private road needs a permanent recorded easement and a maintenance agreement. This is the quiet deal-killer on county properties with shared caliche drives, and it catches people every year.

What VA stopped requiring on May 1, 2026:

• Detached structures like sheds and detached garages are exempt from the property standards unless they are an actual safety hazard
• Peeling or chipping paint on a home built after 1978, inside or outside, is now explicitly cosmetic and not a required repair
• Radon certification on new construction
• Oxygen depletion sensor certification on ventless heaters and fireplaces

Homes built before 1978 are different. Lead paint is presumed, and defective paint has to be remediated with certification.

The trigger date is when the appraisal was ordered, not when it closes.

Termites. Yes, you still need one. Texas is a state where VA requires a wood destroying insect report, and that has not changed.

What did change is who pays. Since June 2022 the VA buyer is allowed to pay for the termite inspection and for repairs needed to meet VA's standards. It is still negotiable and sellers often still pay, but anyone telling a seller "VA requires you to pay for the termite inspection" is quoting a rule that stopped existing four years ago. Knowing that is worth real money in a negotiation.

VA limits what you can be charged, and separately limits what a seller can hand you. The two get confused constantly, and the confusion costs veterans money.

What you can be charged. Your lender can charge a flat origination fee of up to 1% of the loan. That 1% is a ceiling that replaces the unitemized origination charges, which means a lender charging the full 1% cannot also charge you processing, underwriting, document prep, application or tax service fees. If you see the 1% and a list of those, something is wrong.

You can pay for the appraisal, recording fees, credit report, taxes and escrow setup, hazard insurance, survey, title work and flood determination. Since 2022 you can also pay for the termite report and for repairs needed to meet VA's standards.

What seller concessions actually mean, and the misunderstanding that costs the most money. VA caps seller concessions at 4% of the home's value. Almost everybody, including a lot of agents, reads that as "the seller can only contribute 4%."

That is not what it says.

Paying your normal loan-related closing costs is not a concession. Title insurance, origination, appraisal, recording, property taxes, market-rate discount points: none of it counts toward the 4%.

What counts toward the 4% is the extra stuff. Paying your funding fee. Prepaying your taxes and insurance. Paying off your debts or judgments. Interest rate buydowns beyond market. HOA transfer fees. Closing gifts like appliances or a flooring allowance.

So the seller can cover 100% of your customary closing costs and still give you a full 4% in concessions on top of that. An agent who stops negotiating at 4% total just left thousands of your dollars on the table.

Your agent's compensation. Since August 2024, VA has allowed veterans to pay reasonable and customary buyer-broker charges, which was a necessary change after the industry rules shifted. In practice we negotiate for the seller to cover it, the same as we do on every other transaction.

Compensation is negotiable and is never set by law. We are not allowed to publish our specific rate here under TREC advertising rules, but we go through it in detail before you look at a house.

That question contains a wrong assumption, and it is worth clearing up because almost every explanation of this online is wrong.

The Texas Veterans Land Board loan is not a competing product. It is a state interest rate subsidy applied on top of a loan that is usually VA-guaranteed. One application, one appraisal, one closing. You keep your federal VA entitlement, zero down, no mortgage insurance and the VA appraisal protections, and you get the below-market Texas rate.

So it is not VLB or VA. It is usually VA with VLB on top.

What it gives you: a below-market fixed rate that resets weekly, loans up to $832,750, and a further rate discount for veterans with a service-connected rating of 30% or higher. The General Land Office does not publish the size of that discount, so ask a VLB-participating lender for the current numbers rather than trusting a figure you find online.

The catch, and it is a real one for Fort Bliss. VLB requires you to occupy the home as your primary residence and keep it that way for at least three years. VA's own occupancy rule is nothing like that strict. If you might PCS out in 24 months, that three year requirement is a problem, and the 1% VLB participation fee has to be weighed against a rate subsidy you may not hold long enough to earn back.

For a soldier planning to stay, it can be excellent. For a soldier on a two year clock, it often is not. That is a math conversation, and it depends entirely on how long you plan to keep the house.

If you are rated 100%, you pay no property tax on your home at all. In this city that is the most valuable benefit on this entire page, and it is bigger here than it would be almost anywhere else you could get stationed.

Here is why. El Paso has the highest combined property tax rate of any major city in Texas, higher than Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, at roughly 2.6%. The effective rate runs close to double the national average. Texas has no state income tax, and this is where the state gets it back.

So a tax break that is worth something in most places is worth a great deal here.

What it does to a payment. A $300,000 home in El Paso runs a typical buyer around $2,700 a month. For a veteran rated 100% disabled, that same home runs about $2,100. The property tax line disappears, and that is roughly $600 a month.

And it gets bigger as the price goes up. The exemption is a percentage of your home's value, not a flat amount, so it scales with the house.

That is the part worth sitting with. On a $600,000 home you are saving about $1,200 every month that a civilian buyer next door is paying. The higher you go, the more the benefit is worth, which is the opposite of how most assistance works.

So this is not a discount. It is a different price range. A veteran rated 100% can comfortably buy homes that a civilian on the identical income cannot touch, and we routinely tell 100% rated buyers to look higher than they think they can, because the payment math is not what they are expecting.

Add the funding fee exemption on top and it is $6,450 you never spend at closing and about $7,200 a year you never spend afterward on a $300,000 home.

What qualifies you: a 100% disability compensation award, either from a 100% service-connected rating or from a determination of individual unemployability. Individual unemployability at a lower schedular rating counts, and that is the part people miss.

One honest note if you are comparing Fort Bliss to another duty station. El Paso's tax rate is high, but home prices here are well below most of the country, so the actual annual bill on a typical El Paso home is more moderate than the rate alone suggests. The rate is what hurts. The prices are what help.

If you are rated below 100%, you get a fixed reduction off the assessed value:

Veterans 65 or older with a rating of at least 10% get the full $12,000, as do veterans who are totally blind or have lost the use of a limb, at any rating.

Unlike the 100% exemption, this one is not limited to your homestead. It applies to any one property you own.

Two things worth knowing about timing. The filing deadline is April 30, but applications can be filed up to five years after the delinquency date, with retroactive refunds. If you received a retroactive rating, file the back years.

For surviving spouses, the 100% exemption continues as long as you have not remarried and the home remains your homestead. Remarriage ends it. And if you move to a different home, the exemption is capped at the dollar amount you received in your final year on the previous property, which can turn a total exemption into a partial one. If you are a surviving spouse thinking about downsizing, understand that before you list, because it can cost you real money every year afterward.

Applications go through the El Paso Central Appraisal District, and you need your VA award letter showing the rating and effective date.

This is a tax question, not a real estate question. We can tell you it exists and point you to the appraisal district. Your CPA or a tax professional tells you how it applies to you.

Yes, and this is one of the most valuable things about the benefit.

You do not have to sell to use your VA loan again. What is left of your entitlement after the first loan can go toward a second one, which is how soldiers end up keeping the El Paso house as a rental and buying again at the next duty station. If instead you want to sell this one and buy the next one at the same time, that is its own sequence and we lay it out separately.

How much you can borrow with no money down the second time depends on what is left of your entitlement measured against the county limit. Your lender can run that number in a few minutes.

You also have a one-time option to restore your entitlement without selling, if the VA loan on the first house has been paid off in full, usually by refinancing it into a conventional loan. Once in a lifetime, and it is noted permanently on your Certificate of Eligibility.

If you are thinking about keeping this house when you leave, come talk to us before you PCS, not after. Some of these moves have to happen in a specific order.

Because it might be the most valuable thing you own that you do not know you own.

Your VA loan can be taken over by a buyer at your existing interest rate. The buyer does not have to be a veteran. If you locked a low rate and rates are higher when you sell, that assumable loan is a real asset, and it is a reason a buyer would choose your house over the one next door.

What it takes: your servicer has to approve the buyer, who is underwritten to the servicer's standards. There is an assumption funding fee of 0.50% of the balance, and it cannot be rolled into the loan. There is a processing fee, capped at $300, plus an additional regional charge. In the South region, which is us, that regional charge is $404. So expect roughly $700 in servicer fees plus the 0.50%.

Almost nobody knows that regional charge exists. It has been in place since February 2024.

Two more things that matter more than the fees.

It is slow. Assumptions commonly take 45 to 90 days or more. If you are selling on a PCS timeline, that has to be built into your contract dates from the beginning, not discovered in week six.

And here is the one that can quietly cost a seller their benefit. Being released from liability and having your entitlement released are two different events, and only one of them happens automatically.

If a non-veteran assumes your loan, your entitlement stays tied to that loan until it is paid off. You can be fully released from liability and still have your VA entitlement locked up for the next 25 years, which means you cannot use your benefit again.

The only way to free it is if an eligible veteran assumes the loan and formally substitutes their entitlement for yours, which is its own VA form and its own process.

If you are selling a home with a VA loan on it, get written confirmation of both things, release of liability and release of entitlement. They are not the same and nobody will volunteer the difference.

If you are selling and there is a VA loan on your house, bring it up early. There are moving parts here that have to be handled in a specific order, and the ones that cost you are the ones nobody mentions until closing.