Federal Rules Decide the Loan. Missouri Law Decides Nothing About It.
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
The loan file and the tax file share a veteran and nothing else. Keeping them apart is the single most useful thing you can do before you start looking.
★★ Full entitlement, and the sentence that qualifies it
The VA loan-limits page: with full entitlement, "You don't have a loan limit (as long as you can afford the loan amount and the property appraisal supports the purchase price of the home)."
And immediately after: "Even if you have full entitlement (your COE shows that your basic entitlement is $36,000), your lender will still need to approve you for a loan."
★★ Both halves are load-bearing. The guaranty is uncapped; the underwriting is not. And the $36,000 is basic entitlement, not a ceiling on what you can borrow, veterans read it as a cap constantly.
★ When a deposit comes back
With remaining bonus entitlement the VA says a lender "will use your remaining bonus entitlement to determine the maximum amount they'll loan you without requiring a down payment", and may require one "if you don't have enough remaining bonus entitlement for a 25% VA guaranty for the loan amount you want."
★ That is the only situation where Missouri's $832,750 county figure does any work at all. The arithmetic, and why 115 jurisdictions.
★★ The loan needs no disability. Both Missouri tax programmes do.
VA loan eligibility turns on service history and entitlement. A veteran with no rating at all and full entitlement buys with nothing down.
★★ Missouri's exemption needs a total service-connected disability and former prisoner-of-war status. Missouri's credit needs a 100% service-connected disability and income under the limit. Neither has anything to do with whether your loan is approved. All three tests side by side.
The funding fee and its five exemptions
- Receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability.
- Eligible for it but receiving retirement or active-duty pay instead.
- Receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation as a surviving spouse.
- ★★ A service member with a proposed or memorandum rating before the closing date.
- ★★ An active-duty member with evidence of a Purple Heart by closing.
★★ Numbers 4 and 5 get missed. A memorandum rating dated before closing is in the VA's own list, so if a claim is in progress, where that paperwork sits is a closing-date question. The rates and the timing.
★★ One Missouri-specific consequence of all this
Because Missouri gives most disabled veterans no property-tax exemption, the escrowed tax in a Missouri VA payment is usually the full amount. In Ohio the same veteran would be escrowing a reduced figure.
★★ That is not a reason to avoid Missouri, house prices here are low and no new transfer tax can be imposed, but it does mean the payment should be built on the real tax bill from the first conversation, not on a benefit that is not coming. Why it is not coming.
★ What we decide, and what we do not
We are a lender and we are not affiliated with the VA. We do not issue your COE, rate your disability, grant your fee exemption, or decide any Missouri tax question. We underwrite the loan on what those bodies determined.
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555. (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a VA loan limit in Missouri?
Not for a borrower with full entitlement: the VA states you have no loan limit, as long as you can afford the loan and the appraisal supports the purchase price, though the lender must still approve you. Where a limit applies, all 115 Missouri jurisdictions are at $832,750.What does the $36,000 on my COE mean?
It is basic entitlement, not a cap on what you can borrow. The VA shows basic entitlement as $36,000 even for a borrower with full entitlement and therefore no loan limit.Do I need a disability rating for a VA loan in Missouri?
No. VA loan eligibility turns on service history and entitlement. A rating matters separately for the funding-fee exemption and for Missouri's two property tax programmes, both of which require one.When will a Missouri VA lender ask for a down payment?
When you have remaining bonus entitlement rather than full entitlement. The VA says a lender uses remaining bonus entitlement to set the maximum loan without a down payment and may require one if there is not enough for a 25 percent guaranty on the amount you want.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about VA home loan financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a private lender and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. VA entitlement, funding-fee exemption and disability ratings are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Missouri's property tax exemption for former prisoners of war is established by article X, section 6 of the Missouri Constitution, and the Missouri Property Tax Credit is governed by sections 135.010 to 135.030 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri and administered by the Missouri Department of Revenue, not by Cornerstone. Proposed constitutional amendments described on this site are proposals and are not law. Figures here carry the date we verified them against primary sources. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.