VA Home Loan Navigator Act

Free VA home loan counseling

If enacted, this bill would create a VA program to give veterans and other eligible borrowers free, voluntary help using VA home loan benefits. The VA would provide education, help getting or fixing a certificate of eligibility, counseling on buying, refinancing, and closings, guidance on appraisals and property standards, help with loan servicing, and loss-mitigation and foreclosure-prevention counseling. VA would coordinate with mortgage servicers and could use HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and veteran-focused nonprofits to deliver services. Counselors would be certified in consultation with HUD and recertified at least every three years. Designated providers would have to be independent from lenders, servicers, and real estate brokers and could not accept referral fees. The VA would report to the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees within two years after enactment and then annually for four years.