Whew! So, it's been quite the exciting process so far. Going into this we had many questions, many of which we answered ourselves by doing research online and in particular this forum. This is a first time experience for my wife and I and it's been really quite easy. We put the offer in Jan 18th, it was accepted 2 days later, and we got out of underwriting Feb 6th. We are not closing until March 3rd though, since we aren't going to move in until late May, this way it pushes back our 1st mortgage payment a month vs closing in February.
As for problems/issues, not really any to speak of. The only thing I'd mention is doing the VA Loan application process. I have 6 years in the Army Reserves (no deployments) so I had to get a statement of service from my unit. Now, anyone who knows a thing about the military knows that even something as simple as requesting a single piece of paper with a couple sentences on it can take a hundred phone calls... after I had that, I received my certificate of eligibility the next day through the VA eBenefits portal online.
Our house is located near Des Moines, IA. The rate we got was 4.125% 30yr fixed, or about $1030/mo (we are also putting 10% down). My median FICO score was about 700. Property taxes around here are fairly high, so that will bring our total monthly PITI payment to around $1500. The interesting thing to me was, per our LO's recommendation, only my income was used in the application of the mortgage. The LO said that my income alone was more than enough to qualify & by adding my wife, it would only increase the "red tape" and require more time/paperwork. I had not heard of that being a typical thing, but I guess it all worked out fine.
The home inspection was done over a week ago & the VA appraisal came back yesterday, all checked out fine (it's new construction). We have the builder walkthrough lined up for mid-Febraury and are not necessarily looking forward to that. Neither my wife or I are confrontational by nature- and everything I've read says you need to not be shy about pointing out imperfections on the walk-through. Hopefully all goes smooth there and the builder is easy to work with.
The only question we got from the underwriter was about our earnest money check. When we initially made the offer, neither of us had a checkbook as we weren't necessarily planning on buying a house that weekend. And because we lived over 3 hours away, we had her parents write the earnest money check and we paid them back the next week. The LO/underwriter is asking for her parents to sign a form stating that was a gift & doesn't require repayment. I emailed my LO back yesterday, stating that it was already repaid and explained the circumstances. Haven't heard back yet, though I don't think that will be a major issue.
So, all in all, not a very hard process at all for our first home buying experience. We only looked at 5-6 houses over the course of 3 months when we found "the one." Not too much work for our realtor 
We are very excited to get the keys to OUR house in only a few weeks!!!!!
Congrats! We are hoping to use my hubby's VA loan in a few months so glad to hear the process was smooth for you! Also, thank you for your service
