Buying a Home in Charlotte With Your VA Benefit

Yes. After the 2024 changes to how buyer’s agents are paid, the VA began allowing veterans to pay their own buyer’s agent. Before you tour homes, you sign a written buyer agreement that spells out exactly what your agent is paid and how.

Here is how Sir Ashley approaches it. Whenever it makes sense, the offer asks the seller to cover the buyer’s agent compensation. If you pay any part of it yourself, it comes from your own funds at closing: on a VA purchase loan, the funding fee is the only cost that can be rolled into the loan. How seller-paid compensation fits alongside your other seller concessions is confirmed with your lender before the offer goes in, so you know where things stand on every home.

Some sellers and listing agents still believe VA offers are harder to close. They worry about the VA appraisal or the VA’s minimum property requirements. Much of that reputation is out of date, and part of the job is making sure your offer gets the respect it deserves.

That starts with a strong pre-approval from a lender who closes VA loans regularly. Then the terms are written clean: a realistic closing date, a due diligence fee and earnest money that show you are serious in North Carolina, or the right contingency structure in South Carolina, and concession requests sized to the home’s condition and the market. Sir Ashley talks directly with the listing agent to explain how VA works and why your offer is solid.

If an appraisal looks like it is coming in low, the VA’s Tidewater process gives your side a chance to submit comparable sales before the value is finalised. Knowing how to use it can save a deal.

Yes, and many Charlotte-area builders work with VA buyers. The VA has specific requirements for new homes, such as builder warranty documentation and inspections, and your lender coordinates them. Builder incentives can often be applied to VA purchases too.

Before you visit any model home, read how Sir Ashley helps buyers with new construction. The builder rules about registering your agent on the first visit apply to VA buyers as well.

Both states offer property tax relief for qualifying disabled veterans, and they work very differently. This is general information, not tax advice, so confirm the details with the county or state before you count on them.

North Carolina. The disabled veteran homestead exclusion removes the first $45,000 of your home’s appraised value from property tax. It is available to North Carolina residents who own and live in the home and are honourably discharged veterans with a federally certified service-connected, permanent and total disability, and to qualifying unremarried surviving spouses. You apply through your county tax office.

South Carolina. Veterans who are permanently and totally disabled as a result of a service-connected disability may qualify for a full property tax exemption on their home and its lot, and on up to two private passenger vehicles. Qualifying surviving spouses may also be eligible. You apply through the South Carolina Department of Revenue. Separately, every owner-occupied primary residence in South Carolina can apply for the 4% assessment ratio.

Both states also exempt military retirement pay from state income tax for many retirees, with different eligibility rules. If you are deciding between the two states, the North Carolina and South Carolina guide lays out the broader differences.

The Charlotte VA Health Care Center serves veterans in the city, and the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center in Salisbury, part of the same Salisbury VA Health Care System, is a short drive up I-85 from Kannapolis. If being close to VA care matters to you, that drive is factored into which areas you look at.