Darren Zajdel grew up in a military family, with his dad in the U.S. Air Force. This meant that for most of his life, he had to pick up, pack up, and move every few years—both around the U.S. and abroad.

“I have good memories of each of the places I’ve lived, but I wouldn’t necessarily know what to call home,” he admits. “I would miss my friends. Finding people who’d understand or could relate was difficult. It was a strange experience.”

In 2008, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Air Force. After three years, he left the military, moved to Maine, got married, and started a family. Given his nomadic “military brat” upbringing, he was eager to settle down and have a place to call his own—and that meant buying a house.

“For me, homeownership means having a place that you can plant your roots,” he says.

That opportunity arose in 2018 while he was walking his dog Dutchess and stumbled across a house with a “For Sale” sign planted on the front lawn in Otis, ME. The house was modest, with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

“I gave the guy a $500 check on the spot so that he’d know I was serious,” he says.

At that point, Zajdel just needed a home loan to seal the deal.

How VA loans help veterans buy homes

Zajdel purchased his first house using a VA loan, a benefit offered by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to Americans who serve in the military. A VA loan features a variety of advantages compared with conventional loans, including limited fees and as little as a $0 down payment.

I on conforming loans—and more forgiving credit criteria, with 24.8% of VA loan borrowers holding fair credit scores compared with only 4.7% for conforming loan borrowers. Many VA lenders even coach borrowers on how they can improve their credit scores, which was a benefit Zajdel appreciated.

“They pull your credit and look at your credit profile,” Zajdel explains. “They might advise you to pay your credit cards down to this amount.”

Since Zajdel sells car loans for a living, he says the VA home loan process seemed fairly straightforward and did not stress him out too much.

“I was a little less anxious than most people would be,” he says. However, one aspect that did make him nervous was the home appraisal.

“They really make you jump through hoops,” he says. But he understands why: With no down payment, lenders must be careful to mitigate risk when extending VA loans, and that means making sure the home is safe—and a sound investment.

“Unlike with conventional mortgages, VA buyers can’t waive the appraisal,” says Chris Birk, vice president of mortgage insight at Veterans United, America’s largest lender of VA loans. “The appraisal has two parts: the typical valuation to assess market value, and then a high-level look at some key health, safety, and marketability conditions, known as the Minimum Property Requirements.”

Birk adds that “if an appraisal notes MPR-related issues, the homeowner or the veteran can pay to make those repairs and keep the deal moving forward.”

While getting a loan is an inherently high-stakes process, Zajdel says that a call to his loan officer always helped keep him feeling calm and confident it would work out.

“I know my loan officer by name: Mike Patzius at Veterans United,” he says. “I would call in a panic, and they would just walk me through it.”

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From starter home to forever home

While Zajdel’s first purchase was the classic starter home, things got complicated as his family grew in size. By the time he and his wife, Sophia, had four boys, he realized he’d have to find a bigger house.

“When we had company, there was nowhere to sit,” he says. “The kitchen was so small, if anyone wanted something from the refrigerator, we all had to do the shuffle.”

Around that time, a real estate agent whose kids attended the same school as his mentioned that she had a listing he might like. The seller was highly motivated and eager to move out of state. Zajdel pounced on the opportunity.

“We were the first showing,” he says. “I walked in and looked at my wife. We looked at each other, and we just knew.”

The five-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Bucksport, ME, was spacious, with a yellow kitchen—his wife’s favorite color—and soaring ceilings.

“I’m 6-foot-4, and in the old house, I felt like the little old lady who lived in the shoe,” he says, recalling the nursery rhyme about a too-big family squeezing into a too-small house.

In this new house, he says, “We were not on top of each other. I could do a cartwheel in this kitchen.”

They were the first to not only see the home, but also to make an offer. Yet again, he turned to VA loans.

“We have four kids, so you’d almost never be able to save up a down payment,” he says.

He was pleasantly surprised to learn that he would not need to sell his first home to buy another as his VA loan benefit was sufficiently large.

“I put it up for rent,” he says of his first house. “I looked at local apartment prices, and I took $200 off. It rented fast.”

Owning two homes with rental income rolling in was never something Zajdel thought he could manage to pull off, so he is grateful that VA loans provided that opportunity.

“Being able to provide my kids with that lifestyle makes me feel good,” he says.

‘This house is all for her’

Zajdel closed on his forever home on Aug. 31, 2023, which also happened to be Sophia’s birthday. What better gift than to hand his wife the keys to their home?

“This house is all for her,” he says, marveling at how she raises their four kids. “I can’t imagine what my wife deals with on a daily basis. It must be like herding cats.”

Their four boys were also excited to have more space to roam.

“From sharing a room to having their own space, I’m sure they all felt a sense of relief and excitement all together,” Zajdel says. “We were so ready to have a space that fit us, something we picked as a family.”

Zajdel is grateful that he could provide his family with the stability he craved as a kid.

“It’s interesting to see my son Cooper experience it as he started his new school this year in Bucksport,” he says. “Being able to sit down with him and tell him about my experience [moving around] has helped him feel less anxious. I think my children will have a sense of home or belonging.”