Burleson is building fast, and a large share of the veterans I work with end up in a model home at some point. Two things about VA loans and new construction changed recently, both in the buyer’s favor, and most of what is written online about this is now wrong. Here is the current picture.
For decades, a builder needed a VA identification number before the VA would issue a Notice of Value on a new or proposed construction home. Every article on this subject tells you to ask whether your builder is VA-registered.
What did not go away: the builder still has to meet state and local licensing requirements, and the circular describes the VA as continuing to rely on local building inspections and on construction warranties of one or ten years. Builder IDs are still required for Specially Adapted Housing grants and Native American Direct Loans — different programs, different rules.
One thing worth knowing that cuts the other way. Along with dropping the ID requirement, the VA also stepped back from the builder complaint process. It no longer intervenes in disputes; it points veterans to local building departments, state licensing boards, or a lawyer. So the VA is not your backstop on construction defects. Your backstop is the warranty and your own diligence.
Effective after 1 May 2026, the VA overhauled its Minimum Property Requirements. The radon testing requirement was removed entirely, the standards for pre-1978 and post-1978 homes were both revised, and guidance on non-vented heaters was updated. The VA’s stated reason: these were “long-standing MPR topics that frequently contributed to appraisal delays or added costs for Veterans.”
The VA also reported appraisal turn times averaging about seven business days as of the end of May 2026. If a listing agent tells your seller that a VA offer means a slow appraisal, that is worth pushing back on with a number.
The standards that remain are about safety, not finish. I went through what an appraiser is actually looking for in what a VA appraisal actually looks for. For a brand new house, almost none of it will be an issue — which is one honest advantage of buying new on a VA loan.
One Texas-specific item that does not go away: a wood-destroying insect report is required on every VA purchase in Texas. Texas is on the VA’s list of states where termite documentation is mandatory statewide, and the report has to be in before the Notice of Value issues. On a new build the builder normally handles it, but confirm rather than assume.
This is the part almost nobody explains, and in a market full of spec homes it comes up constantly.
There are two separate warranty rules here and they do not have the same reach. This one trips up a lot of people, including me until I read both.
The statute — 38 U.S.C. § 3705 — requires a builder warranty where the property was appraised for VA guaranty before construction began. That is what “proposed construction” means, and by its terms it does not reach a house that was already finished before the VA ever saw it.
The regulation goes further. 38 C.F.R. § 36.4367 conditions the VA’s certificate of reasonable value on a warranty for a “proposed or newly constructed dwelling unit” — no pre-construction appraisal condition attached — and provides that no guaranty or insurance credit issues unless a receipted copy of that warranty goes in with the loan papers.
So a finished, never-lived-in spec home is still a newly constructed dwelling, and a warranty is still expected. The takeaway is not “you get nothing” — it is that the warranty has to actually be delivered and receipted, or your loan does not get guaranteed. Ask for it in writing early, rather than finding out at the closing table that nobody produced the paperwork.
Where the statutory warranty applies, it covers defects you report in writing within one year of title conveyance or first occupancy, whichever comes first.
Two traps in that sentence. The clock does not start at substantial completion — it starts when you take title or move in. And the notice has to be in writing. A phone call to the builder’s warranty line at month eleven does not preserve anything. Email it, and keep the email.
A lot of the newer development around the edges of Burleson and out toward Johnson County sits inside a special district that funded the infrastructure. A MUD levies a property tax rate on top of your city, county, school and hospital rates. A PID levies an assessment against your specific lot.
Two homes at the same price in two different subdivisions can carry very different monthly payments because of this, and it does not show up in the county average anyone quotes you. Ask for the actual combined tax rate for that specific subdivision, and ask whether a PID assessment can be paid off and what that costs.
Why this matters more on a VA loan than on a conventional one: with nothing down, your payment is already at the top of what your income supports. An extra half point of tax rate on a $350,000 house is real money inside a debt-to-income calculation, and it can be the difference between qualifying and not. Find out before you fall in love with a floor plan, not during underwriting.
I went through the whole outer-ring question, including the resale side, in before you buy that new build on the edge of DFW.
Federal regulation requires this in the contract on every VA-guaranteed purchase, including new construction: if the contract price exceeds the value the VA establishes, you do not forfeit your earnest money and you are not obligated to close.
Builders’ contracts are their own paper, written by their lawyers, and they are long. The escape clause still has to be there. If the contract was signed before you received the Notice of Value, the contract has to be amended before closing to include it. Without it the VA will not guarantee the loan — so this is not a fight you have to win on your own, but it is one to raise early rather than three days before closing.
Register your agent on the first visit. Most builders in this market ask you to name your agent the first time you walk in, and if you tour alone you can lose the ability to bring one in later. Policies vary by builder and by community, so ask rather than assume — but the downside of asking is nothing and the downside of not asking is representing yourself against a professional whose job is the builder’s interests. I wrote about that in the builder’s agent does not work for you.
And if you have any disability rating at all, say so at the very first lender conversation. It removes the funding fee, and in Texas it may remove a large part of your property tax bill — both of which change what you can afford before you have chosen anything.
Touring model homes in Burleson with a VA loan? Send me the community before you sign anything. I will find out the actual combined tax rate for that subdivision, whether there is a PID and what it costs to pay off, and make sure the builder's warranty paperwork is actually in the file — the VA will not guarantee the loan without it.
Ask before you signChecked September 2026. VA loan rules and Texas exemption amounts change — confirm current figures with your lender, the VA, or your appraisal district before you rely on them. I am a REALTOR, not a lender or a tax professional.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.