What changes when you sell your Flower Mound home to a VA or FHA buyer?
Three things change, and your net is not automatically one of them. The appraiser inspects the house against a safety and soundness checklist, so peeling paint, a short-life roof, or a missing handrail can become a required repair. The contract carries an FHA/VA clause that lets the buyer walk if the appraisal comes in under the price, with no three-day notice deadline. And a short list of fees cannot be charged to a VA buyer, with seller concessions on a VA loan capped at 4% of the appraised value. Everything else, including how much you walk away with, comes down to the terms you negotiate.
An offer lands on your Flower Mound listing and the financing line says VA or FHA. The first instinct a lot of sellers have is to reach for the conventional offer underneath it, even when it nets less.
Here's what I tell every seller who asks me this: a government-backed loan changes the process more than it changes the money. Once you know exactly where it changes, you can price the risk instead of guessing at it.
The appraisal doubles as a property inspection
On a conventional loan, the appraiser's job is value. On an FHA or VA loan, the appraiser also checks the house against Minimum Property Requirements, a safety, soundness, and sanitation standard that a conventional appraisal does not apply.
That is the part that surprises sellers. The items are not exotic. They are the small things a seller stopped noticing years ago.
What gets flagged most often in this area:
- Peeling or chipping paint on a home built before 1978. Both programs treat it as a lead-based paint hazard, and it has to be scraped and repainted before closing. If you own one of the 1970s or early-1980s homes on the east side of town, this is the first thing to check.
- A roof with less than two years of remaining life under FHA's standard. Curling shingles or heavy granule loss can trigger a separate roof inspection.
- Missing handrails on a run of three or more steps, inside or out. It is probably the single most common failure point.
- A water heater with no temperature and pressure relief valve, exposed wiring, non-functioning outlets, and standing water in a crawl space.
- Broken windows, cracked glass, and anything structural the appraiser can see: foundation movement, active leaks, water staining on a ceiling.
- A termite inspection. Texas is on the VA's list of states where a wood-destroying insect report is required on every VA loan. The appraiser flags it on the Notice of Value, and under VA Circular 26-22-11 the veteran is now allowed to pay for that report, so it no longer lands on you by default.
Two things keep this manageable. First, the appraiser is not a home inspector. The list is short and specific, and most of it can be handled in a weekend for a few hundred dollars. Second, you can get ahead of it. A pre-listing inspection will catch the handrail, the TPR valve, and the paint long before a VA appraiser does. If your home was built before 1995, our guide to what older Flower Mound homes cost to inspect and insure covers the era-specific items.
One rule worth knowing before you negotiate: on a VA loan, required repairs have to be completed before closing. You cannot simply credit the buyer at the table and let them handle it afterward. The repair itself is negotiable (you can decline to make it), but declining usually means the loan does not fund.
The FHA/VA clause: what a low appraisal actually does
Every FHA or VA purchase in Texas rides on the TREC Third Party Financing Addendum, currently form 40-11, and Paragraph 4 of that form is the "FHA/VA Required Provision." Read it before you sign, because it rewrites the appraisal risk.
In plain terms, Paragraph 4 says the buyer is not obligated to complete the purchase if the price exceeds the property's reasonable value as determined by HUD/FHA or the VA. The buyer keeps the privilege of proceeding anyway and paying the difference in cash, and you keep the option of reducing the price. What the buyer does not have is a deadline: the three-day-before-closing notice rule in Paragraph 2B expressly does not apply to Paragraph 4.
So the sequence on a low appraisal looks like this.
On a VA loan, you get a warning first. When the appraiser believes the value is going to land under the contract price, the Tidewater process kicks in. The appraiser notifies the lender, and the lender has two business days to send supporting comparable sales. Your agent should be the one feeding those comps. If the value still comes in low, the buyer can request a Reconsideration of Value in writing through the lender, and the VA reviews it.
On an FHA loan, there is no Tidewater. The number arrives, and the negotiation starts from there, the same way it does on a conventional deal. Our post on what happens when the appraisal comes in low in Flower Mound walks through the three outcomes.
One VA number that is specific to Denton County. The VA publishes a fee and timeliness table by state and county, and the current one took effect May 1, 2026. Denton County falls under the Texas default: a single-family VA appraisal fee of $775 and a timeliness standard of 10 business days from assignment. Across the county line in Dallas, Tarrant, or Collin County, the standard is 7 business days. If your buyer's lender is quoting a two-week appraisal turn on a Flower Mound home, that is the schedule, not a problem.
Two more timing points sellers rarely hear. A VA appraisal is valid for six months and is tied to the property, so if a VA buyer walks after a low value, the next VA buyer generally inherits that number. And an FHA appraisal is valid for 180 days. Both make it worth getting the value right on the first pass, which is one more reason the comps your agent sends during Tidewater matter.
Fees and concessions: what you can and cannot be asked to pay
This is the section where the "VA loans cost the seller more" reputation comes from, and most of it is a misreading.
VA non-allowable fees. The VA limits what a veteran can be charged at closing. A lender may charge the veteran a flat fee of up to 1% of the loan amount in place of itemized origination costs, and once it does, it cannot stack separate charges like document preparation, processing, escrow or notary fees, or attorney fees on top. Those costs still exist. They get absorbed by the lender, or they get negotiated to the seller in the contract. Nothing in the VA rules forces you to pay them, but a well-written VA offer will usually ask.
The 4% concession cap. On a VA loan, a seller can pay all of the buyer's allowable closing costs and, separately, offer concessions of up to 4% of the appraised value on the Notice of Value. The concession bucket is the one that catches people: it covers a seller-paid funding fee, prepaid taxes and insurance beyond the normal closing charges, a temporary rate buydown escrow, discount points above what the market requires for the rate, and any payoff of the buyer's own debts. Ordinary title, recording, appraisal, and origination charges do not count against the 4%.
Run the number on a Flower Mound sale. If the Notice of Value comes in at $650,000, the concession cap is $26,000. The buyer's first-use VA funding fee at zero down is 2.15% of the loan, so on a $650,000 loan that is $13,975. If you agreed to pay it, that alone uses more than half the cap. Most buyers finance the funding fee into the loan instead, which costs you nothing.
FHA is simpler. FHA caps all interested-party contributions at 6% of the sales price, and the program has no non-allowable fee list. A seller credit on an FHA deal works the same way it does on a conventional one, which we cover in should you offer seller concessions in Flower Mound.
The honest summary: nothing about either program requires you to pay a dollar more than you would on a conventional contract. What is different is that the buyer has less room to absorb costs, so the ask tends to show up in the offer. Treat it like any other term and price it into your net.
Compare the offers on net, not on loan type
The reflex to discount a VA or FHA offer usually comes from one of three worries: the appraisal will be low, the repairs will be a hassle, or the loan will not close. Each one has a real answer.
The appraisal risk is the same house. A VA or FHA appraiser is pulling the same Flower Mound comps a conventional appraiser would. The difference is procedural: Tidewater gives you a two-business-day window to fight for the value, which a conventional deal does not offer at all.
The repair risk is knowable in advance. Walk your own house against the list above. If the paint is sound, the handrails are in, and the water heater has its valve, the MPR review is a non-event.
The closing risk is a lender question, not a program question. A VA buyer with full entitlement has no loan limit, so a strong VA offer on a $900,000 Flower Mound home is as financeable as a conventional one. FHA is the program with a ceiling: the 2026 FHA limit for Denton County is $563,500. With Flower Mound's median sale price at $642,694 as of September 2026 (Redfin), an FHA buyer at the median is bringing a meaningful down payment or shopping below it. That tells you something useful about the buyer's finances before you ever ask.
When you are choosing between offers, the question is the same one we work through in how to compare multiple offers on your Flower Mound home: what does each one net you, on what date, with what probability of closing. Loan type is an input to that answer, not the answer.
A side note for the strategic half of your household. If you still carry a low-rate VA or FHA loan on the home you are selling, that loan is assumable, and advertising it can widen your buyer pool. We explain the mechanics in our post on assumable mortgages in Flower Mound.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a seller have to pay closing costs on a VA loan in Texas?
No. The VA limits what the veteran can be charged, but it does not require the seller to pay the difference. Non-allowable fees are absorbed by the lender or negotiated to the seller in the contract, so whether you pay them is a term of the offer, not a rule of the program.
What repairs does a VA appraiser require a seller to make?
Only items that fail the VA's Minimum Property Requirements: peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, a leaking or near-end-of-life roof, missing handrails, exposed wiring, a water heater without a relief valve, broken windows, and active termite damage. In Texas a wood-destroying insect inspection is required on every VA loan, and the veteran is now allowed to pay for it. Required repairs must be completed before closing rather than credited at the table.
Can a buyer walk away if the VA or FHA appraisal comes in low?
Yes. Paragraph 4 of the TREC Third Party Financing Addendum (form 40-11) releases the buyer from the obligation to purchase if the price exceeds the reasonable value set by the VA or HUD/FHA, and the three-day notice deadline in Paragraph 2B does not apply. The buyer can still choose to proceed and pay the difference in cash, and the seller can reduce the price.
What is the VA seller concession limit?
Four percent of the appraised value on the Notice of Value, on top of the buyer's ordinary allowable closing costs. The 4% bucket covers a seller-paid funding fee, prepaids beyond normal closing charges, temporary buydown escrows, excess discount points, and payoff of the buyer's debts. On a $650,000 Notice of Value, the cap is $26,000.
How long does a VA appraisal take in Denton County?
The VA's fee and timeliness table effective May 1, 2026 sets a 10-business-day standard and a $775 single-family fee for most of Texas, including Denton County. Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin counties are on a 7-business-day standard, so a Flower Mound appraisal can legitimately take a few days longer than one across the county line.
The offer in front of you is a set of terms
A VA or FHA offer asks you to clear a short property checklist, accept an appraisal clause with no notice deadline, and read the concession line carefully. None of that is a reason to leave money on the table, and some of it, like Tidewater, works in your favor. The right move is to run the net on each offer and decide with the numbers in front of you.
If you have a VA or FHA offer on your Flower Mound home right now, or you are listing soon and want the house ready for any buyer's appraiser, schedule a free Move-Up Strategy Call ... thirty minutes, no pitch, just a clear-headed look at where you are and what your best next move looks like.
This article is general information, not legal, tax, insurance, or lending advice. Program rules change; verify your specific numbers with your agent, the buyer's lender, your title company, and where appropriate a licensed Texas attorney.
About Brian White
Brian White helps families in Northwest DFW make their move-up cleanly, selling and buying in one synchronized step. He built BlueFuse Group on a simple standard: other-first service, proactive at every turn, faith and excellence in equal measure. Brian has been married to Tisha for 27 years and is dad to three adult sons. When he's not protecting a family's equity or untangling a tight closing timeline, you'll find him chasing a round of golf or at Valley Creek Church.
Schedule a Move-Up Strategy Call ... no pitch, just a clear-headed look at your next move.
