"I'm Still Pinching Myself" A Navy Veteran's VA Loan Story

After 27 years of renting through a Navy career, Don Penley bought his first home in Georgia with no money down and nothing due at closing. Here's how it came together.

Don Penley served 27 years in the U.S. Navy, rented for every one of them, and closed on his first home in Georgia about two months after picking up the phone, with no money out of pocket. The VA home loan requires no down payment, and closing costs, the other cash hurdle, can be covered by the seller, financed through a lender program, or both. For Don, that combination turned a purchase he thought was out of reach into a two-acre property in the country.

Twenty-Seven Years of Moving

Don joined the Navy in 1998 and retired in 2025. A self-described "small-town Georgia boy," he went through boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, then spent nearly five years aboard the destroyer USS Briscoe out of Norfolk, Virginia. Recruiting duty in Atlanta followed, then the USS Cape St. George, which shifted its homeport to San Diego shortly after he reported aboard. 

Through all his years of service, he rented, and he moved constantly. "Over 27 years, I moved every single year," he said. "Every time I got a rental property, they raised the rent. One year into it, then they raised the rent"

Asked how that felt, he said, "It was absolutely horrible."

Why He Decided to Buy

Two things pushed Don toward owning. The first was retirement. "Coming out of the Navy, I'm not planning on moving around a lot," he said. "I decided, okay, I want to settle down somewhere in my home state of Georgia." The second was rental fatigue. "I was tired of renting. I was so sick of having to call a maintenance guy, and be at the mercy of the real estate agents, and then they come up with dumb policies and stuff like that. I was tired of living under that thumb. I wanted to live under my own terms."

He and his wife had talked about buying a house the day before a NewDay USA commercial came on TV. "Y'all's commercial came on about buying a house without closing costs and stuff, because that's been the biggest heartache of trying to buy a house," he said. "I was gonna have to pay all that closing cost. I looked at her, and I said, I'm gonna call them tomorrow, and I did."

He was wary first. "I'm very wary about commercials and advertisements and stuff, because there's so many scams out here. And I looked y'all up online first. And I said, okay, well, the website matches what the commercial says, so let me just call." 

Buying a House From the Seat of a Truck

Don drives a truck for a living and is home one day a week, so he handled the entire purchase from the road. "I had to do everything from the seat of my truck," he said. "All the documents, everything I was doing right here."

His NewDay USA account executive, Riley Lewis, kept the process moving. "She kept me informed more than anybody ever did in my naval career," he said. "She kept me informed of every step of the way, what I needed. Very, very punctual, always answered the phone when I called and I had questions."

A Group Chat

Riley also connected him with Terry Jackson, an Admiral Certified real estate agent. Terry set up a group chat with Don and his wife, and because Don was on the road, his wife and Terry chose the house together. "Terry and my wife made the decision what house I was gonna get," he said. "I didn't even see the house until the day I closed on it. I've seen pictures and everything, but I hadn't physically seen the house yet." 

Terry sent listings through the chat every day, and on closing day she handed over spare keys and her personal number in case he needed anything in an area she knew well.

No Savings, No Down Payment, Nothing Due at Closing

Don's biggest fear about buying was the cash. "That was my biggest fear of buying a house, was having to pay something, pay all that money, which I didn't have any savings or anything," he said. He had recently spent $15,000 to bring his wife's son to the United States from Venezuela. "I had nothing, and I was like, there was just no way I was gonna be able to afford a house."

The VA loan handled the down payment. Under the VA home loan program, an eligible Veteran can buy with no down payment as long as the sale price does not exceed the home's appraised value, and the VA requires no monthly mortgage insurance.

Closing costs were the other concern. The NewDay Home Advantage Loan is a short-term personal loan that can be used to cover closing costs, and if the borrower repays it within 12 months, NewDay USA refunds all of the interest. Don used it, and says, "I didn't have to pay anything, so it was amazing." 

He also used the Deposit Boost, a short-term loan of up to $5,000 that covers the earnest money deposit a seller expects with an offer. His loan came to about $315,000, an amount he called "a big obligation for a guy like me" after what he described as some poor financial choices during his career. "I was scared to be obligated to something like that," he said. "But she made the process so simple."

From First Call to Keys in About Two Months

Don called in February or March and closed in April. "Only a couple of months," he said. "It was so fast."

He had expected the opposite. "All I hear is horror stories about buying a house," he said. His younger brother had tried twice and failed twice, and he remembered what his parents went through. "I was scared to death because of the things I've seen with my brother, and my mom, and my dad, and what they had to go through to buy houses, and how much stuff they had to prove." He credits his own habits for part of the outcome. "I'm very organized when it comes to paperwork, so I had everything I needed to have anyway. It went by fast and smooth."

What Homeownership Looks Like Now

The house sits in the country on two acres, with room for the family's three dogs and a four-year-old son to run. "I'm still pinching myself," Don said. "It's beautiful. It's nice to have a place of my own."

Asked whether he felt respected as a Veteran through the process, he said, "I felt proud that it's an actual Veteran program to help Veterans. There's a lot of Veteran programs out there, and a lot of them do not help Veterans, or they say they help Veterans, but you have to be 100% disabled, or you have to meet some kind of criteria. NewDay USA helped a Veteran get a home that I thought was out of reach."

He has already started sending people. "I've told some of my former sailors that work for me, and some of my friends that work with me are looking at buying. I tell them, hey, go NewDay USA. I will vouch for this company the rest of my life."

How the VA Loan Made It Possible

Every piece of Don's purchase is available to any eligible Veteran, and the parts he was most afraid of are the parts the VA benefit and lender programs address.

• No down payment. The VA guaranty lets a lender finance 100% of the purchase price up to appraised value.
• A funding fee you can finance. Most Veterans pay a one-time VA funding fee, 2.15% on a first-use purchase with no down payment, and can roll it into the loan. Veterans receiving VA disability compensation pay none.
• Closing costs with options. The seller can pay them, the VA allows seller concessions up to 4% of the loan amount, and programs like the NewDay Home Advantage Loan can cover what remains.
• A benefit earned by service. The VA's eligibility rules cover Veterans, active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members with qualifying service, and eligible surviving spouses.

If you have assumed a house is out of reach without savings, take a few minutes to learn more about your VA loan benefit and what your service has already earned you.