If you own a business, or a veteran with business income is buying a home, the question “does Towne Bank Mortgage support businesses” is really several questions in one. This guide walks you through sorting them out and comparing TowneBank’s mortgage arm with Duane Buziak at VA Loans Pro, an independent mortgage broker with a 500 FICO floor on VA loans and access to hundreds of wholesale lenders. You finish with a clear sense of which route fits your file. Before you start, gather your last two years of tax returns, recent business and personal bank statements, and your DD-214 or Certificate of Eligibility (COE) if you have VA eligibility.
Step 1: Define What “Support Businesses” Means for Your Situation
Three different needs hide inside this question. Decide which one is yours before you compare anyone:
- Home financing for a self-employed owner. You need a mortgage on a primary residence, and your income comes from a business, so documentation is the hard part.
- Financing for investment property. You are buying rentals, and the property’s cash flow may matter more than your personal tax returns.
- Commercial banking. You need business checking, treasury services, merchant services, or commercial loans for the company itself.
Duane Buziak (NMLS #1110647) is a mortgage broker, not a bank. VA Loans Pro by Duane Buziak handles home financing for business owners and real estate investors in Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland. It does not offer business checking, treasury services, or commercial lending. If that is what you need, a bank is the right place to look, and no mortgage broker should tell you otherwise.
A mortgage broker is an independent intermediary who submits your file to wholesale lenders and places it with the one whose guidelines fit. A direct lender or bank funds loans from its own product shelf. That difference shapes everything in the steps that follow.
The most common mistake at this stage is assuming one company must handle both the business accounts and the home loan. They can be separate, and often should be. Your business banking relationship does not have to be your mortgage relationship, and the mortgage should go to whoever’s guidelines treat your income most fairly.
Write down your answer in one sentence, such as “I need a VA purchase loan on a primary home with two years of self-employment income, and I want to keep my business accounts where they are.” That sentence becomes your filter for the rest of the guide.
Step 2: Verify What Towne Bank Mortgage Offers Business Owners
TowneBank is a regional bank with a mortgage division. That structure has a real upside: if you want business accounts, commercial credit, and a home loan under one roof, a relationship with the bank’s commercial side may make that convenient. Whether it also improves your mortgage terms is a separate question, and you should not assume it does.
Confirm current services on TowneBank’s own website or by speaking with a loan officer. Products, credit minimums, and fees change, so treat anything you read secondhand, including this article, as a starting point as of November 2026. This guide does not state TowneBank’s FICO floors, rates, or fees because they are not something an outside source should guess at. Ask them directly.
Questions to put to Towne Bank Mortgage:
- What is your minimum credit score for a VA loan and for a conventional loan?
- Do you offer one set of products, or do you place loans with several investors?
- How do you treat self-employed income: a two-year average, the lower of two years, or something else?
- Do you offer bank statement or other alternative-documentation programs for business owners?
- Does pre-approval require a hard credit pull, and at what point in the process?
- What are your origination, underwriting, and processing fees, and can I get them in writing on a Loan Estimate?
- If I also bank with you for my business, does that change my mortgage pricing or approval?
Record each answer in a notebook or spreadsheet, and ask every company you consider the same questions. The last question is worth pressing. Some banks offer relationship pricing, and some do not, and the answer tells you whether moving your business accounts would actually buy you anything on the mortgage side.
Step 3: Map What VA Loans Pro by Duane Buziak Covers for Business Owners
A broker works differently from a bank. Duane Buziak shops hundreds of wholesale lenders on behalf of one borrower, so a self-employed file with uneven income, a recent credit event, or an unusual property can be placed with the investor whose guidelines fit it. On VA loans, this approach reaches down to a 500 FICO floor. That is the broker’s floor, set by the investors he places loans with, and it is not a guarantee of approval. Income, assets, and entitlement still have to qualify.
Programs that matter most to business owners:
- VA loans, including cash-out refinancing up to 100% loan-to-value.
- Bank statement loans, which qualify you on deposits in your business or personal accounts instead of tax returns that show heavy write-offs.
- DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) loans for rental property, qualifying on the property’s rent against its payment rather than your personal income.
- ITIN loans for borrowers who file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.
- FHA, USDA, and conventional loans when those fit better than VA.
The VA itself sets the baseline for self-employment. Under the income guidance in the VA Lenders Handbook, underwriters generally look for a two-year history of self-employment and review tax returns and profit-and-loss information to establish stable, continuing income. Individual investors may add their own requirements on top.
The VA funding fee is a one-time charge on most VA loans, and veterans receiving compensation for a service-connected disability are generally exempt. Current rates and exemption rules are on the VA funding fee page.
Because this is a multi-state practice, the same approach applies whether you are buying in Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Maryland.
Step 4: Compare the Options Side by Side
The table below puts the five options on the same measures. Where a figure is not public or could not be verified, it says so rather than guessing. Figures are as of November 2026 and can change.
| Company | FICO Min | Lender Type | Loan Shelf | Fees | Business-Owner Income Options | Pre-Approval Credit Pull | Commercial Banking Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VA Loans Pro by Duane Buziak | 500 for VA (broker floor, not an approval guarantee) | Independent broker | Hundreds of wholesale lenders | Broker-negotiated and shop-able | Bank statement, DSCR/Non-QM, ITIN, plus VA, FHA, USDA, conventional | Soft pull through NoTouch Credit Pull | None |
| TowneBank Mortgage | Confirm with TowneBank | Regional bank mortgage arm | Confirm with TowneBank | Confirm with TowneBank | Confirm with TowneBank | Confirm with TowneBank | Available through the bank |
| Veterans United | 620 | Direct lender | Single VA-focused shelf | Origination fee on the higher side | Standard VA documentation | Hard pull at application | None |
| Rocket Mortgage | Varies, no public VA-specific floor | Direct lender | Single shelf | Varies by product | Standard documentation | Hard pull before real numbers | None |
| Movement Mortgage | 580 for VA | Direct lender | Single shelf | Varies by product | Standard documentation | Hard pull at application | None |
Who it fits. Veterans United has deep VA specialization and a large, process-driven operation, which suits a veteran with strong credit and standard W-2 or clean two-year income. TowneBank’s advantage is one-relationship convenience: business accounts, commercial credit, and a mortgage with the same institution. Rocket and Movement offer polished digital experiences and national scale. A broker’s advantage is leverage. One file is compared across hundreds of wholesale lenders instead of a single rate sheet, NoTouch Credit Pull gives you comparable digital convenience without the credit hit, and Duane Buziak’s standing as a Scotsman Guide Top Originator (#114 nationally) and VA Broker of the Year 2024-2025 reflects the volume behind that approach. A broker cannot offer commercial banking, and that is the one column where the bank wins outright.
Step 5: Run a Worked Example for a Self-Employed Veteran
This is an illustration, not a quote. Suppose a veteran owns a small business with net income of $90,000 in year one and $70,000 in year two. Averaging the two years gives $80,000 a year, or about $6,667 a month of qualifying income.
The veteran buys a $400,000 home with $0 down using a VA loan. As of November 2026, the first-use funding fee at zero down is 2.15%, which you should confirm on the VA.gov funding fee page. The math:
- Funding fee: $400,000 x 2.15% = $8,600.
- Financed loan amount: $400,000 + $8,600 = $408,600.
- Principal and interest at a hypothetical 6.5% for 30 years: about $2,583 a month on $408,600.
If the veteran has a service-connected disability rating that exempts them from the fee, the loan stays at $400,000 and principal and interest drops to about $2,528 a month, a difference of roughly $55 a month. The 6.5% rate is a placeholder for the arithmetic only. Real pricing depends on credit, loan type, market conditions, and the investor.
Now the part that matters for business owners. Income dropped from $90,000 to $70,000, and companies treat that differently. One may average the two years and qualify you on $6,667 a month. Another may use only the lower, most recent year, which is $70,000 divided by 12, or about $5,833 a month. That is a gap of roughly $834 a month in qualifying income, which can change how much house you can buy or whether you qualify at all.
When you compare Towne Bank Mortgage, a broker, or anyone else, ask each one how they treat a declining year and get the answer in writing. Do not assume it is the same everywhere.
Step 6: Get Priced Without a Hard Credit Pull
Many applications trigger a hard inquiry before you see any meaningful numbers. VA Loans Pro uses NoTouch Credit Pull, a soft credit pull mortgage review that estimates your qualification and pricing without a hard inquiry on your report, so you can compare options without a credit hit. It differs from a standard pre-approval in timing: the hard pull comes later, only if you decide to move forward. For a business owner whose credit file already carries business accounts and inquiries, that matters. This is a mortgage pre-approval without hard pull, and a no hard inquiry mortgage pre-approval is exactly what lets you comparison shop freely.
The CFPB’s Loan Estimate guidance explains the standardized form every mortgage company must give you, which is what makes side-by-side comparison possible.
Dare to Compare
Dare to Compare is Duane Buziak’s pricing challenge: you bring a Loan Estimate or written quote from Towne Bank Mortgage or any other company, and he shows you how the pricing stacks up line by line. The point is to let the numbers settle the decision, not a sales pitch.
Read every Loan Estimate the same way
Check three lines on each one:
- Interest rate and whether it includes discount points.
- Lender and broker fees, including origination, underwriting, and processing charges.
- Total cash to close, which combines fees, prepaids, and any down payment.
Ask each company about no-out-of-pocket closing options, which can reduce what you bring to the table through seller credits or lender credits depending on the structure. These are not the same as having no closing costs, since costs still exist and are paid some way. Compare the full picture, not one number.
Step 7: Decide How to Split Business Banking and Your Home Loan
Use a simple decision rule. If you need business checking, treasury services, or commercial loans, a bank like TowneBank may serve that side well. If your credit, income documentation, or property type is non-standard, or you want many investors compared on one file, a broker is the stronger fit for the mortgage. Many owners do both: keep the business banking where it works and run the mortgage through a broker.
Loan size is one more filter. The FHFA sets the conforming loan limit each year. The baseline for 2026 is $832,750 for a one-unit property, as announced in the FHFA’s 2026 conforming loan limit announcement, so verify the figure there before you rely on it. For a Virginia purchase, most of the state falls under the baseline, while higher-cost areas such as parts of Northern Virginia carry a higher ceiling. Borrowers with full VA entitlement generally have no VA loan limit, but conforming limits still decide whether a conventional loan is conventional or jumbo.
Two mistakes to avoid:
- Moving business accounts to win a mortgage. Unless the company puts concrete pricing or approval benefits in writing, relocating your accounts is a disruption with no guaranteed payoff.
- Letting a single company’s guidelines decide whether you qualify. A decline from one shelf is not a verdict on your file. It means one set of rules did not fit.
FAQ: Towne Bank Mortgage vs VA Loans Pro for Business Owners
Does Towne Bank Mortgage support businesses?
TowneBank is a regional bank with commercial banking services, and its mortgage division operates within that structure. Confirm current business services, mortgage products, and self-employed guidelines with TowneBank directly as of November 2026.
Does VA Loans Pro offer business loans?
No, VA Loans Pro by Duane Buziak does not offer business checking or commercial lending. It provides home financing and investment property loans for business owners, including bank statement and DSCR options.
Can a self-employed veteran get a VA loan?
Yes, self-employed veterans can qualify for VA loans when they document stable, continuing income and meet entitlement and credit requirements. Approval is never guaranteed and depends on the full file.
How many years of income are needed for a VA loan if I am self-employed?
Underwriters generally look for a two-year self-employment history, as outlined in the VA Lenders Handbook. Individual investors may set additional or different requirements.
What is the minimum credit score for a VA loan through a broker?
Through Duane Buziak’s broker network, VA loans are available down to a 500 FICO floor, though approval is not guaranteed. Direct lenders set their own floors, such as 620 at Veterans United and 580 for VA at Movement Mortgage.
Does a mortgage broker cost more than a bank?
Not necessarily, because broker fees are disclosed on the Loan Estimate and can be compared line by line. Because a broker shops hundreds of wholesale lenders, the pricing can be competitive, and Dare to Compare lets you check it against any quote.
Can I get pre-approved without a hard credit pull?
Yes, NoTouch Credit Pull provides a soft pull mortgage pre-approval review with no hard inquiry, so you can compare options without a credit hit. A hard pull comes later only if you proceed to a full application.
Can I keep my business bank and use a broker for my mortgage?
Yes, your business banking and your mortgage do not need to be with the same company. You can keep your accounts where they are and place the home loan with whichever option fits your income and credit best.
Next Move: Request Your NoTouch Credit Pull Review and Dare to Compare
Start with the soft-pull review so you know where you stand without any credit impact. Then bring your Towne Bank Mortgage quote, or any other, and run the Dare to Compare. Keep your business banking wherever it serves you, and make the mortgage decision on the numbers. Learn more about our services
By Duane Buziak, NMLS #1110647.
About the author: Duane Buziak is a Scotsman Guide Top Originator (#114 nationally, $51.2M), a VA Broker of the Year for 2024-2025, and has earned 1,400+ five-star reviews. He places VA, FHA, USDA, conventional, bank statement, DSCR/Non-QM, and ITIN loans across Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland.