Who Writes This, and What We Refused to Publish
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
A lender's site about a federal loan programme and a Commonwealth tax exemption. The sourcing is what makes it worth reading, including the parts that failed.
Who writes this
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. We originate VA loans in Pennsylvania.
★ We are a private lender. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency.
(480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.
How the figures were verified
The exemption. Every criterion and the $114,637 presumption read verbatim from the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs' own page, including the 1 January 2025 notice and its invitation to previously denied applicants.
The veteran data. The Commonwealth's Center for Workforce Information & Analysis report Veterans in Pennsylvania, dated 3 February 2026, read in full. Underlying data is the Census Bureau's ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table S2101.
The federal mechanics. Entitlement and the no-loan-limit wording from the VA's loan-limits page; the funding fee table and all five exemption categories from the VA's funding-fee page. Both read directly.
Loan limits. The FHFA 2026 county file, downloaded and parsed rather than taken from a summary, all 67 Pennsylvania rows.
The market. Zillow typical home value, 33rd to 67th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, month ending 31 August 2026: all 34 Pennsylvania metro rows.
Transfer tax. Carried forward from our Pennsylvania physician-loan research, verified 6 October 2026 and rechecked 10 October 2026 at the City of Philadelphia and the PA Department of Revenue.
★★ The installations problem
A citation an AI engine cannot open is not much of a citation, so every source is tested under GPTBot and ClaudeBot before use. Pennsylvania's installations failed comprehensively:
| Source | GPTBot | ClaudeBot |
|---|---|---|
| carlislebarracks.army.mil | no connection | no connection |
| letterkenny.army.mil | 403 | 403 |
| tobyhanna.army.mil | 403 | 403 |
| navsea.navy.mil (NSWC Philadelphia) | 403 | 403 |
| pa.gov DMVA | 200 | 200 |
| VA funding fee | 200 | 200 |
| 38 CFR 3.2 | 200 | ★ 200, but JS-rendered, a plain fetch returns a ~10.6 KB stub with none of the section text |
★★ So installations on this site are written about and never linked, and every base-to-county claim is anchored to the Commonwealth's workforce data, which is readable. That is why you will read "Cumberland County has the state's lowest veteran unemployment" rather than a claim about Carlisle Barracks itself.
★ One more sourcing note: pa.gov/agencies/dmva/programs-and-services/veterans-programs.html 404s. It is a path we assembled. The live tree is under /pennsylvania-veterans/pa-vetconnect/state-veterans-programs/, and we link what we actually read.
★ What we refused to publish
- Any rate, annual-percentage-rate or payment figure. Deliberate, throughout.
- ★★ Any installation personnel or employment headcount. Secondary coverage has figures for Carlisle, Letterkenny and Tobyhanna. Every
.milsource is crawler-blocked and we read none at a primary source, so none appear here. - ★★ Any VA residual income threshold or region assignment. The current source is VA Pamphlet 26-7 Chapter 04 on the VA's KnowVA portal. It returns 200 and serves an automated reader 77 characters: "Javascript is not enabled. Please enable Javascript to access this website." A 200 is not readability. We explain the mechanism instead.
- Any dollar value for the tax exemption on a given house. Millage is local and we did not read millage at a primary source.
- ★ Nothing, now. We first omitted the pre-2025 level saying we had not read it at a primary source. It is published: $108,046, in 55 Pa.B. 149. Corrected, and the transition rule published with it.
- Any local transfer-tax rate outside Philadelphia. The Commonwealth's 1% is statewide; municipal rates vary and we verified none.
- Any claim about how a county Director weighs allowable expenses.
- ★ Any medal schedule for establishing wartime service. The criteria say expeditionary medals can be used; we did not read a list.
★ Our lane
- We are a mortgage lender, not a government agency and not affiliated with one.
- The VA determines entitlement, disability ratings and funding-fee exemptions.
- The Pennsylvania State Veterans' Commission, through each county Director of Veterans Affairs, administers the tax exemption. It is not administered by Cornerstone.
- No tax advice, and no legal advice. Statutes and regulations are cited so you can take them to your own counsel.
Found something wrong?
Email mcerto@cfmtg.com and we will fix it with a dated correction. The presumptive need level and the market table are the figures most likely to age.
Compliance
Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Equal Housing Lender. This is not a commitment to lend. Loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.
Frequently asked questions
Who writes pennsylvaniavaloanexperts.com?
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855, who originates VA loans in Pennsylvania. Cornerstone is a private lender and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He can be reached at (480) 296-6513 or mcerto@cfmtg.com.Where did this site's Pennsylvania figures come from?
The exemption criteria and the $114,637 presumptive need level were read verbatim from the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. The veteran data comes from the Commonwealth's Center for Workforce Information and Analysis report dated February 3, 2026, drawing on Census ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates. Loan limits come from the FHFA 2026 county file, downloaded and parsed.Why does this site not give employment figures for Pennsylvania military bases?
Because every Pennsylvania installation website tested returns 403 or no connection to the AI crawlers we verify sources with, and no headcount was read at a primary source. Secondary coverage publishes figures; this site does not repeat them. Base-to-county claims are anchored to the Commonwealth's workforce data instead.What did this site deliberately not publish?
Seven things: any rate or payment figure, any installation personnel headcount, any VA residual income threshold, any dollar value for the tax exemption on a specific house, any local transfer-tax rate outside Philadelphia, any claim about how a county Director weighs expenses, and any medal schedule for establishing wartime service. The pre-2025 presumptive need level was once on this list and is no longer: it is published, at $108,046 in 55 Pa.B. 149, and the site now carries it.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about VA home loan financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a private lender and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. VA entitlement, funding-fee exemption and disability ratings are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Pennsylvania Disabled Veterans' Real Estate Tax Exemption is administered by the Pennsylvania State Veterans' Commission through each county Director of Veterans Affairs, not by Cornerstone; its criteria and income thresholds are set by the Commonwealth and change. Figures here carry the date we verified them against primary sources. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.