Home Financing
FIN301
Christopher Chalkley
On March 20th I went to my home bank, Navy Federal Credit Union (Pearl Harbor
Branch). There I spoke with a woman named Naty about home mortgages. I did not disclose
that I was doing this for an assignment because she initially seemed irritated that she had to talk
to me. This could possibly be because I started off by telling her I did not want to submit an
application today, but that I was interested in inquiring about rates, requirements, and the like.
She began by asking me if I wanted to purchase a house, apartment, or condominium to which I
did not have a solid answer, but we eventually discussed purchase of a house. She began by
pointing out to me on her screen all of the different calculators, tables, and lists of requirements
available on www.nfcu.org. Up until this point her demeanor was still unwelcoming, but when
she asked me where I currently live and I told her the Ewa / Kapolei area, she lit up a little bit
and explained to me that she and her husband were contemplating purchasing a house over there.
From this point forward she was a joy to talk to and she went off on a pretty long tangent
about how home values in the Ewa / Kapolei / Makakilo area are likely to rise due largely to 2
factors; the completion of the rail project, and the construction of an Ala Moana sized mall at the
intersection of Kualakai Pkwy. and Kapolei Pkwy. According to her, the rail is estimated to be
completed around 8 years from now while the mall is estimated to take 5 years (and yet they
have not even broken ground on the mall). Investment in real estate in this area, she said, was a
wise choice.
The decision to purchase a home in this area, however, would require quite a bit of
capital. So when we started talking numbers we both agreed that an absolute minimum figure
would be $500,000 for a home in this area. This figure may actually be too low, and I would
personally have gone with $600,000 but she was running the show so I didn’t argue. She went
over the different costs of home purchase under the assumption that I would be approved for a
VA Loan which presents buyers with the luxury of no required down payment. There were still
significant up-front costs including: funding fee, discount fee, origination fee, taxes and
insurance, closing costs, lender fees, government fees, and 3rd party fees.
She then explained to me a little about which fees she could give me ballpark figures on
and which ones she could not. The first 3 aforementioned fees are calculated based off of the
approved financing terms. On https://www.navyfederal.org/assets/rates/view-all.php there is a
