Celebrating Veterans Day – Homeownership for Bruce

Verity has a long history of serving U.S. military veterans. Not only is there a branch at the VA Hospital in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, the credit union also offers VA Loans and financially supports organizations like Business Impact NW, which helps veteran-owned small business owners as part of its mission. And now, Verity is led by a veteran—CEO Tonita Webb served in the U.S. Air Force as a security forces specialist.

But it’s stories like that of member Bruce H. that show the true impacts these efforts can have for people who volunteered to serve.

This Veterans’ Day, the 69 year-old Navy veteran will be celebrating from his new home, fulfilling a longtime dream to own a home.

Bruce has been a member of Verity for decades (back to when the credit union was known as NW Federal). And during that time, he was perfectly happy with his financial situation—he was renting a house that he liked and was hoping to eventually buy, he had enough money for his daily expenditures, and was just going along. But during the pandemic, as housing prices started really soaring and inventory dried up, Bruce was faced with a dilemma—his landlord was finally ready to sell the house Bruce had been living in for 20 years, but Bruce couldn’t afford it.

As he started looking around and realized he wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford buying a house in the Seattle area. While Bruce was financially OK, it wasn’t his area of expertise. In the Navy, Bruce held several jobs, including running reconnaissance flights and documenting areas of the Philippines, South Korea, and Alaska for the Department of the Interior to use on maps. So, he turned to Verity for help.

After talking with a longtime Verity staff member and learning more about his mortgage options, Bruce realized that he was a perfect candidate for a VA Loan. He was quickly connected to Verity’s mortgage partner, Credit Union Home Mortgage Solutions (co-owned by Verity and Harborstone credit unions) and loan officer Sterling Roszel, who walked Bruce through every step of the VA Loan process, which can be a bit more cumbersome than other mortgage loans due to it being a federal program. Sterling even connected Bruce to a real estate agent in Ocean Shores, which is where Bruce was looking for a home after being priced out of Seattle.

“My experience has taught me how important an agent and lending officer are. I think things were so well done because of Sterling and Kelly (real estate agent),” Bruce said. “And without them things could have been a lot more difficult. It is vitally important to have an agent and lending officer that is working for you in a very personal way—that is, not treating you as another number or just another customer. They are able to go the extra step to assure you that you get what you are looking for.”

We look forward to helping more veterans, like Bruce, find solutions to fit their needs, whether it be homeownership, running a business, or simply having a checking account to deposit benefit checks.