PCSing to Hawaii exists because the sponsor packet never quite covers it. Orders to Hawaii come with genuine excitement and a very specific set of problems — a rabies quarantine with a months-long lead time, a car on a boat, a rental market that moves faster than your flight window, and an island where picking the wrong neighborhood can cost you ninety minutes a day, every day, for three years.
I'm Jay Miller — U.S. Army veteran, 25 years in mortgage lending, and Sales Manager and Certified Mortgage Advisor at CMG Home Loans in Honolulu (NMLS# 657301). I've helped hundreds of military families land here, and I wrote Zero Down in Paradise, the Hawaii VA loan playbook.
What this site is — and isn't
This site is the practical move guide: bases, neighborhoods, pets, cars, schools, timelines. It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and most pages have nothing to do with mortgages.
Where housing money decisions come up — because they always do — the deeper tools live on my education site, RealityCents.com: the Military Buying Power calculator, the BAH rent-vs-buy analysis, the VA-approved condo lookup, and a knowledge base that goes deep on VA loans in Hawaii. That's the arrangement, stated plainly: this site helps you land well; that site helps you run your own numbers if buying enters the picture.
Accuracy
Quarantine rules, entitlements, BAH, and housing-office details change. Every page links its official sources, and time-sensitive facts carry an "as of" date. If you spot something out of date, email me and I'll fix it.
The fine print
See the full disclosures. The short version: everything here is educational, nothing is a commitment to lend or an offer of credit, and this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department of Defense or any military branch.
Author facts
- Author: Jay Miller, Sales Manager and Certified Mortgage Advisor, CMG Home Loans, Honolulu
- NMLS: #657301 (Branch NMLS #2475890, CMG Mortgage, Inc. NMLS #1820)
- Military service: U.S. Army veteran (OIF/OEF)
- Office: 500 Ala Moana Blvd, Suite 5-325, Honolulu, HI 96813
- Phone: (808) 429-0811
- Email: jaym@cmghomeloans.com
- Personal site: jay-miller.com
- Mortgage education and calculators: RealityCents.com
- Book: Zero Down in Paradise, ISBN 979-8-9963553-0-3
- Full fact sheet: realitycents.com/facts
Quick answers
Who writes PCSing to Hawaii?
Jay Miller, a U.S. Army veteran with 25 years in mortgage lending and a Sales Manager and Certified Mortgage Advisor at CMG Home Loans in Honolulu (NMLS #657301). He wrote Zero Down in Paradise, the Hawaii VA loan playbook.
Is this site about mortgages?
Mostly no. It is the practical move guide: bases, neighborhoods, pets, cars, schools, and timelines. It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and most pages have nothing to do with mortgages. The deeper tools for housing money decisions live on RealityCents.com.
How do I report something out of date?
Email jaym@cmghomeloans.com. Every page links its official sources, and time-sensitive facts carry an "as of" date.