We’re getting ready to PCS in a couple months. It normally wouldn’t be a big deal. I’m a pro at moving and I get itchy feet if I stay in one place too long… not to mention that I’ve been counting down the days until we leave Georgia since we got here. So what’s the problem? This time we can’t just throw stuff in the car and take off. We own a house here.
In a perfect world, we will find perfect renters who will move in the day after we move out, pay exactly the amount we’d like to get on time every month, never have any problems, and maintain the house perfectly.
In my head, I’m picturing us not finding any renters and having to pay the mortgage AND cover rent at the new duty station. I’m picturing us dealing with household catastrophes from 1,000 miles away and being forced to accept less than the mortgage payment from people who are habitually late with their rent and who trash our house. Maybe even burn it down accidentally.
Yes, I’m aware that I have a spectacular imagination that tends toward the worst case scenario. (I think of it as a defense mechanism, so I can be pleasantly surprised when things turn out better than expected.) My husband lacks my imagination and tends to be entirely logical and pragmatic. He says we’ll get a property manager and they can find us renters, handle the late rent, and take care of the burned down house for us.
We’ve never done this before, but I’m assuming (hoping?) that at least a few of you have been through this before. So help me out here! Have you rented your house? How soon before you PCSed did you start looking for renters? Did you use a property management company or manage it yourself? Any tips on the process? Good experiences, bad experiences… I want to hear it all!
About Sespi
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I'd say go with a property management company since you won't be in the area to fix things, etc. Start interviewing them now. They'll know when you can put it on a list.
Remember… other military families have orders too… and are looking at places they might move to. Can't hurt to put it out there with an "available on X" date. Worst case? You move a bit early into a hotel or something just to get "good" renters.
Good tips! I'm looking into some of the military websites to list the house on. We should be moving near the beginning of PCS season too, so that definitely works in our favor! I wouldn't mind moving a bit early for good renters either.
We just PCS from Al very close to Columbus Ga. We used a property manager and it made life so much easier.I was able to met everyone that looked at my home. I was comfortable because I knew they had to meet certain criteria and pass background and credit checks before they could see the property. The day we left the tenants moved in and my property manager is awesome, she really takes care of business. Let go of as much stress as you can, give it to someone who can handle it for you.
WOW…. just shocking that I read this. I am just a cilivan that does EVERYTHING she can to support our Miltary families. I am lookin to move out of a townhome rental AND I NEVER thought to seek out Miltary families that are in your situation. Is there a section on this web-site or others that others can look thru to HELP a family ……..like yours.
right now I live in Montomery County- Maryland but I am OPEN to move… outside of this area (and possiblity state).
I was in the same predicament some years ago. Housing prices were very low at the time and we didn't want to take a substantial loss. We were planning on retiring in Colorado Springs down the line so decided to take the gamble and rent it out .We used a good property agent who did all the credit checks, rent collection, background checks, etc. We also hired a lawn service who did all the spring and fall fertilizing and clean up.. We paid the biggest share of the water bill so our tenants wouldn't let the yard go bad. Having a sprinkling system was a big plus. We lucked out and had a wonderful family of three move in who loved the house and did a wonderful job of maintaining it. When they moved out over a year later, it was as spotless as I had left it for them. I'm SO glad we decided to do it that way. The price of the home was about $40,000 higher in value so that was another plus.
Hiring a lawn service is a great idea! Our HOA is super picky about the lawns.
what was the name of your rental agent, we're going to be needing one in the springs in the coming year
We tried selling our house and left it on the market up to three months after we got to our new location. It turns out that our realtor was awful and wasn't even attempting to show our house the second we moved. (Long frustrating story, especially to deal with when you're overseas). I ended up finding a private property manager who is absolutely AMAZING. It took about a month to get our house up to her standards (cleaning, fixing things our realtor should have told us about, etc.), but I feel 100% confident that she'll find good renters for us and take care of things for us. Without being there (in the same town), I wouldn't feel comfortable at all renting it out on our own.
Good luck! I know how stressful the house situation can be!
Oh no! I'm sorry you had such a bad realtor, but glad that you've got a good private property manager now. How'd you find her?
I am so glad you're finding out all the good gouge now so I can pick your brain when we're getting ready to rent out our house next year! ;-)
That's what I'm here for ;)
I'm totally convinced renters are going to ruin our house. We are looking to put it on the market on 15 Feb or so. Here we go again with the PCS. UGH!
Within the next 3yrs (or sooner) we too will be the same boat. I've already been researching property managers in our area. We bought in May 2007. Like many other people, we thought that the housing market would in the very least remain stable in our area. We lost $35k and looked into going through HAP when our PCS came up a year ago. We weighed the options and the hubs opted to get attached to a command where our house is, since we did not qualify for the HAP cut off date. I have sent a letters to our Congressmen and a letter to a member on the Armed Services Committee regarding "the date" and that the housing market (especially in our area did not feel the immediate effects before the date. After a few months, I received a letter back saying that a new bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives (H.R. 237) that would change the qualify date for HAP assistance. As of today, there are 16 co-sponsors to the bill. Long story short, I hope that the bill passes, so that a lot of families can have 1 less stressor taken out of their lives when orders come out.
Like others, I cannot stress enough about having a good property manager. We have a house in AK and our first manager was not good and we had lots of problems with who was renting. We got a new one and it's been really good. We did massive reno's about 2 years ago after our last disaster renter and now I don't worry as much about who will be renting. The manager does really thorough background checks, always lets us know what's going on, and takes care of things when we ask or contacts us when the renters have a need. It's worth the 10% they take.
About 10 years ago, our unit and another were closing at our duty station. We lived in a rural community, so that meant almost every other house would be going up for sale. We made the decision to rent out the house because we knew it would be hard to sell and there were almost no rental properties in the small town the base was in. We didn't have orders yet and hadn't lived on base, so we applied for base housing and got a house immediately (others had already started PCSing out, but as long as we didn't have orders we could move on base) We would be moving around July and moved into base housing in February. We found a private property manager who only took on a few properties, he said he would only rent to military because he was retired and knew what to do if they didn't pay their rent, etc… (ie, contact commander, etc…) We rented it out for the mortgage + property mgt fee, so we made no money, but it was a relief to know we wouldn't have to make that payment every month. Also we set up a bank account specifically for the mortgage; the property manager deposited the rent payment in every month and we had an automatic withdrawal to the mortgage company set up. It was the only bank account we left open in that town.
The house was relatively new and I had done a bang up job designing and decorating the interior (if I do say so myself), and we had it rented within a week after we moved out. It had a sprinkler system and was in a neighborhood full of military, retired military. I also knew all my neighbors immediately surrounding my house, two of which I am still in contact with. Every other month or so I would call and ask them what they thought and they all agreed that my house seemed to be getting taken care of. After the first family moved into base housing, I did have an issue with the next renter not paying on time and after 6 months, they were evicted, but they did not destroy the house, thank goodness. After that I got a couple that would be retiring in the area and they lived in the house for several years before deciding where their forever home would be. Great renters. When they finally gave notice, I was casually talking to my neighbor and she said a house just like mine had sold for almost $50,000 more than we had paid, so I immediately called my property manager (who was a realtor and property developer) and asked her to figure out how much I could put it on the market for, I was flabbergasted when she called me back, and it went on the market in less than a week and was sold within a month for $40k more than we paid, not owed, but paid!! (Before the housing bubble burst)
On the other hand, my neighbor got transferred and did the same thing, thinking they would be back and would want their house back eventually. They got a renter at one time that was keeping chickens and a goat inside the house, yes INSIDE!!! One of the neighbors went over to ask the renter a question and when they opened the door, it was all the lady could do to keep the chickens and goat from running out the front door. OMG, how does that even happen. She called the owner and let them know what she observed. Needless to say, they called up their property manager, had them do an inspection, had the renters evicted, but the damage had been done and they were just getting ready to move back. The house was unlivable, they had to rip out flooring, drywall, basically gut the whole thing and redo it. Luckily, they were able to deduct some on their taxes, but I don't know what I would have done in the same case.
It can be a hit or miss kind of thing. Those bad renters were not military and they weren't local. In a small community that would help too. In a bigger city, I would think you would need to really do your homework. I know that while talking to my property manager he wanted us to charge more rent because the higher the rent the less likelihood to get bad renters. And after the late payers we did raise our rent significantly, as a buffer for changes in our mortgage payment and to put our house in a higher income renter bracket.
The good thing is any work done on the house while it is being rented is tax deductible. In addition if you travel back to the area to inspect or otherwise check out your property the trip can also be tax deductible. But you also lose any local tax benefits from being the owner/resident. Our property tax was about 1/4 the cost when we lived in it. So we had to take that into consideration when deciding on what to charge for rent as well, I would definitely listen to the property manager and due your own due diligence. See what other houses similar to yours are being rented for, ask property managers for references, you are paying them for a service, they should have proof they are good at what they do and happily provide it. Good luck!
This was tremendously helpful! And I had no idea that stuff was tax deductible. Thank you!
P.S. A chicken and goat inside?! That had to be a stinky and super unsanitary house…
We just did this back in August. We got a property manager — on a good review from a neighbor who had already moved away — and thought we'd need to start really early. But she said that in a military town, many people who are renters show up at the last minute and want to move in immediately. We thought the house would be on the market before we left, but she said that wasn't necessary in our area. We ended up PCSing away, paying someone to clean and paint the inside and mow once or twice, and then it went on the market two weeks after we left. It was less than a month before she had someone in the house. I hope it goes as quickly for you too! I was a basketcase about the process, and happily it worked out for us.
One thing I stressed about was pets. I felt like excluding pet owners means excluding a lot of really "normal" families. We have a pet, and we'd never dream of letting him ruin a house. I was worried that if we rejected pets, our only option would be like three single soldiers chipping in for rent together…a fate worse than pets, I've heard! But I was also afraid of someone moving in and breeding pit bulls. We settled for offering "pets accepted on conditions"…and thankfully it wasn't an issue, since our renters do not own pets. But that was something that vexed me about the process.
Good luck!
We met with a property management company recommended by our Realtor today and he said the same thing – we don't really need to put a sign up until 30 days out at the earliest because we're so close to post and moving in the height of PCS season. I'm glad to hear it went so smoothly for you!
We thought a little about pets too. The property manager recommended weight limits and breed restrictions, but as the owner of 2 50+ lb dogs, one of which is frequently banned from rentals (husky), I wasn't a fan of that idea. I think we'll end up going with "subject to approval" and making sure that the pets moving in are well behaved and house trained!
sespi, We are frequently "banned" as well due to our 65 pound pitt/lab mix. She is 7 years old, gentle and as sweet as can be. Homeowners with restrictions miss out on great renters like our family by banning certain breeds and weight limits. We are fortunate enough to have found amazing homes and amazing homeowners who welcomed our furrbaby.
Alright, so we just did this over the summer. We started researching property managers 2 months before we PCS'd, and interviewed about 5 and chose one whose references said she found the best tenants. We had it posted lots of places locally, and online at 'militarybyowner.com', which is a site for military to rent to military. It's on there that our renters found our house, and actually how we found the house we're renting now!
She found us 2 different renters, and asked which one I liked best, and so far it has worked out perfect. We moved about 2000 miles away from the house, so we couldn't deal with it on our own. With a property manager, we asked her to contact us only if a repair would cost more than $200. We had a small flooding issue, which she called us about, but it ended up costing very little. Otherwise we've found out about other expenses when she sends us the receipt every month ($70 for a plumbing thing, $50 for a sprinkler thing, etc).
We were able to tell her what we wanted as far as renters – we said pets were okay, but only 1 or 2, nothing like 5 dogs or anything. We also said we'd rather have a family than 4 single people (which would have been weird anyway, our house is not super close to a college or city). She dealt with talking to all potential tenants, and setting up times for them to see the house. The tenants we selected ended up moving in 3 days after we left.
I did (and do recommend) hire a cleaning service to clean the entire house the day after we left, because I didn't want to deal with cleaning it. It was a little pricey, at about $300 but worth it, since when these tenants move out, they have to leave it in that condition.
It's fantastic having a property manager that we trust, because we don't have to deal with anything. We put the rent about $10 more than our mortgage, because it was more important to us that it rented than to make money on it. So far it is working out wonderfully (knock on wood) and we're considering buying another house at our next duty station.
Cleaning service would definitely be worth it… I know I'd end up doing most of the cleaning otherwise ;)
We've had both good and bad luck with tenants. One thing I highly recommend, whether you use a property manager or manage the property yourself, is a home warranty. We purchased a warranty through AHS and it has more than paid for itself as we've had a hot water heater replacement and an electrical issue. You can set it up so that your tenants can call in any issue if they can't reach you. Both me and my tenants have always been pleased with the prompt and professional service. It offers huge peace of mind and if you ever have a very expensive repair, you only pay the cost of the service call. It's basically an insurance policy.
I chose AHS and am happy with them, but there are a lot of companies who offer this service, so you can shop around and see which company and plan best fit your situation.
Good luck with the upcoming PCS!
Thanks! I'd never heard of a home warranty before, but that's definitely something we're going to look into now.
I've rented & sold two houses, rented since 2003. I 'm at my last duty station, looking towards retirement. I 've had good and bad renters. The 1st was to military who get kicked out 6 months later.(The property manager told us not rent to them, but since they were military, we felt sorry and did). Had hole in my ceramic tile kitchen floor, Coke spray all over one wall, and illegal cable lines all on the outside). Wont make that mistake again. Made fixes to home, and it sold in a month. Next house, renter had a dog, but the carpets were clean, and no dog smell (property manager checked regularly). That house sold one day after being on market,$20 more than we paid for it (before big boom). A prop manager, who is also a realtor, have worked well for us. You may want to look for tenants that are/were also previous homeowners, they will know more of how to take care of things, if you can find them.
I found a rental home on http://www.ahrn.com. Many military advertise there, and now Military One Source has it as a reference, so you may get many looks there.
Sorry for so little advice.
My husband and I are expecting to PCS sometime later this year (date unknown of course) and I am extremely stressed about trying to sell or rent our home. I really hope we can sell it, but after reading these posts, I am feeling encouraged about renting it out if we have to. It is helpful to know we aren't the only ones in this situation! Anyone have recommendations for propertymanagers /realtors in Tacoma, WA?
We met with a potential property manager this week (suggested by the realtor who sold us the house) and the information from him, combined with all the advice in the comments here, has really made me feel so much better about this process! Good luck to you!
As most have suggested, other military families need homes. Recruiting has Family Leased Housing for remote Recruiters. You're leasing to the Army Corp of Engineers. They pay the rent and the utilities and the Recruiter forfeits the BAH. It's a PITA to become a contractor, can take a few weeks but once you're in the system, the rent is paid on the 1st without fail. They will inspect the home before they agree to the lease and they will inspect after to ensure it's left in the same condition.
We bought a condo in HI for a real estate investment, and had no choice but to hire a property manager (HI property rules if you are off island). I was hesitant but the company is great! They really take care of things and are worth the expense typically about 8% of the rent. Take the time to look on-line and get ratings for property management companies with proven track records. We made it very clear that we want to be informed about everything. Our home is low maintenance and without carpet (we have tile) and is difficult to mess up. We owned in a very popular area and put the add on craigslist and at the housing office at the local post/base, showed it to many likely renters and found a one within a week. Then referred her to our property manager for the contract and legal stuff and check background. You can start posting 3 months before renting on military housing web sites and 1 month before on Craig's list. on before Really look for a good inexpensive property manager and rent it on the 1st of the month as soon as you leave. You can stay in hotel for 2 days before you fly out to let the renter move in. The key is having a good location, an appealing low maintenance rental, and good property manager to take car of things for you. Good Luck.
Definitely go with a property management company and get a home warranty for you house. There are several out there, IE American Home Shield & Old Republic. You will pay either an upfront fee or make monthly payments, but the cost is more than worth it! They will cover fixing items within your home such as AC, refrigerator, plumbing, stove, etc… for a service fee of 60 to 75 dollars. If they are unable to repair, it will cover replacement. It certainly beats having to pay labor, parts, and possibly the cost for replacement.
I worked in property management and can't tell you how much having someone look after your property and get a home warranty is worth it. Do your research and ask LOTS of questions!
We were fortunate to rent our house out to friends. It was down to the last week before we had to leave for our own PCS, and they rented it. (We only had one month's notice anyway.) We had put it up for sale, which of course it didn't sell that fast. The property management with the realtor weren't going to charge high enough rent to make our house payment, so I got on facebook and my nonmilitary friends came to my rescue. It was a cheaper deal for them and now they were in a house instead of an apartment. They pay on time and there have been no problems.
Oh, we have a home warranty too. Definitely get that and charge enough rent to cover that cost too…and charge as much as you can but be realistic. Even if you only charge enough rent to pay the mortgage and warranty, it will show depreciation on your annual income taxes which is good for you. Since our friends came to our rescue, that is all we charge – enough to cover those two things.
if the prospective tenants are strangers, do a background check/credit check at their cost. that was required of me before at an apartment complex
Unforunately we are in that situation. We had a property manger who was highly spoken of. In 4 years we have had our properety value slashed into half. The renters failed to notifiy anyone of roof damaged until the roof was in the process of collapase, the rentors ripped the guttering off the house. Built a porch onto the house, ripped out the molding/flooring, and painted it wonderful colors. And we have been lucky to receive rent in a timely fashion. We now can't sell the house, can't afford the 40000.00 to make the home habitally. And these people had good credit and references. Sighhhh, never ever again.
All good advice. I would add to write a cleaning deposit into your rental agreement so that if they don't clean up on their own, you have cash to clean it properly. If they do clean it up appropriately they get their cleaning deposit returned, minus anything they didn't do (like the fridge or the oven). Also, obtain a non-refundable pet deposit per pet. I have been both the Heavenly Renter and the Landlord with tenants from Hell. Having owned 4 homes in the past, the landlords and the property management companies love me, we are in Scottsdale preparing to retire, that's why we don't own. My landlord offered me financial incentives NOT to move.