MM - Housing

So I thought I was good and planned some blogs ahead, even wrote a few to post later and jotted down some ideas for other days. But then I got here and just didn't care as much as I thought I would :) so here is what I had written for this weeks MM.



Two things I never wanted: to own a rental property and to live on a military installation.

Two things that will soon be true: we will own a rental property and we will live on a military installation.

Lessons, lessons, lessons. What I stand to learn is yet to be known, but I’m sure there’s some lesson waiting to be unveiled.

In 2009, when I was 6 months pregnant, we found out we were being relocated to Sierra Vista, AZ. It was a nightmare. I can’t remember if I blogged about it or not – the entire nightmare was luckily short lived – but I dreaded every aspect of that move. Arizona sounded utterly miserable, and Sierra Vista must rank at the very bottom of Arizona’s “places to live” list. The weather is terrible. It’s the DESERT. I could go on and on. The ONE upside to the situation was that our realtor guessed we would make between $20,000-$30,000 profit on the sale of our house. Perfect.

Not even 3 years later the same realtor came over to discuss selling the same house and the picture is very different. Best case scenario: we bring about $2,000 to closing to sell the house. Best case.

PAY to sell the house.

No. Not an option. I’m not paying to sell my house. I was hoping for maybe $15,000 profit…I knew the housing market had taken more of a hit since 2009 but come on…a $30,000 hit????? No.

After the realtor left Austin brought up the option of renting the house.

No. Not an option. I’m not going to pay someone else to find someone else to live in MY house. To let their dog pee in MY house. To let their cat destroy MY blinds. No.

Ok, wait. One of those has to be an option seeing as ME living there is not. And as much as I tried to think of a fourth option, I realized there isn’t one. That’s it. I live there, I sell it, or I rent it. No, no, no. So we have to go with the less of the evils here.

We have signed a contract with a local rental management company who does a lot of business with military members at Buckley. They are confident the house will rent quickly at the price we want as they manage many homes in our neighborhood and the location is very convenient for service members. The management company will handle finding the renter, credit and background checks, securing the deposit, collecting rent, and checking in periodically to make sure the house is being taken care of. We can almost wipe our hands of it and at the price we are asking we can walk away with a whopping $25/month profit. Wow. I almost feel like we’ve struck gold. What ever will I do with such hefty earnings?

The second element to the housing situation is where we will move. The first thing you think of when you think of California (well, maybe after you think of Hollywood and Pretty Woman and surfing and rich housewives and the broke government) is the insanely overpriced houses. Insanely overpriced. Insane. Did I say insane? We’ve looked at some houses to buy in the area and for a house smaller than our current house, in an area that is less than desirable, the price is more than double what our house is currently worth. Buying just doesn't seem to be the smartest choice at all and we really haven't even entertained the idea. We’ve looked at rental houses in the area and to rent a 1400 square foot house it could cost anywhere from $2,000-$3,000/month. TO RENT A HOUSE SMALLER THAN THE ONE WE OWN. What?!?! Oh, and most don’t allow pets.(aren't liberals supposed to be animal lovers??? I better stop with the political associations/opinions for the next few years) so they don't like pets and We have 3. Nancy we could maybe get away with, but its Kind of hard to hide an 80 pound dog and a 25 pound cat.

The most economically feasible and sensible solution is to live on base. I’ll briefly explain military housing in case you don’t know how it works. Service members are entitled to receive either an on post (post, base, installation - whatever word you like) house free of charge or a housing allowance which is adjusted based on the cost of living in the area. If you choose to take the housing allowance you could potentially pocket some of the money depending on how much your rent or mortgage is, and in some cases you get a bigger home than what is available on the military installation. We have been paying $200 less per month for our mortgage than what Austin's allowance is, so we have been profiting from it do to speak. If you choose to live on post, you have no utilities and no rent, but you also have no monthly tax-free allowance to try to profit from. The houses vary in quality and size from place to place, and there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to how or why some places are nicer than others. The size and quality of your house does depend on your rank and size of family, so an E7 (the 7th level of promotion for an enlisted soldier) with 4 dependents will have a much nicer home than an E3 with 1 dependent. I’m not going to explain why we have never had interest in living on post, we just haven’t. It does have its perks – never paying a water or electricity bill sounds nice, and living that close to the grocery store, gym, and PX sounds good too. But we've just never wanted to.

So here we are. We can pay $2,000 to sell our house then turn around and pay $2,000/month to rent a smaller house, or We can rent our house and live for free on the military installation. Right now it looks like the second is our best combination. Once we’re settled there, if I find a job or we don’t like the house, we may look for rentals in the area but for now this seems the most seamless and most sensible.

I know I said home is where the heart is and my heart is with Austin. I know family is the only thing that matters and whether we sell our house or rent it out, and whether we live on or off post, I will be with my family. I know that God has plans for us and will provide for us and that all of my worry amounts to nothing in preparation for the move. I also know I’m a very stubborn, strong willed person who really, really likes things to go my way. And I can throw a pretty good fit, if you ask me.

So for now I’m working through my trust, knowledge, and faith battling against my worries, expectations, and concerns. I just need to remember that. I recently saw a quote (that I'll surely butcher here) that said the biggest thing that gets in our way is our expectations of how things should be. I think We SHOULD be able to sell our house and make some cash to stow away and I think we SHOULD be able to rent a comparable home for just slightly more in california. Clearly I need to wipe the slate of all of my expectations and wait patiently for what the Lord has to tell me next.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad