First Deployment, First House

brewmeist

5-Year Member
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Mar 2, 2018
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My SIL (USAFA) received her bachelor's degree and then immediately enlisted in the USAFA. She bought her first house this past year (many hours away from her family). Now she found out that she and her roommate will both be deployed. Does anybody have advice how to handle this soon-to-be vacant house? Is there a group she can go to for advice on how to handle utilities, grounds keeping, security, etc?
 
This is a common situation. One approach - if she plans to rent it out, she puts her stuff into storage and gets a reputable property management company to collect rent, handle tenant issues, repairs and maintenance. Typically, a deployed military member will not have the time or ability to deal with handling a plumbing issue or tenant problems remotely. Even if she doesn’t plan to rent out, a property management company can take care of repairs and maintenance, make recommendations on how to secure the house, set up absentee utilities, etc. If she banks with a military-friendly bank, she’ll be able to set up recurring e-bill pays for water, electricity, property insurance, etc. Military folks have been dealing with this issue for a long, long time, so she will find advice from her uniformed family.

https://www.militaryonesource.mil/f...-issues/how-to-rent-your-home-when-you-deploy
 
To add a little to the post of @Capt MJ, a management company can also send people in occasionally to make sure there are no issues such as leaks, prior leaks, fire, etc. On one of my son's deployments, he told the apartment management he was leaving for a while and asked them to periodically do a walk through. He transferred shortly after and the management tried to charge him for mold remediation. He reminded them that he was gone more than there and they were responsible for the place during the time the mold grew. He threatened a law suit unless they dropped the mold issue and by the way, he expected a full reimbursement of the security deposit. He got both.
 
This is a common situation. One approach - if she plans to rent it out, she puts her stuff into storage and gets a reputable property management company to collect rent, handle tenant issues, repairs and maintenance. Typically, a deployed military member will not have the time or ability to deal with handling a plumbing issue or tenant problems remotely. Even if she doesn’t plan to rent out, a property management company can take care of repairs and maintenance, make recommendations on how to secure the house, set up absentee utilities, etc. If she banks with a military-friendly bank, she’ll be able to set up recurring e-bill pays for water, electricity, property insurance, etc. Military folks have been dealing with this issue for a long, long time, so she will find advice from her uniformed family.

https://www.militaryonesource.mil/f...-issues/how-to-rent-your-home-when-you-deploy

Not to imply “regular” banks and CUs don’t have auto bill pay tools, but the military-friendly banks usually have special deployment settings they can put in place to help their deployed clients.

I used to just calling USAA and NFCU, say “I’m deploying,” and we’d go through a whole checklist on what credit cards I’d have with me, where they might be used (interesting places), any upcoming expiration dates, reviewed recurring bills and deposits, set up bill pays, confirmed who was on my accounts, who my NOK was, emergency contact info, who I wanted authorized as a contact if they couldn’t reach me, what powers that person would have, upload a specific power of attorney, etc.
 
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SIl, She?, BA (not BS)?, Enlisted USAFA? Get a condo and pay the fees while deployed like my son does for six months merchant marine and then Navy Reserve active duty time. He has two other roommates who are at sea during the year so it works out for all.
 
Ahh, missing the beauty of living on base.

Not much to add. My DS is going to be deployed for many months starting this summer. Their stuff is headed to storage, his wife and kids to her parents' home for the duration.
 
My DS is going to be deployed for many months starting this summer. Their stuff is headed to storage, his wife and kids to her parents' home for the duration.

My son did the same when he was on a 9 month rotation, he was renting with a couple roommates, their lease was up so the stored their belongings and just rented a new place when they got back. They put a lot of money in the bank during that rotation. Of course none were married at the time so it was easier to work all that out, that's all different now.
 
My DIL is an army brat whose father was deployed for a whole year in Gulf War. Her mother moved in with her folks then and it worked out fine (they had 5 kids at the time).
 
Mod Note:
Moving this thread to the "Life after the Academy" forum as many military housing related threads are there.
 
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