Buying/Renting a house for next PCS

lew0509

DH and I will be moving within the year and will need to find a house. We've been at our current post for 5 years, so we've always had the luxury of being able to do extensive research before buying/renting a house. Our move will be cross country, so we might be able to make one trip out there before moving.

How do you ladies find a house? Any websites that you recommend? Do you recommend finding a realtor? Tips?

ladybugpjb

www.ahrn.com

That's what we use - I make a big list of potential properties, then use Google maps street view to try to check out the neighborhood. Then when we get there, we drive around to check out the areas, then make appointments to see the houses we like.

ufsandra85

i would definitely get a realtor especially if you are buying.

ufsandra85

i like zillow.com and trulia.com are good too

SarahS1212

We always rent. I have looked at websites for local property managers or gone through a real estate agent to help us find places to look at.

I have also used militarybyowner.com.

 

F15Wife

AHRN.com and Militarybyowner.com

 

hunterjumper102

A realtor if you are buying and then militarybyowner.com if renting is great.

aislinnanne

I like zillow.com a lot. Also, if you're considering buying, use USAA's Mover's Advantage program. They set us up with a Realtor that we spoke/emailed with a lot before we visited. She set aside two days to show us every house she could that was in our price range and met our needs. It involved almost no work on our part. They also give you a rep who walks you, step by step, through the VA Loan process. They were great. We showed up in Boston from San Fran and closed on our house 2 weeks later.  

beachbum4304

F15Wife:

AHRN.com and Militarybyowner.com

 

These are my two favorite sites as well. Really helped us with the last move.

12bailey18

Militarybyowner.com is what we have used for renting and were pleased with it. From personal experience, I would not buy at duty stations. It's very stressful putting your house on the market when you have orders to move. We were at our duty station for 4 years and never were able to sell our house. We are currently in the foreclosing process. TRYING to sell it was much more stressful than foreclosing. It was a year long process. I wished we had just saved all of the stress and rented. I don't mean to sound like a Debbie Downer, just wanted to share my personal experience. 

Temp76535187505890

We've mainly used militarybyowner to find a rental but this last move it didn't work out well and we got hooked up with a realtor. Much less headache to have a realtor especially when it came down to negotiating the rent. 

 

We're buying on the next PCS and are using USAA's Mover Advantage. So far it's working really well (aside from having to switch realtors early on but even that was easy).  The realtor is vetted by USAA so we can be confident she knows her stuff and has worked with our unique circumstances that being in the military provides.