PCS’ing can be both exciting and stressful. One of the largest stressors centers around your living situation. We’ll discuss the advantages & disadvantages of selling/renting your current home, as well as buying or leasing your next one. Whatever decision you choose, be sure to check out Joe’s Free PCS Concierge Service where we link you with our veteran-friendly real estate pros.
- Sellers save an average $1,250 on listing fees
- Buyers receive an average Realtor-paid closing contribution of $1,125
- Landlords save an average 10% on monthly property management fees
- Our VA loan officers are true VA pros. waive lender fees for veterans & more
SHOULD YOU SELL YOUR EXISTING HOME WHEN PCS’ing? Whether you choose to sell or lease your existing home is up to you. The best way to make an informed decision is to have a real estate agent perform a market analysis on your property to see what your home could likely fetch on the sale & rental markets.
Advantages to selling include:
- Apply funds towards your next home
- Put cash in your pocket
- Avoid landlord/tenant headaches
- Avoid potential rental vs mortgage payment gaps
- Avoid future repairs
Disadvantages to selling include:
- Loss of potential life-long revenue stream
- Loss of potential equity gained from future property value increases
- You’re already at Step 1 of our famous BAH Hack to Wealth plan so why stop now?
SHOULD YOU BUY OR RENT YOUR NEXT HOME? Your BAH is hands-down the greatest investment tool in your military benefits arsenal–seriously, the TSP isn’t even in the same ball park. We cover this in great detail in our BAH Hack to Wealth article, but here’s a quick snapshot.
For this scenario, our location is JBSA San Antonio. Our heroes today are SSgt Snuffy & SGT Money Bags. Both just PCS’d in, are E-5, & have dependents.
| Monthly BAH | Yearly BAH | 4-Year BAH |
| $1,761 | $21,132 | $84,528 |
HERO #1: SSgt Snuffy is assigned to Lackland & chooses the easy path—he rents a home. After all, his BAH is effectively free (non-taxable) & owning a home seems risky. Repairs? Unknowns? “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Four years later, SSgt Snuffy PCS’s again & never thinks about the $84,528 he paid in total rent.
Twelve years later, MSgt Snuffy retires & finally moves back to his hometown where he settles down & purchases his first home. His retirement income will probably cover the mortgage payments.
HERO #2: SGT Money Bags just PCS’d from Fort Bragg where she bought her first home. Rather than selling, she kept it because she likes the idea of someone else paying her mortgage while she builds equity. She buys a home in a nice San Antonio neighborhood not too far from Camp Bullis. Four years later, she gets her 3rd assignment & prepares to move. Unlike our other hero, SGT Money Bags leveraged her BAH to buy a home, pay down her mortgage, & increase her net worth.
Twelve years later, MSG Money Bags retires. She purchased a home at each of her 5 assignments & now has 5 separate rental revenue streams on top of her monthly retirement check. She decides to sell two homes and refinances the remaining 3 to lower her payments & increase her monthly cash flow (the money left-over from rent after all expenses are paid). She uses the equity from her first 2 homes to pay for her dream home out-of-pocket. MSG Money Bags never has to work again.
WRAP-UP: Whether your plans align with SSgt Snuffy or SGT Money Bags, we are here to help. Joe’s Free PCS Concierge Service is free to all military members. Just fill out the short form & a PCS Joes team member will assign a specific Honorary Joe pro based on your location and need. Because our pros are individually assigned, you will never be spammed. Most of our pros are veterans too so they know exactly what you’re going through. As such, each, pro has signed a commitment to give back a portion of their commission in the form of reduced listing fees and buyer-agent closing cost contributions.
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