My family has lived in many types of housing during our military excursions and I am grateful to report that with one exception we’ve been truly lucky with our choices.
We’ve experienced base housing both new and old and have rented our fair share of private homes from owners in the military and from those who are not.
Private Rentals
It’s amazing how far we have come during the last 15 to 20 years in refining the way we search for homes. Personally, we used to drive the streets of a desired neighborhood looking for the coveted For Rent signs in front yards. That was basically how we found our first rentals in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area near Fort Bragg. Luckily, at that time I didn’t have to add the extra pressure of finding the best school systems. Our luxury needs were dog-friendly places, preferably with a fenced-in yard.
Thanks to the internet, house shopping is actually one of my favorite parts of moving and I have used Military By Owner and other sources in the past to sort through options. The ease of navigating pictures and the speed of contact with owners has eliminated much stress. However, that same speed and access makes the perfect house you found also perfect to other military families across the country, tightening supply. We literally talked with our current homeowner about his advertisement within hours of its posting, toured the house the next day, and committed to the lease the day after that.
Base Housing
I have mentioned before my pleasant experience with on base housing at Fort Meade, Maryland, and this was our only time living on base. But, it was a long process to wait for our new house. Initially, we were told there was not availability for our housing category, but with the help of some local officials, we were offered a previously closed duplex space.
It was closed because it was slated to become condemned or renovated in the following year. You can imagine how nice the accommodations were. Skip to about a year ahead when we were able to move right into a newly constructed four bedroom home in a brand new neighborhood. It was a great gig, and we had an amazing five years there, no doubt because the house was new, the bills were cheap, and the neighbors were fantastic.
However, as usual, the typical downfalls of base living did occur. It was hard to accept that the housing company was glad to take money directly from your paycheck that a BAH increase or promotion in rank provided. In general, housing assignments and promotion upgrade policies were grey and hard to understand. There was always an exception to every rule and this was extremely obvious in a tight spaced military community.
Schools can be tricky to navigate while living on base as well, and I think this is a make or break factor when families consider base housing versus private rentals. I knew we wouldn’t need to worry about schools the majority of the time at Fort Meade, so base housing worked for us then, but for subsequent moves we would have to consider school districts. The base housing at our next stops were very tempting because they were newer and the community feel is tough to replicate, but the schools didn’t work for what we wanted for our daughter. So after more research with MBO and a new found source at Military Town Advisor, we settled on a private rental from an active military member. All I can say about our housing experience to this point is: So far, so good!
Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers USACE Europe District via photopin cc
