An Informative Guide To Buying Your First Home: For Soldiers on Active Duty

No one needs to tell soldiers that their jobs are hard. They kind of know that already. But what they (or maybe you) might want to hear is that there are people out there who understand the obstacles being put in your way. That includes both the complications imposed by military life, as well as the absolute labyrinth of issues involved in buying a home.

To help you sort out your home, we have constructed this handy guide. We will tell you how to buy a home both on-base and off base, as well as what options are available to veterans.

Buying a Home on Base

This is the most common concern for people in the military as it will frequently come up multiple times during their service. The confusing thing about buying a home on a military base is the limitations it imposes on you—or might not impose on you at all. It is not always the same.

By that we mean: Some military bases are practically small towns. They have businesses in them like grocery stores, clothing stores, utilities, and so on. They might be government-run, but more and more often the Department of Defense is allowing private businesses on bases.

But a military base might also be no more than an outpost inside or adjacent to a full-fledged town or city. This means that most of the amenities will be in that town or city itself.

Each installation will have a housing office for personnel and their families. They can instruct you on government housing on bases (which will never be less than an apartment but will rarely be more than a condo) as well as private housing on bases (which can be as big as houses).

Some will even help you get connected to off-base housing.

Buying a Home Off-Base

If you or your family prefers to live off-base, then buying a home is just like buying a home normally. And by that we mean it is a convoluted series of restrictions.

To start with, make sure you have all your debts paid off and an emergency fund set up. This is important, as homes frequently demand huge credit checks. Buying a home will also involve getting a loan to buy the home, which you will then spend most of your life paying off.

The reason why these big credit checks exist is that banks and realtors do not trust that many people have the income required to afford a home. Being in the military makes a bank much more secure than if you were in the civilian industry, as it means your money is reliable.

It is advised that you use an online realtor to find the home you want to buy, but do not actually use that online realtor to buy it. Instead, once you have found it you can find which local realtor is selling the home and contact them directly. This will help you communicate with the realtor.

You will have to call the realtor and talk about buying the home and how much it will cost, then take that price quote to a bank to discuss the loan. They will give you a loan for buying the home, as well as the rate at which you are expected to pay it back.

Buying a Home While on Deployment

Imagine that you are on your way to Italy, the Philippines, or any of the other places all over the world the United States has military bases. It is rather hard to get accommodations for your family from half the world away, isn’t it? But that is where the miracle of technology comes in.

Remember those realtor sites? Well, those exist for a reason. Not only can they make buying a home almost as easy as shopping for socks on Amazon, but they can also connect you to banks to get your loans and an adjustable mortgage. They are not perfect, obviously.

But they can be lifesavers if you are on the other side of the planet and just need to know your family has somewhere to live. Of course, this is assuming you want your family to live off-base.

It is definitely easier to get your family living space on the military base with the housing office as before. In fact, it is even possible to have your family deployed with you if you are interested or willing. This does not include every American military base in the world, however.

But it does include the best ones.

Home Buying for Veterans

Something you will definitely want to know about if you are a veteran is that the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (also known as the “VA”) has a loan service for you.

And not only do they have a loan service, but they also have a loan service that lets you get a loan without any down payment. More specifically, your down payment is handled by the VA.

This can save you tens of thousands of dollars, as down payments, these days are incredibly steep. The VA will pay the down payment for you, though you will still have to handle the loan yourself. Talk to your VA representative about whether or not you qualify for this service.

Conclusion

The main thing to remember when you are buying a home while in military service is that the military knows that it is hard. That is why they have the housing office on every military base, realtors for you to contact about living near bases, and the VA for financing down payments.

Just remember to use these resources. They are not always easy to use, no one is disputing that. The VA in particular can be horribly inefficient. But you can always visit Teifke Real Estate website to look into some easy methods of finding malleable brokers and good rates.

And do not forget to secure your new home while you are at it.