Finding a home from another state is not the easiest task. That is why the military has base housing and other lodging called Temporary Living. As long as their is availability you will have a house on base. That is a huge comfort.
Base housing ranges from row or quartered town homes with carports, that are on average about a thousand square feet, to single family residences with single car garages that are around eighteen hundred square feet. There are also houses for high ranking officers that are bigger.
Living on or off base is a personal decision, unless of course you are required to live on base housing. There are certain circumstances where that is the case. For us, we spent weeks looking online at homes, both rentals and ones we could purchase, and decided to buy a home off base.
Having a home to settle into right away was important to me on this move, mostly because we would be arriving so close to the start of the new school year. I did not want their to be any uncertainty about what school the kids would go to. And I particularly did not want to have to start them in one school and then switch them to another school once we found a permanent home.
So we decided to go on a house hunting trip before the actual move date and secure ourselves a home. It was a two day drive where we stayed with friends along the way. That is one of the many great things I love about the military family. Calling a fellow military family and asking to crash at their house for a night is not an unreasonable thing to ask. We have all been there, and giving and receiving that kind of support is second nature.
Once we were in Ohio we stayed in the Temporary Living Facility (TLF). Temporary Living is just what it sounds like, a temporary
place to rest your head until you can find more permanent quarters.
Depending on the base it can be similar to a hotel with a kitchen area,
bathroom, and a bed or couch with a hide-a-bed. Other bases TLF are larger with two bedrooms, a living room, and even a garage. It all depends on
where you are stationed. But they are all furnished with the basics,
including kitchen necessities. In temporary living you are allowed to
stay for 90 days for a very reasonable price. So if you cannot go on a house hunting trip ahead of time, this is a great place to stay while you look for a home.
Our house hunting trip was four days plus the two days on either end for travel. That is not a lot of time, but if you do your homework before you go, you can find yourself a nice home that is just right for you and your family. Here are the resources we used for this trip.
~ Friends - We contacted friends that live in the area and asked them for realtor recommendations, and to get feedback on the school districts.
~ usaa.com - They currently have a Movers Advantage program that will pay you money at the end of closing if you use one of their realtors. The realtor we were told about was a certified USAA realtor.
~ realtor.com
~ zillow.com
~ maps.google.com - for the street and satellite view as well as general map information
~ militarybyowner.com
~ rentals.com
~ valoans.com/calculator_payments.cfm - VA loan calculator
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