notjustamilitarywife

So we made an offer yesterday, got a reasonable counter, and we’ve accepted.  As of December 15th (proposed closing date) we’ll be dual homeowners.  Woo hoo!

We’re going to TRY to rent our San Antonio home out without the use of a property management company.  Maybe it’s overly optimistic of us, but we think we can find a renter on our own through the military network.  There’s got to be someone here in nav school right now who knows someone coming down for training sometime in Feb/March who needs offbase housing.  We’re going to post flyers and talk to our friends.  We’d prefer a military renter- not that civilian renters aren’t worthwhile people- it’s just that military renters have built in dependability.  They’ve got pretty good job security, receive dedicated funds for housing every month, and if they don’t pay or they destroy your property, you can call their commander and chances are, you will get paid.  Anyways, I like to think there is a sort of ‘code of honor’ within the military community.

A property management company will charge half of one month’s rent as a ‘finder’s fee’ for getting a qualified tenant in your home.  Seeing as we’ll be paying two mortgages come February 1st, it would really help to not have to pay that out.

I’ll post some pictures of our new little place here once Justin gets back from Georgia.  It’s adorable, like a little dollhouse.  Emphasis on the ‘little’- our challenge with this place is going to be space.  We’re moving down about 450 square feet from what we have now, and it’s not like we’re currently living in a mansion.  The condo has only two bedrooms and only one bathroom, which means we’ll probably store our guest bed and just bring it out when we have visitors.  Hopefully I’ll still be making it doing the freelance thing a couple months from now,  so I’ll need a small dedicated space to be my home office.  I think we can make it work, though.

I’ll probably be creating a page on my personal website next week with pictures and details about the house for rent, and when it’s up I’ll post the link here, on the off chance that someone reading this knows someone who might be interested.

I’m really, really hoping this works out.  Sure, there are a thousand places that something could go wrong.  We could have the house sit vacant for months.  We could get terrible renters in here who trash the place and don’t pay rent.  Something huge could suddenly break down and cost thousands.  But like I’ve said before, I’m cautiously optimistic.  If you’re reading this and you’re considering real estate investing along the lines of what we’re doing, I’m always happy to share what I know.  Not an expert or anything- just slowly building up a repertoire of knowledge based on experience.

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