More newbie questions - housing

[piper84]

H will be receiving his orders (for UPT training) probably within the next 3 weeks. I'm guessing we'll receive information as to what our next steps will be, but in the meantime, can any of you help fill in some of the blanks for me?

What will the process be like for finding housing? We'd like to live on base if possible. Do you "apply" for a spot on base? Do you get to see the place before you move in? Or are you just assigned a home and you see it for the first time when you show up? From what I've gathered, it seems like some bases have a waiting list, etc... so I'm guessing you do not get options to choose from, you just take whatever place is available. Is this correct?

The pilot selects that H has talked to at OTS (that have received their orders already) are supposed to show up at their bases 1-2 weeks after OTS graduation, so I'm just trying to learn a little info about this whole process as I am TOTALLY CLUELESS!

Thank you

[Deleted]

I only know how privatized housing works. We put an application in just like you would for an apartment. They offered us a house allowed for our size family/AD member's rank. We declined it since it was old housing and asked we be passed over until a "new" house was available (I have bad mold allergies). They found us a new house the next day. Most of the houses look the same. They are only different really depending on rank and family size. We have two styles of houses on our base for enlisted for a 3bed/2.5bath. They are two story and one story. Officer housing and high ranking E's are different.

[basilosaurus]

H didn't live on base in either of his 2 UPT locations. I assume this is because options for a single O-1 were not as good as he could get off base with BAH. Have you done a comparison?

Actually, that's been true everywhere we've lived together. Without children, we're not really eligible for much on base, even when you factor in rank. I don't know how they choose here, but driving around base when we were looking for housing, we saw captains (O3) living in the same rundown townhouses as AICs (E2) which seemed really weird.

[amaristella]

Pretty much what Lemon said. Where we live housing is privatized. I was put on a "waiting list" although I don't think they were paying attention to anyone until you call them back and inquire about your status. I was shown two places and picked one of them.
Also, I needed a power of attorney to sign the lease because DH was out to sea and around here only the service member signs the lease, not the other adults. So weird!
Prior to that we had always chosen somewhere "off base" -> side note, a lot of base housing is technically located off base<- because we felt that we were able to get a better value for our money.

Wherever you go I would encourage you to look at base housing as just one of the available options and choose whatever suits your family the best.

[kpol]

I don't really know much about on-post housing since this is our first time living on-post and I don't think it's the same process here in Korea, but here are a couple of good websites for rentals specifically for military members.

www.ahrn.com
www.militarybyowner.com

Also, there is a Facebook page called Moving House for the Military Spouse that has tons of pictures of on-post housing at most bases. Good luck!

[Deleted]

We lived on-base during F-15E training (married, no kids, two cats).

First we went to the housing office and asked if they had houses available. They did. They gave us keys to three houses that were available and let us go see them to decide which (if any) we wanted to live in. They were all basically they same, though some had small improvements done to them (new carpet, different/better flooring, different sized or shaped yard). We picked the one we liked best, then signed the paperwork. It was pretty easy.

A few things to consider about living on base:

1) Officer housing is almost always the last to be updated on any given base. You might be living in a house that is decades old, or one that is newer. Depending on the area, your BAH might go MUCH further off base, so it's worth looking around the local area to see what your BAH will get you.

2) Think about bills -- I think when we lived on base (non-privatized), water and electricity were included and we only had to pay for phone/cable/internet, which is good because it was a horribly energy-inefficient home being so old). Not having to pay for some utilities MAY tip the balance back to on-base housing being cheaper. However, I think in privatized housing you pay ALL bills? Someone else help me out on this one.

3) If you choose to live off-base, landlords MUST write a "military clause" into the lease stating that you can break the lease if/when you get orders to move away (it's the law). So don't be scared about having to pay to break your lease early.

4) If you live on-base, you have to think about your yard. They are VERY strict about keeping a neat yard -- it has to be mowed, edged, raked, weeded, and pruned at all times. If they drive by and think it's not up to snuff, they'll give you a warning, then the second time a note gets sent to his commander. We got a few yard nasty-grams while on-base, and it was embarrassing. I would imagine that with him in flight school and you with a baby, you might find that you are to busy to care for your yard to the standard that they want it.

5) Living on base can be wonderful for social interaction, especially if other members of his class are living on-base. I was in a class of 16 people and 13 lived on base, and we were all within a few houses of each other (and a short stumble from the Officer's Club). We were ALWAYS over at each other's houses for dinner, cookouts, etc, and it was really fun.

[basilosaurus]

Actually, I don't think the landlord has to include a military clause. They're bound by those laws whether it's in the contract or not. I want to say someone on this board has personal experience with that.

The whole "only the SM can sign" thing shows up more often than you'd expect. When we were new to Japan, not only was H the only one who could sign the lease, I couldn't even buy a car. H was gone for months about 4 weeks after we moved there, and I literally went to the dealer with cash, and they couldn't sell it to me. Now, they did actually sell to me b/c he was coming home in a couple weeks, and he could sign the paperwork then, but I couldn't register it on base until he got back, no ifs, ands, buts, or POAs.

I think that was honestly my biggest "WTF have I gotten myself into" breakdown moment. I'd been married only a year, thought I kind of understood how the military operated, how it didn't really affect me, and then that. I went from being an independent woman with a career to moving overseas to be a SAHW who couldn't even buy a car with her own money.

I share that, piper, b/c you're obviously doing your best to be prepared, but surprises will keep sneaking up on you.

[meltoine]

I can tell you abut Laughlin, which may or may not end up being relevant to you.

Everyone else in H's class was a 2LT/O-1. The single guys and girl lived in the dorms. The married guys each got three bedroom houses. We (H is a Cpt./O-3) were offered a two bedroom house because that's what they had available at the time when we went to the housing office to apply. We got a 4 bedroom house off base for $200 less than his BAH. So we chose to live off base.

The 2LTs were all every happy in their 3BRs. A big part of me wishes we had lived on base because I felt isolated from the rest of the class. On the other hand, it was really nice to have the extra space, and our neighbors here will be lifelong friends, which the rest of the classmates will not be because 90% of them really get on my nerves.

Also, the housing here is privatized.

[amaristella]

I've heard about that issue with buying a car. The good news is, a Power of Attorney doc is reasonably easy to acquire. (ahead of time) There are a few things for which a specific POA is required but a general one is very good to have whenever your spouse/sponsor is away and unreachable.

[basilosaurus]

They didn't honor my POA for the car, amaristella. I have no idea why, but I was livid.

[amaristella]

Sept 29, 2012 2:02:51 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

They didn't honor my POA for the car, amaristella. I have no idea why, but I was livid.

Did they want a specific, or just generally being life-wreckers?

[beachy]

Sept 29, 2012 1:37:17 GMT -5 amaristella said:

I've heard about that issue with buying a car. The good news is, a Power of Attorney doc is reasonably easy to acquire. (ahead of time) There are a few things for which a specific POA is required but a general one is very good to have whenever your spouse/sponsor is away and unreachable.

Honestly I feel like more people don't honor a POA now than do. That's why I try to do as much as possible online since I have all the account logins and they can't tell that it's me and not H. I can't even tell you how many times I cried and screamed on the phone with BofA dealing with our mortgage payments and account because the loan is in H's name. It didn't matter that I have full POA, used that POA to buy and close on the house in his name, and signed all the checks for the mortgage payments, they won't even talk to me about the account on the phone at all.

As for base housing, I would start doing research now if you know that there are only a few different bases he can be at, especially since you like to try and be so prepared. You can look up what BAH would be for each base, and then do some research on AHRN.com to see what you can get for the money. I would also try calling the housing office at each base to ask if there is a wait list, and what the housing is like for your H's rank.

[crimewatcher]

H lived in the dorms at Vance during UPT.. since I didn't go with him. Base housing was a mess last year -- they moved a guy during a check ride (basically a flight with the instructor that is graded) week and with a newborn so they could tear down their house.

I can't say what its like now. They were building super nice new houses

[amaristella]

Yeah, accounts can be a very funny thing that's why I make sure now to have my name fully authorized on every account. And for our vehicle titles we had it written as "Mr. Amaristella or Amaristella" that way I'm allowed to do anything I want with the cars when he's gone.

I have been told that the number of things requiring a specific POA has been increasing and that in a few cases the specific POA will only work if you also have a photocopy of the sponsor's military ID to show with it. Crazy! One that our command pointed our recently was Personnel and getting new ID cards while the sponsor is gone. They will not touch a general POA for that. They basically said if your ID is going to expire get it fixed now and do not lose or destroy it while the guys are gone or you may be in for trouble. On the other hand, I was told the name of an office to go where there are people whose job it is to help spouses get things worked out when their spouse is unreachable.

[basilosaurus]

The ID thing is weird. I moved to Denver when H was unaccompanied, and I went in to update my address. Which they did, then saw I was a dependent and freaked out that they had helped me.

But I've gone to get one replaced with no problem at all, no POA, just me showing up alone.

I'm wondering if there have been issues with spouses trying to get one last chance to get an id before a divorce.

[beachy]

Sept 29, 2012 14:53:25 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I'm wondering if there have been issues with spouses trying to get one last chance to get an id before a divorce.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly it. There was a woman I couldn't stand at this command who was getting divorced. She was bragging about how she was going to say she lost her ID so she could get a new one and maintain her NEX and commissary privileges longer. It's assholes like her that make it harder on the rest of us.

H just got promoted and I couldn't wait to get a new ID because my hair was in a pony in my old one and I was mistaken for a boy several times with it. In order to get it without H there I needed a form filled out. No problem, I was going to fill it out and sign it for him so I could just go that day. Nope, if he can't come in that form needs to be notarized, not just signed. And of course the ID lab hours are ridiculous so trying to find time to get in there with him between him getting out and them closing was near impossible. But I needed to get it done because when I went to get new parking stickers with my old ID they weren't going to give them to me since my ID still had his old rank. Luckily the lady saw his new rank in the system and gave them to me.

Basically it's just a giant pain in the ass and everyone seems to second guess all spouses because of the assholes.

[basilosaurus]

This reminds me of a question I've always had but never thought to ask.

Do you have to get a new card when your spouse is promoted? I never bothered, although it is now accurate b/c I had to get a replacement fairly recently, and he probably won't pin on the next for a couple years at the rate things are going now, so it should last. But, is there any particular benefit to getting a new one?

[beachy]

Technically I think you are supposed to, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to get a new one as long as your other one is still valid. I couldn't wait to get a new picture on mine, and contemplated saying I lost it just to get one so thats why I went already. I know a friend of mine just now got her new one 2 years after her H made rank though. I think it really only matters in cases where one rank is able to do something over the other. Like when I needed to go get new parking tags for this rank she wasn't going to let me since my ID had the old rank and I wouldn't qualify.

[basilosaurus]

Interesting. I don't think I've ever been in a position where I had to prove rank. Never even heard of a parking tag issue. I wonder if that varies by branch. Or maybe it's the fact that there honestly isn't all that much difference between o2 and o3.

[beachy]

I know there really isn't much difference between E4 and E6 for Navy in terms of parking and things, but E7 is a huge jump. I don't know much about O at all so I'm no help there. But yeah, for most things it would make no difference what your ID said as a dependent. If I didn't despise my last picture I probably wouldn't have gotten a new one until I was told I needed it. Also now they aren't putting SSN on them anymore so that was a plus of getting a new one.

[genoandike]

I agree with what everyone else said.

When we first moved, we realized we would get more bang for our buck off base. On base we would have gotten a 2 bedroom apartment but off base, we pay $100 less than our BAH and have a single family house with 3 bedrooms. Although we do pay a lot more for electric in the summer because it is so hot here. It would have been included on base. It was something to think about though.

I like the idea of checking out where you could be, seeing how much BAH is, calling base to see what you'd qualify for and then looking at rental websites to compare.

[piper84]

Wow! So much great info from you all. Thank you very much. It took me a little while to get through it all. I swear, each time I would sit down with my laptop, my baby would start crying.

I appreciate it all. Thanks again. My H was actually told today that he will be receiving his assignment (location, start date) within the next 2 weeks, so it may be best for me to wait and hear that before making myself crazy looking into all 3 locations! I'll keep you guys updated.