How To Choose A Home On Your Next PCS

Are you PCSing and are having trouble deciding where to settle? In this video, I’m going to outline an exercise that will help you layout and plan for your next PCS. We’ll look at everything from setting your budget to choosing a neighborhood to make your next transition as smooth as possible.

Your Next Move

One of the hardest things about PCsing—whether it's cross-country or simply someplace you've never lived—is that you don't know what neighborhoods surround that base. There are likely a ton of questions you have about the process.

Where are you going to be stationed? How far do you need to be from base? How long is it going to take you to get there? If you have kids, what are the schools like? What's the daycare situation like, and how expensive is it? How does that tie into your commute to work and home from work? Where do you want to be? What do you want to do with your kids?

One of the most important things that we can all agree to do is to get boots on the ground where you're trying to go. This way, they can give you accurate information and data and allow you to maximize your intelligence on the area that you're about to move to.

The Process Of Elimination

When buying a house, it’s ultimately a process of elimination. You're going to have a system of needs, wants, desires, and must-haves, and we're going to eliminate neighborhoods and houses based on these criteria as we go through. Ultimately, there are three things that you're going to consider when you move into the next area.

First, how much money do you want to spend each month on housing? Second, how important is location to you? Lastly, what features do you absolutely need in a home—such as bedrooms, a man cave, or a home gym? Before we get started, it's important to remember that nobody is going to get all three. This is true regardless of how much money you have, how much money you want to spend, or what category you’re looking at.

Best Two Out Of Three

The goal of this exercise is to categorize your wants and your needs so we can make sure that you're getting what you want and taking advantage of the time that you have—which is precious in this home buying process. The three things that we're going to consider are price, location, and amenities. You're going to write those down based on their level of importance to you. Let's start with price first, as that's what's on everybody's mind.

Let’s say we find a home at a great price in an ideal neighborhood and your commute is golden. But let's be honest: the interior probably hasn’t been updated since the early 1980s. Let's swing to the other side of the spectrum: you pay $20,000 over budget and have the dream home that you've always wanted, but you sacrificed your budget.

The third scenario is that you get the dream house near your dream schools, you're in a dream area with all the space for your toys and home gym, but your commute is extended so far that you're adding at least an hour on the front and back end of your workday. As you can see, your best bet is to be satisfied with getting two out of three, deciding which are most important to you.

Deciding On Price

So the first thing we want to look at is what your budget is. How much you can afford? What's the BAH in the area that you're looking to buy? If you're like me, you had to come up and earn everything that you've now obtained, so that's a very important starting place to see how much house you can afford.

Understanding your budget and being really familiar with it is going to help us narrow down your search and see where you can afford, what it is you want to afford, and the things that you need in order to exist on orders.

Location And Amenities

Now that we've talked about the price—which is probably one of the most important aspects of your purchase—we're going to talk about the next two: location and amenities. You're either going to get one or the other, and those two are going to battle each other all day long.

The things that you're going to want to list out and itemize is the bedrooms. Do you need that third or fourth bedroom? Or is it more important for you to have that third garage space to put your extra stuff? As you list out your wants versus your needs, it helps narrow down what home you're looking for. This ultimately helps us speed up the process, getting you in our home as quickly as possible.

Settling Into Your Next Home

Now I'm going to warn you: you're probably going to buy a home that is 180 degrees different from the direction that you originally thought you were going. That is absolutely normal with roughly 99.9% of the people I work with. This is what actually happens after the bullets are flying and you get into that plan which we're all familiar with: no plan survives first contact.

I hope this has helped you identify what you need in a house and what you should be looking for in your next home search when you PCS. If you have questions, concerns, or want more information, look at my other videos and feel free to reach out. Whether or not your PCSing to or from Camp Pendleton, North Carolina, or Twentynine Palms, be sure to contact me. While I specialize in Southern California, I still have a huge network of people that I can reach out to and help take care of you and wherever your next PCS is.

So if you're looking for some boots on the ground or some eyes on the objective, don’t forget to subscribe to my channel so you never miss an episode of my show. Stay tuned to see what I feature next!