Buying a Home From a Distance

By Lizann Lightfoot    

When military families get PCS orders, one of the first questions usually is, “Where will we live?” If you don’t want to live on a base (or base housing isn’t available), you may need to shop for a home before moving.

Sometimes, service members can get a few days of house-hunting leave to visit the new area, tour houses and make an offer in person. However, a house-hunting trip before a PCS move isn’t typically possible for families stationed overseas or without childcare arrangements. That means your entire home-buying experience must be completed from a distance.

Buying a house from a distance is challenging but not impossible. You will need a real estate agent willing to work with your unique situation and, ideally, a local family member or friend you can use as a legal proxy. Keep reading to learn tips for communicating with real estate agents from a distance and options for touring a home and completing paperwork, even when you’re in a different time zone! Key benefits include:

• Equity

  Homeowners build equity in their property instead of paying rent to a landlord
• Stability

  Homeowners have stability even if they move frequently
• Taxes

  Homeowners may be eligible for tax deductions on mortgage interest, property taxes, and closing costs
• Personalization

  Homeowners can personalize their home without worrying about lease agreements or security deposits
• Financial security

  Homeowners can create an additional source of income after retirement by renting or selling the property

One Family’s Experience

Like many military families, mine has jumped through hoops to find somewhere to live after a PCS move. Our first home-buying experience was mostly traditional: we got orders, drove to visit the new base for a weekend, visited some homes and made an offer. As mortgage payments began a month later, I moved into our home with our toddler while my husband finished his remaining weeks at the previous base.

The next time we bought a house (years later, after selling the first one), the situation was much more complicated. My husband was approaching his 20-year retirement date, and we started to discuss our plans for where to live after leaving the military. We wanted to buy a home in Pennsylvania and rent it out for a few years until he retired.

There was one major problem: neither one of us lived on the East Coast. I was living at his current duty station in California, and he was deployed to Japan! It was far too expensive to fly to Pennsylvania for a house-hunting weekend, so everything had to be done virtually.

Amazingly, we made it work! We found a home we loved online, did virtual tours with the real estate agent and even managed to have the paperwork signed and keys exchanged from a distance.

If your family is in a similar situation and needs to buy a home remotely, the Blog Brigade offers some things to consider:

Find a military-friendly agent

Military families face unique situations like PCS orders, moving timelines and VA loans, so you want to work with an agent with experience in those matters. When looking for an agent, ask if they have handled remote sales before and how the process will look, especially if you live in another state. The more you know in advance, the smoother your home-buying process will be.

Maximize virtual visits

Virtual video tours are helpful to get a quick sense of a house, but they don’t always tell the whole story. If the service member and spouse can’t be on the call together, you will probably have different questions or reactions. Our agent uploaded tour videos to a private YouTube channel so my husband could watch them in Japan. Try to get video tours moving from one room to the next so you see how everything connects. Ask the agent to open the closets and turn around for a slow pan of each room so you don’t miss any unusual features.

Enlist a friend

The best way to get a feel for a home is to be there in person. When buying a house from a distance, invite someone you trust to do it for you. If you don’t have a local family member, ask the base’s military spouse group if someone will go and do a walk-through with the agent, take pictures and give you their honest feedback. Ask about smells, the view from the windows, neighbors’ houses or yards and other details you wouldn’t pick up from photos and videos.

Prepare proxy paperwork

There will be lots of paperwork to sign to finalize your home sale. While some documents can be signed virtually through email, others must be signed in person in the county where the sale occurs. Discuss your options with the real estate agent. Be prepared to get a Power of Attorney for a local friend or family member to sign for you. If that isn’t an option, it’s good to know ahead of time whether you will need to fly in to close the sale and get the keys.

Buying a home from out-of-state can be challenging during a PCS move, but if you find the right real estate agent and ask detailed questions, you will be fully informed and ready to face this challenge. Happy house hunting!

Read more articles for the veteran community here.