Fort Stewart Ga Homes

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

Working with Military Clients

I have the pleasure and privilege to sell in a great, small town called Richmond Hill, Georgia. This town is about 15 minutes from Fort Stewart, Georgia, which is the largest military installation east of the Mississippi River. Fort Stewart has about 20,000 active duty soldiers on their base. As you can imagine we get an influx of military personnel transferring in and out throughout the year.

Real Estate is full of specialties. Luxury home experts, REO/Foreclosure experts, First Time Buyer experts … Add “Working with the Military” on that list of specialties. There are certain things that you need to know when you work with the Military.

First and foremost, the government gives a housing allowance called “BAH” or “Basic Allowance for Housing”. This supplement is in addition to their pay and the amount of money they receive is based on the Soldier’s rank.

When the soldier is given orders, this means that they have to report to a new duty station by a certain date. When they arrive in town and sign in, they are given 10 days to shop for a home. Many of my savvy soldiers parlay leave time ahead of their report date, arrive in town, find a home, secure the home, and then sign in and use the 10 days as vacation time or family time.

It is critical to NOT sell a Soldier a home that he or she cannot afford. Most of the soldiers now are very young and impressionable. Sometimes it’s our job to save them from themselves. It’s also critical to make sure that you ask yourself, “Is this the home they should buy?” The chances of them staying in a home longer than 5 years is next to nil so the end result always has to be in mind; can I sell this home for this person and them not lose money 3-5 years down the line?

One of the things about any military community is that they are a tight group that spends a lot of time communicating either in chat rooms or Facebook, or even word of mouth. If you do a poor job for them, it won’t take long before everyone knows it. The up side is if you do a great job for them, you will have an incredible amount of repeat business and referrals.

Assess every situation independently. It is cheaper for a soldier to come in to our town and buy a home than it is for them to come and rent a home. That does not necessarily mean he or she actually needs to buy a home. I talk to my team and remind them from time to time that in the lives of the military, if they make a mistake or if they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, they could die. The stress factor on their lives has to be 100 times what ours must be in selling real estate. Making the home shopping process easier and less stressful is just a small part of saying “Thank you” for what they do.