A month away from wings and my wife and I are starting to think about buying a house. We don't know whether we're going to Jax or Whidbey yet but we have started looking at houses and doing some research. I was curious what some of you have done in the past right out of the RAG. If we get P8 Jax then we had considered buying right out of advanced. If we went P3 Whidbey then we would rent something cheap in the RAG and then buy in Washington.
I was leaning toward just renting but a sim IP said that he regretted not having bought right out of the RAG about a millennium ago. It seems like it is better to be putting money toward my own house rather than paying somebody else's mortgage each month. I've also read that it takes almost three years to break even paying on a mortgage over just renting (an article by USAA). Thoughts? Also, what do guys do as far as renting the house out after the first tour? Can you contract a management company to do all the hassle work?
Another thing to consider is that if we get Jax the likelihood of us going back to Jax after all is said and done is very low but the opposite is true if we selected Whidbey.
The VA loan is tempting and we would have a moderate down payment of about 5%.
Thanks for any advice and wisdom in advance.
I was leaning toward just renting but a sim IP said that he regretted not having bought right out of the RAG about a millennium ago. It seems like it is better to be putting money toward my own house rather than paying somebody else's mortgage each month. I've also read that it takes almost three years to break even paying on a mortgage over just renting (an article by USAA). Thoughts? Also, what do guys do as far as renting the house out after the first tour? Can you contract a management company to do all the hassle work?
Another thing to consider is that if we get Jax the likelihood of us going back to Jax after all is said and done is very low but the opposite is true if we selected Whidbey.
The VA loan is tempting and we would have a moderate down payment of about 5%.
Thanks for any advice and wisdom in advance.