Owning investment property in a military rental market like Columbus, Georgia provides a number of unique opportunities. For starters, you have a larger tenant pool.
Columbus, GA is the proud home of Ft. Benning, a highly regarded training center for the U.S. Army. Many members of the military and their families chose to live off-post and rent a home from a property management company in Columbus. In this market, some management companies own the properties they rent out. Others, like our team at Bickerstaff Parham, manage homes on behalf of the owner. We are third-party management professionals.
With so much experience working with military owners and tenants, we wanted to talk about managing expectations when you own an investment property that reaches a large military population.
Military Tenants in Columbus, GA Have Unique Needs
Most of your military tenants are arriving from outside of the area. They may rent your home based on pictures and videos in your listing. There may be a video tour instead of an in-person visit. Give your potential tenants from outside of Columbus a good idea about what your property looks like. Discuss the lease in detail and provide an experience that’s as close to an in-person leasing process as possible.
Military tenants are not strangers to relocation. They have likely been called upon to move with little notice throughout their entire careers. Provide resources and support. Understand that the lease may need to be broken if PCS orders come in before the end of the lease term and your tenants are called to a different part of the world.
Military Owners Who are Leaving Columbus, GA Homes
If you’re a member of the military and you’ve received PCS orders to leave Columbus and deploy elsewhere, you’ll be busy juggling a hundred different logistical decisions. This can be stressful, even if you’ve done this a dozen times before.
Selling a home can be a challenge as you’re preparing to ship out, especially in the current market, where rising interest rates have made home buying more complicated for many consumers. There’s also a good deal of uncertainty lingering in the economy as the country continues to recover from the worst of the pandemic and faces rising inflation. Instead of rushing to sell, you might want to hold onto your property and rent it out to fellow military members.
There are some important benefits to renting out your property while you’re stationed elsewhere.
- You can earn some consistent rental income from anywhere in the world.
- You’ll have the property ready for you if you decide to move back to Columbus.
- You can always sell in a year or two years or 10 years, depending on how things work out.
A local property management company in Columbus, Georgia can help you ensure that rent is paid on time and your property is protected.
Whether you’re a military owner wondering what to do with your property before you ship out or an owner who is likely to rent out a home to military tenants, you need to understand what the market is looking like for you. We are here to help. Please contact us at Bickerstaff Parham Property Management.
