3 TIPS for Military Buyers PCSing to Ft. Bliss, El Paso Texas

3 TIPS for Military Buyers PCSing to Ft. Bliss, El Paso Texas

Hi. Welcome to Living in El Paso, Texas. My name is John Peña with Peña El Paso Realty Group, and in this video we are jumping right into it. No fluff. Three top tips for military buyers who are PCSing to Fort Bliss 2022, probably 2023. So before we start, if you find value in this information, which I think you will, please consider subscribing to the channel, like the

video, and all of that. So why this video? I'll tell you exactly why, because essentially I've probably the majority of buyers that I've represented in the last several years have been military buyers who are using VA loans. So I feel like I'm essentially the expert on this, and so I want to give you as much useful information to prepare yourself for purchasing

a home in El Paso. So tip number one, this is not your forever home, right? So most of the military buyers that I sell homes to, you're going to be here three to five years, right? This, my tip is this, buy the home that you're going to be able to sell in three to five years. What does that mean? It means that you should not be looking for the oddball home. You should

not be looking for a fixer upper probably. You should not be looking for a home in the lower valley where nobody is going to want to essentially buy that home. You should be looking for, this is what people want, and this is what there's plenty of in El Paso. You should be looking for a newer home, okay? Most military families, they want to move into a home, adapt their family to a new city,

and start living, right? They don't want to make a bunch of repairs. They don't want to have to fix a bunch of things. That's why I say go for a newer home, and there are plenty of newer homes in El Paso, which brings me to another point on this topic, which is make sure you select a good area, right? The Far East, probably the most popular area. Why? Because it's close to base, and there's

a lot of new nice homes. Horizon City, probably a close second, a little more bang for your buck. Newer homes a little further from Fort Bliss, but not a big deal. The Northeast, yeah, super close to base, but you start getting into these older homes, and older homes, evaporative coolers versus refrigerated air, just more maintenance issues, and again, a lot of people want newer amenities,

things like an open floor plan, right? You're not going to find an open floor plan in a home from 1950 or 1970 even, right? So stick with a newer home, right? And again, no oddballs. Get a house with a two-car garage. Virtually all the homes here have two-car garages. Don't buy a two-bedroom home. Nobody wants a two-bedroom home. Buy a three-bedroom or a four-bedroom, you know? So

you want to make a good decision about the home that you purchase, because in three to five years, you're going to have to sell that home, and you want to at least break even, if not make a little money, right? And if you buy an odd home in an odd location, your chances of selling that home, breaking even, or making money are much less. That's point number one. Point number two, right now,

kind of fall, winter of 2022, know how much money you're going to have to bring to the table. Essentially, we all know that with a VA loan, what makes it awesome is that it's a no-money-down loan, right? You don't have to put 10% down, 20% down, 3.5% down. You can do zero money down. That doesn't mean that you're not going to have to come to the closing table with money. You should

plan on coming to the closing table having in your savings at least 3% of the sales price of the home. For instance, on a $200,000 home, you need to have at least $6,000 in the bank. On a $300,000 home, you should have at least $9,000 in the bank, right, to cover your closing costs. Now, you might be saying, well, the last time I bought my house, I made the buyer pay my closing costs.

We're not there yet. For the last two years, nobody's been able to ask for closing costs. It's been a super hot seller's market. And as of right now, that's still kind of the case. So maybe in the next 6 to 12 months, is it going to change a little bit? A little bit, but not to the point where you're probably going to get all of your closing costs back. You might eke out

$1,000, $2,000 out of a seller. But for the most part, we're not into a buyer's market yet. In a buyer's market, yeah, you can ask the seller to pay some of your closing costs, and there's a good chance that it'll happen. Right now in El Paso, in our market, that's not necessarily the case. So if you want to be secure, know that there are going to be no hiccups at the end of the road

here when you're closing. Try to have 3% of your offer price. Let's say you're looking at that $300,000 house. I would really try to have nine grand sitting in the bank in case you need it. And point number three, you're going to pay a real estate agent's commission. Now, you don't get to decide what that is. The seller, the homeowner decides what the commission is going

to be for both their listing agent and the buyer's agent. Typically, it's 6%. 3% of the sales price is going to go to their listing agent. 3% is going to go to the real estate agent who brings the buyer. Now, so that money, you're not paying a real estate agent directly anything. But of course, if you pay $200,000 for a home, $6,000 is basically going to go to the listing agent,

$6,000 is going to go to the buyer's agent. But you're paying $200,000, you're not paying any additional money. Right? Now, here's a very important point. If you're a VA buyer, chances are you might be considering working with Veterans United, Navy Federal, USAA. Now, you're going to call them up to get that pre-approval letter, which is absolutely necessary.

And they're going to say, oh, hey, hey, we've got a great real estate agent that you should work with. Work with this agent and we'll give you, you know, maybe $100 off of this or that. Now, I would not do this. Why? Because you are essentially then working with a discount agent. The only reason, the only way that an agent becomes a preferred agent of one of these lenders

is by basically agreeing to give them a cut of the commission. So now this agent is essentially working at a discounted rate. And chances are you're buying your home from afar. You're not here to see the home in person. You're relying on video. We kill it on video. We have buyer's agents who go out and they make very thorough walkthrough videos of every home that you request

within 48 hours. Is your discount real estate agent that Veterans United pushed on you going to do that? You should at least ask. Right. So very, very important. The other thing that you need an excellent agent like us is because you need to understand what what you're going to offer for the home, what the home might appraise for and all of the other hoops that are required

for basically going through a VA loan and getting a great house in El Paso. So that's my three tips. I'll give you a bonus tip. These are important things to know. But if you pick the right agent and you make some planning ahead of time, you know, having that three percent, this can be an enjoyable experience to this shouldn't be something where you're pulling

your hair out, you're stressing out, you're freaking out. This should be an enjoyable experience. We aim to make that experience not only financially fruitful for you, but also enjoyable so that we find you a great home so that you're not, you know, losing your mind, you know, two, three weeks before you PCS to El Paso and like you don't know what's going on with

your housing. I have not heard good things about the housing on Fort Bliss. So, you know, keep that in mind. But if there is absolutely anything that we can do for you, we would love to represent you on the purchase of a home in El Paso. Like I said, we represent a ton of military buyers and that's really our privilege and our honor to be able to to work with you. So I hope those

tips are useful. If you're PCSing to El Paso, check out the other videos on our channel. I think El Paso kind of has a bad rap and it's awesome. I mean, reach out to your other fellow military members. Chances are they're going to say, you know what, I thought I was scared that it was going to be this or that. But when I got here, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a great community,

friendly people, super affordable. The weather is nice. I mean, I think you're in for a treat, but I'm probably a little bit biased. So without further ado, like I said, we'll wrap it up with there. If there's anything that we can do for you, please reach out to us and we'll see you next time.