PCS to Ft. Bliss in El Paso Texas [2021]

PCS to Ft. Bliss in El Paso Texas [2021]

Hi, and welcome to Living in El Paso, Texas. My name is John Peña, and in this episode we're going to talk about a military PCS to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Hi thank you so much for checking out the YouTube channel Living in El Paso, Texas.

My name is John Peña, I'm a real estate agent here, so if you are looking to buy or sell a home in El Paso, please consider reaching out to us. And this YouTube channel is all about all things El Paso, eat, sleep, work, play. If that's the information that you are looking for, by all means, please consider subscribing

to the channel. We put out at least one new video every week. We put out home video tours, so all sorts of good stuff there for you. And in this particular episode, we're going to talk about a military PCS to Fort Bliss

in El Paso. And I can't believe I actually haven't done a video on this, because we actually help a ton of military folks buy and sell homes here. My very first sale of a home was to a military couple, sold them a house, or got them under

contract on a house out in the Far East. I just got two military buyers this week under contract. So, Robin, if you're out there, Peter and Ruth, if you're out there, hello to you guys and congratulations.

Getting under contract is not an easy thing to do right now in this market, as they know. And so, at the end of the video, I'm going to break it down specifically, I'm going to talk just directly to military folks who are potentially thinking about buying a home in El Paso.

And I'm going to break that down. I explain it to folks all the time, but I'm going to really break it down so that you can understand. I'll timeline it so that you can just skip ahead if you want to look at that.

But in the meantime, I want to talk a little bit about what a PCS looks like to El Paso. And just so that you don't have to look at my ugly mug through this whole video, we're going to roll some footage throughout here of the military base so that you can see that. And we're also going to roll some footage of an area called the Far East.

The reason I chose the Far East is because it's one of the most popular areas in El Paso where a lot of military people do buy and sell homes. It's got a lot of great stuff. It's close to the base and nice newer homes, as you're going to see.

So that'll kind of break up the video. But let's talk a little bit about what a PCS is. If you're in the military, you already know what it is. And for the record, just because somebody might ask, I have never served in the military.

My father was in the army. He was stationed in Germany. When I graduated high school, I decided to go into education. I thought about going into the military, but I was drawn to education.

And so I like to think that I served my community and my country by helping educate the young people of our country. But for those of you that are actively in the military, that have been in the military, our sincere appreciation for your service from Peña, El Paso.

So a little bit about PCS, and this is just for the folks that might be watching the video who aren't in the military. So a PCS move is a move between one duty station and another, or between your final duty station and home of record upon retirement or discharge.

So at that moment, the army tends to PCS soldiers every two to four years. What I've been told is that most people coming in and out of Fort Bliss, it's about every three years. So there are more than 400,000 service members that PCS every year.

You know, a permanent change of station orders or a long-term assignment, generally, like we said, those two to four years. So your move will generally be handled by the Transportation Management Office, or as a do-it-yourself move, DITI.

If you work through the Transportation Management Office, they're going to plan the move using a relocation company and take some of that worry and stress. And if you do a DITI move, the government's going to reimburse you 95% of what it would cost them to move you to your maximum authorized wait allowance.

And so that depends on pay grades, I think, dependents, and all of that. So there's a lot of variables that go into play, and if you're in the active military and you're being transferred every two to four years, you know how involved this can be.

I suspect that it can be a little bit stressful, to be completely honest with you, because two to three years, you get settled into a place, and then you're picking up and going to someplace else. And so one of our goals is to try to remove as much of that stress for you as possible.

And so at the end, when I talk about how we help military folks find homes, hopefully that might appeal to you, because we also want to remove some of that stress and make this as easy as we can for you. So a little bit about Fort Bliss.

So Fort Bliss is the second largest base in the Department of Defense. Fort Bliss is made up of 1.12 million acres. I drive through there all the time on 375. Those of the military folks in El Paso know what I'm talking about.

And so we drive through there and it's literally, it's just acres and acres of desert scrub. What I always like to tell people is that one of the things that's handled at Fort Bliss or that's one of their main deals is tank division, I believe. And so what I like to think of and always tell people is like, there's a bunch of people

out way out there, you can't see them, but cruising around in tanks, blowing stuff up. And I suspect having somewhat of a good time, I hope. So it's a huge space though. It really is a massive space and the base does take up a pretty good chunk of our geography.

And I'll put up a little map here so you can see that. It boasts the Army's largest training area and supports more than 160,000 service members, civilians, dependents, and retirees. So it's the single largest employer in the area, supporting a total of 167,000 people

with an estimated annual contribution of approximately $25 billion. Now I talk about this a lot too, because the thing that I love about El Paso having Fort Bliss is that Fort Bliss essentially, it goes a long way to help recession proof our city. And what I mean by that is that not only does it employ thousands of people and generate

all of this revenue and income and jobs, it's a very safe space or employer, right? Because this base isn't going anywhere. And I do know that some bases are shutting down. From what I've been told from several higher level officers, Fort Bliss is not going anywhere.

So the future of this base is pretty secure. And like I said, the fact that it's constantly bringing in new people into our community, I mean, that's awesome for a city, right? Because we're constantly getting a new influx of people.

These people are bringing with them not only their talents, their skills, their intelligence, and everything else that makes them who they are, but they're also bringing in their dollars that they're spending at the grocery store, at the movie theaters, right? Buying cars, buying homes, selling those homes.

And so I think it's a pretty awesome kind of symbiotic relationship between Fort Bliss and the city. So I love it. I think it's a great thing.

So Fort Bliss family homes privatized. Okay, so Fort Bliss does have over 4,000 housing units in 19 neighborhoods. And so, of course, when you're making a PCS here, one option is to buy your own home, which we'll talk about at the end.

Another option is to live on the base. And then another option would be to go outside and maybe, if it's allowed, rent a home, rent an apartment or something like that. But it does say here that we've got over 4,000 housing units in 19 different neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods are right around Fort Bliss, kind of in the northeast, just east of the Franklin Mountains, right off of 54. And so it's a pretty convenient location. It's not like the fort, like the army base is like, you know, way outside of town.

Like no, it's like literally right there. Like it's very convenient for folks that would choose to live on base. So that's something. It has many things like barbershops, malls, a post office, a library, hotels, schools.

There are four elementary schools in Fort Bliss, as well as one high school. And it says here that there are also a lot of daycare options. So for those military families with little ones, you definitely want to make sure that you're covered on the daycare front.

So families living off post have no shortage of great schools. I've made videos about our school districts. I continue to rave about them. I continue to help people understand that, yes, we do have higher property taxes.

But if you want an educated population, you know, having great schools is an important aspect of that. And the majority of your property taxes are going to go to to our school districts. So El Paso Independent School District in and of itself has over 51 elementary schools,

15 middle schools, 10 high schools, a K-8 school, four specialty schools, four alternative campuses. We've got free no tuition charter schools like education in El Paso is very strong. So if you're a military family with kids, you should feel you should feel pretty great

about about coming here because education schools are one of our our strongest attributes, dare I say. So that's kind of it. I wanted to talk a little bit about Freedom Crossing at Fort Bliss.

So now I have not been there. I had Miguel go out and shoot this footage this week. But Freedom Crossing at Fort Bliss is the world's first open air shopping center on a military installation that is open to the public.

I drive by this all the time, too, and I'm always like, oh, it looks so nice. I want to go there. And I will someday. The center creates an extraordinary gathering place for the Fort Bliss population in the

greater El Paso communities, featuring an expanded exchange, a variety of new restaurants, entertainment, retail and events. And so it is a it is a pretty cool, pretty cool space. Like I said, I've yet to get there, but I'll get there.

And then one other thing before I kind of dive into the specifics of how you might go about purchasing a home here for military spouses, says just as military veterans have sacrificed so much in service to our country, amen. So to have our spouses, military spouses have greater opportunities than ever before to

be hired as members of the civilian workforce. As a military spouse who is relocating, you get preference when you apply for a Department of Defense civilian job thanks to the military spouse preference program. Many spouses participate in preferential hiring programs, which can help you find a job at

your installation in a company or with the government and kind of give you a leg up over the other candidates. And so it also says many other military spouses work remotely or launch their own businesses, which I think is awesome.

So that's it just kind of for a little bit of a breakdown on the fort itself and, you know, moving, moving to El Paso. So to kind of wrap that up, if you're PCSing to El Paso, in my humble opinion, man, you've hit the jackpot because it's, you're going to, you're going to roll into a really great

climate. And yeah, in July, August, when you're out in those, you know, million acres, you're going to be hot. Like you're going to be sweating, but for the rest of the year, the weather's going

to be pretty nice. You're not gonna have to deal with snow and blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, any of that stuff. You know what I mean?

The cost of living is fantastic. So that's going to be really great. And then let's go ahead and transition into if you're thinking about purchasing a home. And if you're thinking about purchasing a home, you're in a great position too, because

homes in El Paso are still very, very, very affordable, right? So we're still at about an average price point on a nice home around $200,000. And so if you're thinking about purchasing a home, this is, this is kind of how it's going to work for you.

Chances are you're going to go with what's called a VA loan. VA or Veterans Affair is a loan program for military folks. And the amazing thing about this loan program is that it, it allows you to purchase a home without a down payment.

And that's pretty amazing because typically when you go to purchase a home and you just don't have $200,000 cash laying around in the bank, you're going to get a home loan, right? And you can get an FHA loan.

A lot of first time home buyers get an FHA loan, but even with an FHA loan, you're going to have to probably put it at least 3% down as a down payment. So on a $200,000 house, that's $6,000. Okay.

But now here's the important thing. In addition to your down payment, you are also going to have what are called closing costs and your closing costs can be about three to 4% of the sales price. So that's another potential six to $7,000.

And I'm not going to get too in the weeds on this, but currently right now in our market, what makes it challenging for people in a seller's market is that you have to pay your own closing costs in a more balanced market or a buyer's market. You can ask the seller to pay some of your closing costs and they might, and that's going

to really offset that cost for you. So like I said, if you're interested in those types of details, we have a home buyers playlist on the channel where I explain all of that appraisals, closing costs, inspections, you name it, check out that playlist.

Now, an FHA loan, you're putting down at least 3%. On a conventional home loan, you might have to put 5, 10, 20% down, right? And so a lot of folks don't have, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, $40,000 in the bank that they can put down as a closing cost.

The awesome thing about a VA loan is that it is a zero down payment loan, right? So the VA will, will pay the entire amount of your home purchase. So if you purchase a home for $200,000, you're going to put zero money down and you're going to get a loan for the full amount, the $200,000.

But remember, depending on the market, you know, you still might have to bring 5, 6, $7,000 to the table for a closing cost. So if that doesn't make sense, you have more questions, reach out to me and we'll help you figure that whole thing out.

So that's awesome. So that's a huge advantage for you, right? So if you're thinking about, hey, maybe rather than staying on base, maybe rather than trying to rent something, maybe we would like to purchase a home.

And what you might be thinking is, well, why would I want to purchase a home if I'm going to leave in three years, right? So then what do I do? Sell it?

Well, yeah, one thing you could do is sell it because typically a home should appreciate 3, 4, 5, 6% a year, meaning it's going to increase in value. So now if you purchase a home and sell it three years later, it's not going to appreciate in value enough that you're going to like make a huge profit, but you'll at least break

even, right? And so you will have had the opportunity to own your own home, do whatever you want to that home, right? Paint the walls, let your kids paint the walls, whatever color they want, those types of things.

And you will have been building up your credit, right? So in a great market, maybe it does appreciate. So in this market, things have appreciated at a more rapid rate. And so you would have maybe made a bit of a profit.

So the timing is kind of key. But here's what I'm seeing a lot of military people do. They are getting savvy to the fact that if they purchase a home in El Paso, and then in three years, let's say they go someplace else, if they can keep the home, you can rent

that home, right, to another family, maybe another military family, and that military family or whoever the tenants are that you get in there, essentially are paying down your equity. They're paying your loan payment, right?

So essentially, if you purchase a home, live in it for a couple of years, and then when you move, you rent it to somebody else, do a short or do a long term rental, 12 month lease, you're actually having somebody else pay off your home year after year, right? So not to get too far off on this, but this is a way that many people build wealth for

themselves is by investing in real estate. This is a great way for military families to get started on that wealth building journey. So just throwing that out there. But how does it all work?

First what you're going to do is you're going to reach out to a lender. This could be the folks that you bank with, Wells Fargo, whoever, maybe USAA, Navy Federal, whoever. It doesn't have to be one of those lenders.

There are a lot of lenders that do VA loans. It doesn't have to be a military bank necessarily. But what you're going to do is you're going to reach out to a lender and they're going to pull some information.

They're going to do a soft pull on your credit. They're going to look at how much debt you have to income, your credit score and all of that. And they're going to essentially pre-qualify you for a loan.

This is the first step. This is what you want to do first, because one, you want to make sure that you can get qualified for that loan. And then the second thing is you want to know how much home you can afford, right?

So they might tell you, okay, we've pre-approved you and you can buy a home for up to $250,000. And so then, perfect, you'll know. Don't look at homes that are $270,000, right? You know, look at those homes that are $250,000 or below, right?

So that's really the first step. Reach out to a lender and try to get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a home loan. And chances are you're going to do a VA loan. After you do that, then what you want to do is call me, right?

Because now you're pre-qualified and now you're ready to make a home, purchase a home. And so now, here's where I think Peña El Paso, this is where I think we really shine because a lot of folks that are doing a PCS, I've got a guy now in South Korea. I just closed a guy who was in Germany.

And so those are extreme cases. Most of you, you're somewhere else in the country, right? And you know, okay, hey, I have to report for duty on July 15th, January 2nd, whatever it is.

But you're not in El Paso, right? So how can you buy a home if you're not in El Paso? Let me tell you how you can purchase a home if you're not in El Paso. You're going to reach out to me and you're going to tell me what you're looking for,

what your price point is, what your timeline is, what kind of attributes you're looking for in a home. And then I'm going to set you up with a listing subscription so that every day to your email, you get delivered all of the listings that have come up that match your criteria.

You're going to look at those listings. You're going to tell me which ones you like. And then myself or one of my associates are going to go out. We're going to request to view the home.

We're going to make a video of the home. We're going to show you the good, the bad, the ugly, right? Because in the MLS or on Zillow, wherever, the pictures can be a little deceiving. You know, they're not going to take pictures of the attributes of the home that are not

that good, right? They're not going to take pictures of the wall that the door handle went through, right? But when we go in there and make a video of it, trust me, we're going to capture all of that, right?

And so then I'm going to send you that video on YouTube unlisted so that you're the only one that can see it. And then you're going to reach back out to me and say, Hey, we love it. Let's make an offer.

What do you think a good offer is? And that's why you need a qualified, awesome real estate agent like ourselves to walk you through that, give you that great market advice. But if you don't like it, you're going to be like, nope, pass, send me the next one,

right? And so that's how you're going to do your home search from afar, wherever you are. Then when you do find that home that you love, we're going to submit an offer. We're going to make sure that we submit an offer that is advantageous to you because

we represent you. We want to get the absolute best deal for you. If your offer is accepted, then the wheels start, you know, are in motion and we'll handle everything from the execution of the contract through to the closing.

If you're not here yet, I'll be the guy who goes and gets those keys. I'll set up the inspections. I'll make sure the appraisal gets done. I will do everything.

And then when you roll into town, I'll be the guy who's sitting at your front door and you know, says, Hey, it's nice to meet you in person. Here's the keys to your home here in El Paso. And so that's, that's, that's kind of it.

And you know, I've talked about this before and it does rile me up a little bit. I'll try to keep it cool here, but the VA loan is awesome. No doubt about it for you, the military buyer, unfortunately it's, it's, it's, it's, it's tough because a lot of people who are selling their homes, they, for whatever reason, they're

not so inclined always to go with a VA loan because they feel like maybe, you know, since you're not putting a big down payment down, they don't want to, you know, maybe risk an appraisal coming in short and then you not having, you know, the extra cash on hand to cover an appraisal gap and these types of things.

I told a story a while back about a military gentleman that I was helped trying to help find a home. He had just had a baby. He was excited.

His wife was excited to get a home. And I bet we put 15, 20 offers and this was at the height of the craziness of the market several months back. And this gentleman never, never got a home.

Right. So, um, that was a really frustrating thing for me because I do feel like quite, I mean, those of you who are serving our country in the military, you should be given preferential treatment.

You, you should, you should be able to find and get a home when you want one. And so, you know, you do want to find a real estate agent who is aware of, of these different types of nuances who can really work on your behalf, uh, to, to get you the best deal on a home and actually get you under contract in a challenging market like we find ourselves

in now. So, um, we are that, that real estate company, uh, we are here to serve you. Um, and we are grateful for all of the service that you have done for, for us and our country. And so we would like to reciprocate just a little bit of that, uh, if at all possible.

So thank you so much. And I hope you guys found this, this useful. If you have any questions, please, my phone number's in, in the description below. Call me, text me, send me an email right here on the screen and we will, we will do everything

in our power to take care of you. And with that, I guess we will, uh, we'll shut this one down. And again, thank you so much for watching the channel and we look forward to the next episode.