To better serve military families who are buying and selling homes, agents must be aware of the unique challenges they face
By Steve Hendershot
Military families who are relocating present a unique opportunity—and challenge—for REALTORS®.
The opportunity is simple: sales volume. Military families move every two to three years, according to the United Service Organizations (USO), a nonprofit that supports members of the military community.
The challenge is geography, and it presents several obstacles. For one thing, military moves often are from one city to another—not to mention overseas deployments—so most military families aren’t putting down roots in a particular community. That means many agents’ traditional strategies for building and nurturing a client base for the long haul don’t apply.
Instead, to effectively reach military families, agents must break into the unique referral networks upon which service members rely when making a move.
Making the most of networking
“Military families don’t like to go into a new place blind; they really rely on referrals,” says Alexis Bolin, CRS, broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Gulf Coast in Pensacola, Florida. “Once you start working with the military, if they’re pleased with you, then 99% of what comes in is going to be referral-based.”
There are several types of those local referral networks. They’re sometimes based on existing relationships because, in many cases, longtime service members will have friends from previous deployments already living in their new city. Many parts of the military also use a formal sponsor system to help transferring families get acclimated. And in recent years, social media has grown in importance, with Facebook groups sharing intel about life in the communities near various military bases.
Of course, getting your foot in the door is just the first step. Military families also have unique constraints and priorities that call for specialized service—and serving them effectively means accommodating those needs.
For example, many military families only get a single visit of just a few days to check out homes in a new market. That means they rely on their REALTOR® to provide added context on prospective homes beyond the standard digital tour.
Lisa Rivera, broker/owner of Avalon Realty Group in Cameron, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg—the largest U.S. military base by population—listens carefully to clients’ priorities beyond the home itself so she can focus the search within neighborhoods and communities that are likely to be a fit. She also takes detailed measurements so clients will know where couches and bookshelves will fit, and to help clients better visualize the size of the front and backyards.
“I’m making sure that I eyeball every little thing that I possibly can,” Rivera says.
And when that single, brief visit occurs, it’s crucial that agents clear their calendars so they can dedicate time to a compressed and intensive tour of neighborhoods and homes.
“It’s not like somebody who lives in town, and you can run and look at one house today, and maybe another one next Thursday,” Bolin says. “You have to plan for it so you can devote the time that they need.”
While evaluating homes, it’s key to accommodate families’ special needs.
A soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, may want to avoid homes in areas that could trigger anxiety, such as those near a busy airport.
Additionally, many military families use Veterans Affairs (VA)-guaranteed loans to purchase their homes (see sidebar below), which adds wrinkles to the purchase process, such as a VA appraisal. But agents such as Rivera say those appraisals aren’t especially challenging—VA appraisers are looking for the same signs of structural insufficiency that should give prospective homebuyers pause in the first place, along with the presence of core components such as a functional stove and HVAC system.
From agent to all-purpose ally
As military families prepare to move to a new community, their transitions go beyond finding a home, such as locating the right school or religious institution. Some REALTORS® who find themselves in the role of a trusted guide amid an uncertain time go the extra mile in helping their clients acclimate to their new communities.
For example, Marilyn Rivera, associate broker and owner of MR Rivera Realty Group in Hampton Roads, Virginia, provides clients with information to help them get connected with community organizations ranging from Spanish-language churches to youth baseball leagues and dance studios. She also makes a point to stay connected to her clients while they live in the area, even once visiting a client in the hospital in the middle of the night because the client’s spouse was away on a deployment.
“Agents who work with military families understand how stressful the transitions can be; we can be the rock for them,” says Rivera. “Sometimes, in order to move forward, they need to feel that somebody’s behind them.”
Similarly, Kate Johnston, CRS, broker/owner of Key Realty in Redmond, Washington, helps her clients get acclimated by lending them dishes, toys and household supplies until they have a chance to go shopping or wait for their belongings to arrive. She also helps with the social aspect, once throwing a party aboard a friend’s yacht for several of her military clients.
A striking aspect of Johnston’s practice is that few of her military clients buy homes. She works primarily with participants in a yearlong tech training program that enables service members to gain work experience at area companies such as Microsoft. In most cases, a rental is the best option based on the program’s duration.
But Johnston so excels at building trust and relationships that most of those clients ask her for help connecting with agents in other cities when it’s time to move on. Johnston happily obliges, using her CRS network. “It’s all about the relationship,” says Johnston. “I’m their trusted advisor.”
For REALTORS® who work with military families, building that trust and facilitating a successful relocation isn’t just good business, but an opportunity to give back.
As Marilyn Rivera says, “I’m not here to sell a house. I’m here to provide a service and give back to these military families that have given everything to us.”
This VA Loan Quirk is Having a Moment
Mortgage loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have several advantages for service members, such as no down-payment requirements and limited closing costs. But amid rising mortgage rates, another feature of VA loans is suddenly in the spotlight: VA loans are assumable, meaning sellers can pass on their mortgages to buyers who are approved by the existing lender, including their favorable rates—even if the buyers aren’t military. Such activity doubled in 2022, according to a bankrate.com report.
“The interest rate is the appeal,” says agent Lisa Rivera, broker/owner of Avalon Realty Group in Cameron, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg.
A couple of things to note: First, sellers must secure a release of liability or else they could be on the hook if the buyer fails to make future payments. Second, if a military service member transfers a VA-guaranteed mortgage to a non-military buyer, the seller’s ability to take on a subsequent VA-guaranteed mortgage loan is limited.
Learn everything about assumable loans in the recording The Pros and Cons of Assumable Loans, hosted by Leigh Brown, CRS, at CRS.com/catalogsearch.
Photo: iStock.com/SDI Productions
