Who buys a house online? I do! Why not? I’ve bought everything from Belgian Ale and Maryland crabs to imported bath gel from Germany and European spec Fanta.
If it’s out there, I will procure it.
I woke up one day to my husband telling me that we had 21 days to get our happy butts back to the states. 21 days=3 weeks=run that by me again?
I have this trigger switch that I believe I was gifted with as a military brat. It puts me into ‘FOCUS’ mode for things like this. Trigger switched on and I went into PCS mode in the key of Alvin and The Chipmunks music. FAST. My husband and I worked like a professional sports team, calling plays and making passes.
Vehicle one was thrown up for sale and vehicle two was readied for shipping. Grabbed friends for multi-family yard sale since that brings all the shoppers to the yard. School was notified and kids were instructed to CLEAN OUT THE CRAP.
That was just the first two days. We knew we wanted to buy again CONUS so I called on one of my military brat buddies and asked for a realtor referral. Since I tackle from more than one front, I contacted USAA about their realtor program and applied for pre-approval. Realtor was out after her second ‘phoning it in’ email. Friend came through with a realtor. Emails started flying fast and furious as our first shipment was being packed up.
I checked every hen house and outhouse. I googled all the builders in the area. All of them. We Google Mapped location distances to base. We perused the school rating sites. Oh, wait...household goods are being picked up.
I finally found a house! It jumped out at me. It said “Hi.” We checked out the community. Cul-de-sac? New school coming soon? Great school district? Builder incentives beyond belief? Oh, yes. Spent many a ‘middle of the night/early morning’ time scanning, emailing, and calling the states. We were actually sealing the deal without laying eyes on the house! Got the car to the port and sold the other car on a sunny afternoon.
Flight time. Arrive at our destination and headed straight to the walk through. I wanted the kids to miss as little school as possible. We floated through that but found the house better in person! Closed the next day. Jet lagged, but happy. Set up camp and the kids started school that Monday.
People can’t believe this story when we relay it. A three-week PCS is one thing. Doing it and purchasing a brand new home online is something else entirely. That’s the beauty of military life. It challenges us in ways that others can only dream about. It fortifies our teamwork as a couple and as a family. We’ve got this.
