Fort Benning Property Management

What Our Clients Are Saying

Fort Benning Property Management

If you have driven south on I-185 you saw the jump towers before you saw the gate. Two hundred and fifty feet of steel standing over the pines at Eubanks Field, where the Airborne School has been sending students off the top since before most of Columbus was built. It is a fair introduction to the place. This is the post that teaches the Army how to fight on foot.

The Infantry School and the Armor School are both here. So is Ranger School, and so is the 75th Ranger Regiment. I served in it, which is a roundabout way of saying I know exactly what a report date does to a family calendar. Outside the main gate the National Infantry Museum is free to walk into, and most weeks the parade field in front of it fills up with families who drove in from somewhere to watch a soldier graduate.

Almost nobody who calls us about a Fort Benning house planned to be a landlord. Orders came through, the house did not sell in time, and renting it out became the option that was not a loss. If that is you, you are not doing something unusual. It is the single most common way people end up owning a rental in this town.

Where do soldiers actually rent around Fort Benning?

Mostly north Columbus off Veterans Parkway, Midland and Upatoi on the Georgia side, and Fort Mitchell and Phenix City across the river in Alabama. Distance to a gate matters far more than distance to downtown, and which gate a soldier uses changes the answer completely.

A house fifteen minutes from the main gate and a house fifteen minutes from Harmony Church are in different parts of the valley. Sand Hill, Kelley Hill and Custer Road all pull from different directions, and a tenant will drive that route twice a day for three years. When we price a house near post, the commute to the gate that soldier actually reports to is part of the number.

The other thing that sets the ceiling is the housing allowance. Families arrive with a figure in their head and a strong preference not to exceed it. Price a house just above the common allowance bracket for its bedroom count and you have quietly removed most of your applicant pool. Price it just under and you tend to lease it fast and get your pick.

Families who want more land or a different school district look north into Harris County. Families who want the lowest cost per square foot look west across the river into Russell County, Alabama, where the drive to the gate is often shorter than it is from north Columbus.

I am PCSing and my house has not sold. What are my options?

Three, realistically. Drop the price enough to move it before your report date. Keep it listed and carry an empty house from wherever you are going. Or rent it, cover the note, and sell later from a position where you are not negotiating against a calendar.

The third one is what most people choose once they see the numbers, and it is usually right. A house sold under deadline pressure is a house sold cheap. The full walkthrough is here: I am PCSing from Fort Benning and cannot sell my house.

What if I bought with a VA loan?

VA loans carry an occupancy requirement, and renting the home out has rules around it that depend on your circumstances and how long you lived there. It is a common and workable situation for PCSing owners — but it is worth confirming your specific case rather than assuming.

We deal with this constantly and can talk you through how it usually works. We are not your lender, so confirm the specifics with them: PCSing with a VA-loan home.

Can you manage it while I am overseas?

Yes. Plenty of our owners have never set foot in our office. Statements, maintenance approvals and inspection reports all sit in the owner portal, so you can check the house from Germany or Fort Bragg at whatever hour works where you are.

Worth knowing if you are moving out of state: Georgia now requires an owner who lives outside Georgia to employ a Georgia-licensed broker to manage a single-family or duplex rental here. For most PCSing owners that turns hiring a manager from a preference into a requirement. Details on our owners page.

This is general information, not legal advice — laws change.

How fast does a house near post actually rent?

It moves with the PCS cycle. Demand climbs through the summer as families rotate in, and thins out in the winter. The same house listed in June and in December is not the same listing, and it should not carry the same price.

That is a timing advantage if you know about it and a cost if you do not. Tell us your report date early and we will work backwards from it.

What do you charge?

Ten percent of the rent we collect each month, plus a one-time leasing fee agreed with you per property when we place a tenant. Nothing in a month the house sits empty. The full breakdown is here.

Veteran-owned, managing about 300 homes here since 2007. If you have orders and a house, send us the address and we will tell you what it rents for and whether renting is even the right call.

Written by Carlos Alex Rozwadowski, Premier Realtors of Columbus Property Management. Former U.S. Army Ranger, 75th Ranger Regiment. Managing Columbus rentals since 2007.