If you just got orders and your house hasn't sold, you're not behind and you're not stuck. You have a good option most soldiers don't think about until the clock is already running: keep the house and rent it out. Thousands of Fort Benning families become landlords this exact way every PCS cycle. Here's how to decide whether it's the right move for you — and what it actually takes.
The short answer
If your house would sell for roughly what you owe (or less), renting is almost always the smarter play. Selling in a hurry, under a report-date deadline, is how people leave money on the table — you take the first offer, eat the agent commission and closing costs, and walk away with little or nothing. Renting lets someone else pay down your mortgage while you're stationed elsewhere, keeps the door open to sell later in a stronger market, and can turn a house you couldn't sell into an asset that builds equity every month.
Renting isn't free of headaches, and it isn't right for everyone. But "I can't sell in time" is a reason to rent, not a reason to panic-sell.
Run your own numbers before you decide
Don't guess at this, and don't take a stranger's rule of thumb. Our owner resources page has a rent-vs-sell calculator, an ROI calculator, and a vacancy-loss calculator — the three numbers that actually decide it: what the house rents for versus your mortgage, what an empty month costs you, and what your real return looks like once management is counted. Fifteen minutes there and you'll know more than most first-time landlords do on move-out day.
A word on your VA loan
If you bought with a VA loan, you agreed to occupy the home as your primary residence — but PCS orders are one of the situations the VA specifically accounts for. Renting out a VA-financed home after you're reassigned is common and generally allowed, and second-tier entitlement often lets you use a VA loan again at your next duty station while keeping the Columbus house as a rental. The rules are worth getting right, so confirm your specific situation with your lender or the VA before you sign a lease. This is general information, not lending advice.
The part nobody warns you about: the accidental landlord
Here's where it goes sideways for people who try to manage from three time zones away. You're at your next duty station. A pipe bursts in Columbus at 11 p.m. The tenant texts you. You're in a field exercise, or asleep, or simply have no plumber's number in a town you no longer live in. Rent comes in late, then later. A tenant you screened over the phone stops paying, and now you're learning Georgia's eviction process from a base a thousand miles away.
Managing a rental long-distance is a real job, and it's the reason a lot of DIY landlords eventually sell at a loss just to be done with it. That's the outcome worth avoiding — not the renting itself.
Where a local manager earns its keep
This is what a property manager is for: your house has someone on the ground who lives here, knows the Fort Benning rental cycle, has the vendors on speed dial, screens tenants properly, handles the 11 p.m. pipe, and sends you the deposit every month while you focus on your actual job.
A few reasons owners in this position work with us specifically:
- 4.7 stars across 152 reviews. In property management, where most companies sit near 3 stars because tenants review deposit fights, that's an outlier — and it comes from doing right by both owners and tenants.
- Local since 2007, and a member of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM).
- Veteran-owned. The company is run by a former U.S. Army Ranger, and the team has walked PCS families through this exact decision for years.
- A property manager who stays. Patricia Hitesan has managed Columbus rentals with us since 2016 — a real person who knows your house, not a call center.
Your next step
If you're staring at a report date and a house that won't sell, start with the calculators on our owner resources page, then reach out and we'll walk your specific numbers with you — no pressure, no obligation. Whether renting makes sense for you or not, you'll leave the conversation knowing your options.
Call us at 706.565.0741 or visit our owners page to get started.
Written by the team at Premier Realtors of Columbus Property Management, affiliated with CENTURY 21 Premier Real Estate and managing rentals across the Chattahoochee Valley since 2007. Alex Rozwadowski brings 23 years in Columbus real estate and is a former U.S. Army Ranger; Patricia Hitesan has led our property management since 2016.
Premier Realtors of Columbus Property Management · 7830 Veterans Pkwy, Suite C, Columbus, GA 31909
