You have orders out of Fort Benning, the house in Phenix City is not going to sell inside your window, and somebody in your unit already told you to list it and eat the loss. Slow down. This is the most common call that comes into our Columbus, Georgia office, and the answer is usually the opposite of what you were told over coffee.
Should I rent out my Phenix City house when I PCS from Fort Benning?
Usually, yes. Three- and four-bedroom homes in Phenix City rent between about $2,050 and $2,250 right now, and full management runs 10% of the rent collected. If rent covers your mortgage, escrow and that 10%, holding through one set of orders beats selling on a deadline. If it does not, selling is the honest answer.
What changes that math is equity, not sentiment. If you bought in the last two or three years with little down, you may not clear enough at closing to cover the sale costs, and you would be writing a check on your way out of town. Renting buys you time to let that gap close while somebody else pays the note. Run your own numbers in our rent vs. sell calculator before you decide anything.
What a Phenix City house actually rents for
These are not estimates pulled off a national site. These are homes we manage in Phenix City right now:
| Property | Beds / Baths | Monthly rent |
|---|---|---|
| 821 13th Ct. (36867) | 2 / 1 | $950 |
| 22 Oakwood Drive (36870) | 4 / 3 | $2,050 |
| 5 Rusty Drive (36869) | 5 / 4 | $2,200 |
| 306 Irish Lane (36869) | 4 / 3 | $2,250 |
Look at the spread. A two-bedroom on the older streets off 13th rents for $950. A five-bedroom out in 36869 rents for $2,200. Phenix City is not one rental market, it is three or four stacked on top of each other, and which one your house sits in decides your number. Anybody who quotes you a citywide average is guessing.
One local thing that moves rent here and surprises owners: Phenix City runs its own school system, separate from Russell County’s. For a lot of the families renting on this side of the river, that is the deciding factor. Know which system your address actually feeds before you set a price.
Your rental is under Alabama law now, not Georgia’s
Owners who bought in Phenix City while stationed at Benning often assume Georgia rules apply, because Columbus is where they work, bank and shop. They do not. Your lease, your deposit and any eviction run under Alabama’s Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and they get filed in Russell County.
| As a Phenix City landlord | What Alabama requires |
|---|---|
| Maximum security deposit | One month’s rent, with separate amounts allowed for pets, alterations and increased liability risk (Ala. Code § 35-9A-201) |
| Notice before terminating for unpaid rent | Written notice, no less than seven business days (Ala. Code § 35-9A-421) |
| Deadline to return the deposit | 60 days after the tenancy ends and possession is delivered, or an itemized accounting |
| If you miss that deadline | You can be liable for double the deposit |
None of those numbers is the same across the river in Georgia. If you own on both sides, and plenty of Benning families do, our Georgia versus Alabama breakdown puts the two side by side.
This is general information, not legal advice — laws change, and your situation may have wrinkles a statute does not cover.
What happens while you are gone
The real problem with self-managing from Bragg or Carson is not the paperwork. It is the 9pm phone call about a water heater when you are three time zones away and have no idea who to send. We answer that call. We keep a plumber who will actually go out that night, we file in Russell County when it comes to that, and we screen hard enough on the front end that it usually does not.
Our fee is 10% of the rent collected each month, plus a one-time leasing fee we set with you per property. We manage about 300 homes across Muscogee and Harris counties in Georgia and Russell and Lee counties in Alabama, and we have been doing it in Columbus since 2007. The company is veteran-owned, which is part of why the PCS timeline is not a mystery to us.
If you want a straight answer on your specific house, call us at (706) 565-0741 or look at what we do for owners on our Phenix City property management page. If you would rather see what is renting near you first, our available rentals list is updated as homes come up.
