Marketing Rentals to Military

[Andrew Johnson]

All,

I haven't seen any mention of AHRN.com around the forums.  Personally, when I was renting, it is the only place I would look for rentals.  It is a website that is only accessible to military members, as you must use an official military email address to create an account.  The website allows landlords, property managers, and realtors to list property; obviously without needing the official email to list.  The website is managed very tightly; ie. permanently banning accounts that list a property twice or use things like symbols in the heading.  Although there is a section for real estate for sale, it is rarely used in my experience.  There are also slightly different expectations for military members looking for rentals on this site.  Such as they expect to not pay any application fees.  They expect income verification to be as simple as handing over an LES with the SSN cut out (military pay stubs), and also for the landlords to already know about military clauses/addendums.  I'll include an example (current) listing at the bottom.

Side note: If you're not experienced with LESs, I've attached the example from Wikipedia. Everything is pretty self explanatory except for ETS. That is the date our current enlistment ends. The date format is YYMMDD. Allotments is just another word for autopay. Some people have allotments for their car payment or a savings account, so don't count the allotments against their gross pay. Also some people have TSP (Military IRAs) set up in their deductions. So again, I would just go off their gross pay, which is the total under entitlements.

I hope this helps more people list to military members!

[Eugene Kemp]

Andrew,

As a 30 year veteran and retiree myself (and also a landlord), I can tell you that in my opinion, the website you mention is not used by the vast majority of military folks. Military people are just people, and use the internet and Zillow or other sites for the best selection of properties. Also, why should I not hold you to the same standard as your civilian counterpart? In my 30 years, I met more than my share of bad risks in a uniform. There are times for preferential treatment, but screening for property is not one of them. I have had many military tenants, and I love them, but none to date have asked for, or expected any different treatment in the application process.