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Kitsap Harbor Festival May 29-31, 2010 (Memorial Day Weekend)
Festival events will take place on the waterfronts of both Bremerton and Port Orchard and will include Tall Ships, Vendor Booths, Farmers Markets, Classic Car Show, Seagull Calling Festival, Taste of Kitsap, Sailing Regatta, Live Music, Beer Gardens, Virginia V and Boat’s Afloat Show. You’re also invited to attend a Memorial Service aboard the historic USS Turner Joy on Monday morning.
On Saturday, May 29th, from 7:00AM-10:30AM enjoy a Pancake Breakfast (where Mayor Lent will be cooking until 9:00AM) on the Bremerton Boardwalk prepared by the Bremerton Lions Club.
For more information, including festival schedule, please visit theKitsap Harbor Festival website.
Bremerton Farmer’s Market | Thursdays 4 – 7
The Bremerton Farmers Market is now open! Every Thursday, 4-7PM, at Evergreen Park you’re invited to come on down and connect with your local farmers and community members.
Check out the Bremerton Farmers Market website details on vendors, live music performances and more!
VA Home Buyer | Saving for a Down Payment Depolyment Pay!
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE……
That’s the song that I sing when my husband heads out on a deployment. Yep, he is in the Navy but I have never had the pleasure of being involved with a Navy command. We have spent all of our years together hanging out with the Marine Corps.
Deployment can be a very difficult time in a military family’s life so; we have to find the positives. Saving all the deployment pay is one! The first tour to Iraq that my husband went on was my first deployment experience as a military spouse. I knew a little about the extra pays and was eager to learn more. I did pay attention at the Deployment Brief. I took all the pamphlets and brochures I could carry. I remember the LtCol standing at the front of the meeting room leaning on the overhead projector and emphasizing about our budgets. He had projected up on the screen the extra pays that our spouses were going to receive.
- Hostile Fire Pay (HFP)/Imminent Danger Pay (IDP). $225.00 a month (HFP/IDP)
- Family Separation Allowance $250.00 (FSH OR FSA)
- Hardship Duty Pay-Location $100.00(HDP-L). Indicated as Save Pay on the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)
- Depending on the Command and the Branch of Service the service member usually gets to keep their BAS – Basic Allowance for Subsistence . $265.00
That is a TON of extra pay!! But the bottom line gets even better because all the pay while deployed out side the country in several tax free zones is just that TAX FREE!!!!!
Now that does add up. Depending on the length of deployment you could end up with a pretty nice chuck of change for the purchase of a house, condo or vacant land. Remember how important it is for Military members to own real estate!!
Upon return service members usually receive per diem pay too – that rounds around $3.50 per day and adds up too!!
So add this all together and you could be saving around $800,00 – $1000.00 per month. Multiply that buy the normal deployment of 7 months – oh except for the Army and IA’s which is between 12-15 months and that is a huge amount to invest in your future.
Do you own your home? Are you afraid of having to sell in 3, 4 or 5 years? If you are smart and do the right things then homeownership for a military member should not be scary!!!!
VA Home Buyer |Turn BAH into Home Ownership
I am sure as a military member you have heard this phrase about a million times in the last several years. Interest rates have been so low for so long that home ownership has been easier than ever before for anyone and this especially includes the military population, who until recently didn’t feel like they could or should purchase properties.
Never before has the military population owned a higher percentage of homes. The days of base living has changed drastically. With most installations switching over to PPV the climate has changed. The thought of waiting until retirement to purchase a home has become a scary thought with the way housing prices in most areas have skyrocketed.
So as a military member do you purchase a home?
It is a very complicated process which needs some investigation and education before making a decision. You should ask yourself some questions like these at the minimum.
- Do I have upfront money to buy a home?
- Can I get financing?
- Is my tour of duty going to be longer than 2 years before the next PCS?
- Will I have the opportunity to do another tour here or will I have an opportunity to come back?
- If I had to be a long distant landlord would I have the time or recourses?
- Could I afford a property manager?
- What if I had to pay the mortgage for 2-3 months while the home is waiting for new renters?
BUYING VS. RENTING
| ADVANTAGE | THINGS TO CONSIDER | |
| BUY | Build Equity | Responsibility of Maintenance |
| Income Tax Incentives | Property Tax Payments | |
| Stability and Security | Loss of Equity | |
| Ability to “do what you want” | Less Mobile | |
| RENT | No responsibility for Maintenance | No Equity |
| Easier to Move | No Tax Benefits | |
Vanilla Walls  |
So after you have considered all the possibilities, searched the internet for information and asked around your shop. Are you ready to buy?
Being a military spouse and real estate professional it was still a decision that I wavered back and forth. After sitting down and writing out all the pros and cons my husband and I decided to purchase. My husband is in the Untied States Navy and at the time we decided to purchase we were looking at the second tour to Iraq, at living in southern California and at a PCS 30 days after his re-deployment. We didn’t know where we were going, how long we would be there or how the finance industry would view our dreams.
My husband left for Iraq and I knew that I wanted our next PCS to be a “door to door”. I started to look at houses in the Bremerton, Washington area over the internet. Having my license but not practicing in the state of Washington I had to find a real estate agent too. I was lucky because I had several contacts from my days of selling homes in Washington. On a trip up to Washington I viewed a property and made an offer with my POA.
My husband just so happen to call while I was in the process. I told him what I was doing and promised to email pictures when I arrived back home. I can tell you that it was not a totally smooth process, but I can also tell you that I am writing this article in the home office of the house that we purchased so, all in all a happy ending. Well, almost. My husband didn’t receive orders to the Bremerton area. He received orders to ALASKA!!!
We are now building equity in a home we will retire to in several years. I live here and he lives there and we are Continental frequent flyers. What’s that phrase “Semper Gumby”? Yes we are! I am back to the profession I love, he loves Alaska and we have the house we plan to retire in or so we think at the moment.
Do you own your home? Are you afraid of having to sell in 3, 4 or 5 years? If you are smart and do the right things then homeownership for a military member should not be scary!!!!
Bremerton Real Estate : 1941 Attic Video : Turn of the Century Home Buyers
Bremerton Real Estate
One of the reasons I relocated to Bremerton WA was because of the history and early century architecture. I love older homes. Maybe it is because of one home I remember as a child that was in Puyallup. A true craftsman with a huge front porch and built in buffets, along with a really unique floor plan that included a kitchen breakfast nook and closets so large we made them into playhouses.
Anyway, the home we purchased here was built in 1941, it isn’t a craftsman but a Cape Cod Bungalow. It has a steep roof with side gables, a small roof overhang and is 1 1/2 stories on a daylight basement. I have wide clapboard type T&G siding on the front and raked shingles on the other 3 sides. The appearance is symmetrical with the door in the center. A Cape Cod Bungalow is different than a Cape Cod Craftsman because of no dormers. I have all oak flooring on the main level which is about 1/2 inch think and gorgeous! I also just found several bundles of unused oak flooring in the attic. Enough to install it in the 3/4 bath in the basement!
The home had been occupied by the same person since 1946 and to my amazement hadn’t had any remodeling done! Sometimes over the years older homes have had so many owners and so many DIY projects that they are just ruined! Mine was just left original until the owner had to be removed and some relatives decided to “flip it”.
I was living in California and my husband was in Iraq when we bought the home. I had only been to the property once for about 15 minutes. I saw what I saw. Of course I had an inspection done and of course there are times that an inspector just can’t possibly find it all. That is our story – he didn’t find it all. But I have.
I have found that the fireplace was ruined by a wood stove insert. I just ordered a new insert to be installed along with a new liner and chimney chase.
I have found that some of the sill plate and rim joist had dry rot because of water damage probably by a gutter issue. We had a contractor out last week to fix those problems without having to jack the house up!
I have found that there was really no insulation in the attic. Back in the day they would put insulation in the floor joists and use the attic as additional whatever space. Our attic was converted to two large rooms and a sitting area. I turned one into a huge walk-in closet and one into the master bedroom. Those areas were insulated around them but the area above the main living area didn’t have any insulation.
This past week I layed the insulation on one side and will video it when I am totally complete. Installing insulation in an attic is really easy. I have done it all myself – the entrance to the area is only 15″ wide so it had to be me – haha!
Here is my video – have fun watching, my husband thinks I am crazy.
If you want to purchase a Craftsman or a Cape Cod in Bremerton you want to make sure you are working with an agent that knows about the product. I have fireplace inpectors, contractors and yardbirds (lumber yard associates) that are a part of my team. There is more than a home inpsection that needs to take place when purchasing these homes.
This is an investment but it also is our home.
